Spatial Constraints and Gendered Educational Trajectories: Commuting Versus Migration Intentions of High School Students in Small Towns of Dambovita County, Romania

This study analyzes educational migration patterns in small towns across Dambovita County, Romania, focusing on spatial accessibility and gender disparities. Officially designated as Rank III urban settlements under national legislation, these small towns face structural regional imbalances. The research is based on a comprehensive structured questionnaire administered to a target sample of 143 graduates from 15 high schools across the surveyed municipalities. Given that the data collection depended on institutional access granted by school administrations, a non-probability purposive sampling approach was employed. The survey incorporated open-ended and closed-ended items capturing students’ institutional choices, secondary education profiles, intentions to pursue matching higher education fields, and underlying motivations. Survey data were integrated with spatial analysis methods using QGIS 3.34 version isochrones modeling and the OpenRouteService (ORS) Matrix to evaluate travel times and distances to competing regional university centers. The results reveal gender-based patterns differences in student mobility: female high school students concentrate on a single metropolitan destination, whereas male high school students are more broadly distributed secondary vocational nodes. Ultimately, this research contributes to understanding how gender intersects with educational migration and highlights the influence of transport infrastructure and spatial friction in students’ decision-making processes.