Access to Higher Education in Europe, Trends

Wealth-Based Inequalities in Higher Education Attendance: A Global Snapshot

“…A long tradition of comparative studies has examined how educational systems reproduce unequal education and employment outcomes despite policies of expansion (Shavit et al, 2007). Yet the vast majority of these studies focus on North America, Europe, and other industrialized and high-income countries, where data infrastructures exist to gather demographic data at the individual level (Bernardi & Ballarino, 2014; Koucký et al, 2007; Shavit et al, 2007; for exceptions, see Ou & Hou, 2019; Simson, 2021). Consequently, our understanding of how system-wide reforms affect inequality has relied primarily on studies from North America and Europe, which differ in important ways from other world regions.…”

“…Until recently, it has been impossible to compare the extent of wealth-based inequalities in higher education attendance and completion worldwide due to a lack of cross-nationally comparable data on students’ background characteristics (Ilie & Rose, 2016; Koucký et al, 2007; Krafft & Alawode, 2018; Sánchez & Singh, 2018; Santiago, 2008). The lack of data has been pronounced in low- and middle-income countries.…”

Defining the Social Equity Issues in Sustainability

“…Because some students are not prepared to achieve their working potential, it creates income inequality, which, in turn, forms a wealth gap. Education is a prerequisite for upholding democratic societies (Koucký et al 2010), and higher education is associated with higher living standards, being a key factor in the economic growth of societies (Blaug 1987). Equity of access to higher education has progressively become an increasingly prominent concern of education policies of governments and of international organizations.…”

“…The OECD argued that "equity in tertiary education is affected by inequities in preceding levels of education" (OECD 2008, p. 13). Much of the unequal access to tertiary education is the result of the inability to achieve the necessary qualifications due to inequities in the preceding levels of education, for example, the choice of secondary school or the choice of a vocational school will strongly influence access to higher education (Koucký et al 2010) and, in general, education systems have not been successful in breaking this link (OECD 2008, p. 17).…”

Minding the gap between schools and universities

“…1 Studies show that there is inequality in access to higher education in countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (Ilie and Rose, 2016) and in developed countries (Hansen and Weisbrod, 1969;Radner and Miller, 1970;Peltzman, 1973;Jackson and Weathersby, 1975;Bishop, 1977;Oliver, 2000;Fernandez and Rogerson, 1995;Dynarski, 2000;Wälde, 2000;William, 2007;Koucky et al, 2009). 2 We use the term "basic education" to refer to primary and secondary education, "higher education" to refer to tertiary education, "school" to refer to a basic education institution, and "university" or "college" to refer to a higher education institution.…”