Equity and access to higher education

The challenge of ensuring equity of access to higher education is one that affects high, middle
and low income countries alike. Press attention, public debate and protest can be seen across the
world, from student boycotts over fees in Lagos, to street demonstrations in Santiago, and
continuing controversies over elitism in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. While the
nature of the problem differs somewhat across contexts, all higher education sectors are
struggling to find a formula that will allow for a sustainably funded system of high quality
providing opportunity for all (Brennan, King & Lebeau 2004; Knight 2009; Meyer et al. 2013a;
Singh 2011; Unterhalter & Carpentier 2012).

At the heart of the problem is the fact that expansion of the system does not necessarily translate
into increased opportunity for disadvantaged populations. To a significant extent, the
phenomenal growth of higher education globally since the Second World War has been an
expansion for the middle class. In the UK, for example, where there has been a range of
‘widening participation’ policies, while the percentage of students on free school meals (a proxy
for low socio-economic level) going on to university has risen from 13% to 18% since 2005, the
rate for other students has risen from 33% to 38%, thus maintaining a more or less constant gap
(BIS 2013a).

While most would agree that fairness in higher education access is highly important, there is
nevertheless considerable disagreement as to what might constitute a fair system (Brennan &
Naidoo 2008; Clancy & Goastellec 2007; Duru-Bellat 2012; Jacobs 2013). A range of pivotal
political debates is brought into play, including tensions between equity and efficiency, public
versus private, academic versus vocational, and views on human ability and potential. This
article addresses these competing perspectives in a theoretical form, while also assessing their
concretisation in specific national contexts, in order to build a new framework of equity of
access. To this end, the study will draw on the principles of equity put forward in two previous
studies on higher education in Brazil (McCowan 2004; 2007), presenting a revised
conceptualisation with broader applicability.