Equity Policies in Global Higher Education

This book discusses and analyses global policies and practices aimed at promoting equity in higher education participation and attainment. Although the massification of higher education systems has facilitated the participation of students from deprived backgrounds, socioeconomic inequalities persist in access to the most prestigious institutions and programmes. Privileged students benefit from a number of advantages in the competition for selective and scarce places: access to information, lower aversion to debt, higher expectations, better previous schooling and higher academic achievement. The chapters present a critical analysis of equity policies in different countries ¿ with or without affirmative action policies, within a context of neoliberal policies or within a social democratic model ¿ and the reasons why they have failed to promote equity and fairness, preventing students from achieving their full educational potential.This is an open access book.

Presents analysis of equity policies around the world.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2 Equity in Higher Education - theoretical background - Alberto Amaral.- Chapter 3. Access and Inequality in US Higher Education: Policy Issues - David Dill.- Chapter 4. The persistence of inequity in Brazilian higher education: background data and student performance - Julio Bertolin and Tristan McCowan.- Chapter 5. Towards equity: Developing a national approach to improving social justice through higher education in England - Liz Thomas.- Chapter 6. Undergraduate student funding in England: the challenges ahead - Claire Callender.- Chapter 7. Data and reflections on access-transition to higher education in Portugal - João Baptista, Cristina Sin, Orlanda Tavares.- Chapter 8. Who is left out? Inequalities in higher education admissions and placements in Portugal - Carla Sá, Orlanda Tavares, Cristina Sin.- Chapter 9. An equity paradox? The Northern European case - An equity paradox? The Northern European case - Per Olaf Aamodt.- Chapter 10. Conclusions - Orlanda Tavares, Cristina Sin, Carla Sá.