Equity Policies in Global Higher Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Introduction

   • Alberto Amaral

   Pages 1-22Open Access

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3. Equity in Higher Education: Evidences, Policies and Practices. Setting the Scene

   • Alberto Amaral

   Pages 23-46Open Access

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4. Access and Inequality in US Higher Education: Policy Issues

   • David Dill

   Pages 47-70Open Access

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5. The Persistence of Inequity in Brazilian Higher Education: Background Data and Student Performance

   • Julio Bertolin, Tristan McCowan

   Pages 71-88Open Access

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6. Towards Equity: Developing a National Approach to Improving Social Justice through Higher Education in England

   • Liz Thomas

   Pages 89-115Open Access

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7. Undergraduate Student Funding in England: The Challenges Ahead for Equity

   • Claire Callender

   Pages 117-141Open Access

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8. Data and Reflections on Access-Transition to Higher Education in Portugal

   • João Baptista, Cristina Sin, Orlanda Tavares

   Pages 143-169Open Access

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9. Who Is Left Out? Inequalities in Higher Education Admissions and Placements in Portugal

   • Carla Sá, Orlanda Tavares, Cristina Sin

   Pages 171-193Open Access

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10. An Equality Paradox? The Northern European Case

    • Per Olaf Aamodt

    Pages 195-220Open Access

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11. Conclusion: Learning from the Past to Shape Future Policies Towards Equity in Higher Education

    • Orlanda Tavares, Cristina Sin, Carla Sá

    Pages 221-238Open Access

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12. Correction to: Equity Policies in Global Higher Education

    • Orlanda Tavares, Carla Sá, Cristina Sin, Alberto Amaral

    Pages C1-C2Open Access

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13. Back Matter

    Pages 239-245

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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.

• equity in higher education
• access to higher education
• participation in higher education
• attainment and retention
• higher education policy
• Open Access

• Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), Lisbon, Portugal

  Orlanda Tavares, Cristina Sin

• Universidade do Minho, NIPE, Braga, Portugal

  Carla Sá

• Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal

  Alberto Amaral

Orlanda Tavares is a researcher at the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES) and at the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Portugal.

Carla Sá is Assistant Professor at the University of Minho, Portugal and researcher at the Centre for Research in Economics and Management and the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Portugal.

Cristina Sin is a researcher at the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES) and at the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Portugal.

Alberto Amaral is Professor Emeritus at the University of Porto, Portugal and a researcher at the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Portugal.

Policies and ethics