Abstract
As developing countries continue to battle poverty despite strong economic growth, understanding the relationship between equity and human development becomes increasingly important. In this context, equity is not equivalent to equality for any specific outcome such as health status, education or income. It is an objective ideal whereby people’s achievements are increasingly dependent upon personal effort, choice and initiative rather than predetermined characteristics such as race, gender and socioeconomic background. As such, equity becomes an issue of moral equality based on the belief that people should be treated as equals, with equal access to life chances. This ideal pursues equal access to public services, infrastructure and rights for all citizens, including the right to education. While evidence suggests that education builds healthier, richer, more equitable societies, research on this has focused predominantly on primary and secondary schooling. The authors of this paper begin with an extensive review of existing research and relevant literature. In the second part of their article, they then report on their own study which furthers the discussion by exploring connections between tertiary education and development using equity as a reflection of human development – a holistic extension of economic development. After extracting relevant data from a number of available world reports by the United Nations, the World Bank and other organisations, they carried out a cross-national statistical analysis designed to examine the relationship between tertiary enrolment levels and a composite equity variable. Their results indicate a strong association between higher post-secondary education levels and higher levels of social equity.
Résumé
Rôle de l’enseignement supérieur dans le développement humain équitable – Alors que les pays en développement continuent à lutter contre la pauvreté en dépit d’une forte croissance économique, il est de plus en plus important de cerner la relation entre équité et développement humain. Dans ce contexte, l’équité ne correspond pas à l’égalité dans un quelconque objectif spécifique tel que l’état de santé, l’instruction ou le revenu. Elle est un idéal objectif où les réalisations des individus dépendent toujours davantage des efforts, initiatives et choix personnels, que des caractéristiques prédéterminées telles que la race, le sexe ou l’origine socioéconomique. En tant que telle, l’équité devient une question d’égalité morale fondée sur la conviction selon laquelle les individus doivent être traités en égaux, avec une égalité d’accès aux chances. Cet idéal vise à un accès égal aux infrastructures et services publics et aux droits universels de tous les citoyens, y compris le droit à l’éducation. Si les données scientifiques suggèrent que l’instruction édifie des sociétés plus saines, plus riches et plus équitables, la recherche afférente s’est jusqu’ici essentiellement concentrée sur la scolarité primaire et secondaire. Les auteures de cet article procèdent tout d’abord à un recensement complet des études existantes et de la documentation afférente. Elles présentent dans une seconde partie leur propre étude, qui approfondit l’analyse en explorant les liens entre enseignement supérieur et développement, et en prenant l’équité comme critère du développement humain – extension systémique du développement économique. Après avoir extrait les données pertinentes de plusieurs rapports internationaux élaborés par les Nations Unies, la Banque mondiale et d’autres organismes, elles procèdent à une analyse statistique transnationale destinée à examiner la relation entre les niveaux d’inscription dans le troisième cycle et une variable composite de l’équité. Leurs résultats indiquent une forte corrélation entre niveaux universitaires et niveaux élevés d’équité sociale.
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Notes
Specific definitions of the terms “tertiary”, “higher” and “post-secondary” vary according to the source. For the purposes of this paper, we use all three terms interchangeably to refer to any type of formal learning which takes place beyond completion of secondary schooling.
Worker, here, refers to any kind of employee, blue-collar (manual labour) or white-collar (professional, managerial or administrative).
Research and development (R&D) refers to investigations (carried out by a company, government, university or other type of organisation) which are geared towards making innovative discoveries which can lead to the development of new products or procedures, or the improvement of existing ones.
The Gini coefficient, developed in 1912 by the Italian demographer and sociologist Corrado Gini (1884–1965), measures the income inequality in a society. A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality (i.e. everyone has the same income).
A Type I error is a “false positive” (spotting an effect which is not present); a Type II error is a “false negative” (failing to notice an effect which is present).
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The authors gratefully acknowledge the help provided by University of Minnesota graduate research assistant Humberto Guerrero for his preliminary investigative input.
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Peercy, C., Svenson, N. The role of higher education in equitable human development. Int Rev Educ 62, 139–160 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9549-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9549-6