Affirmative Action for Gender Justice in South African and Kenyan Education Systems

Abstract

Since women struggled to access higher education during the colonial era, tackling gender imbalances post-independence became a major focus for Kenya and South Africa. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that affirmative action has not guaranteed gender equity in South African and Kenyan higher education systems. the author argues that, although higher education is generally available to all in both countries, women still struggle with access and “success”. This is besides the existence of post-independence higher education policies and parallel gender frameworks meant to bolster women’s access. The article uses a critical and thematic exploration of secondary literature, theory and data. The article contends that the unresolved gap between policies and the reality of the lived experiences of women exacerbates inequalities. It is suggested that both countries refocus and recalibrate existing policies and remedial action measures in order to ensure that academically deserving women are able to access and participate meaningfully in higher education.     

Access to Higher Education in Germany: The Career of an Issue

After the Second World War, the widening of access to higher education became a central issue of higher education policy in all developed countries. Over recent decades, most of them have experienced an unprecedented expansion of higher education access, which is a matter of creating equal educational opportunities and also of assuring economic growth. This article analyzes the development of access to higher education in Germany in the transnational context of the issue and, at the same time, considers the specific German situation and its development. After more than thirty years of expansion, widening access even further is no longer the problem. Questions of quality, efficiency, and funding have come to the fore of German higher education policy.     

财政资助政策对高等教育入学和大学生学业成功的影响: 美国的经验与启示

高等教育入学和大学生学业成功是当今美国高等教育面临的两个富有挑战性的问题,具有重要的政策意义。大学生财政资助是美国促进高等教育入学和大学学业成功的主要机制之一。本文旨在对美国当今高等教育的大学生财政资助政策及其对高等教育入学和大学学业成功的影响进行综述, 并简要探讨相关内容对中国的高等教育财政资助政策及研究的启示。     

高等教育规模扩张与各阶层子女入学机会变迁研究

在MMI和EMI理论及实证调查的基础上,本文以福建省为例,对改革开放后高等教育规模扩张过程中社会阶层子女入学机会分布的变化情况进行了研究。结果发现,各阶层子女总体的入学机会不均等程度有所改善。就不同层次高校而言,部属重点高校中的入学机会不均等程度经历了一个先扩大后缩小的过程,当前入学机会已开始下移,惠及部分中间阶层子女;普通本科院校和专科院校中的入学机会一直朝着均等化方向迈进,底层社会子女在此两类院校中获得的入学机会逐渐增多。     

Access to Higher Education and Disadvantaged Young People

This article will highlight the difficulties faced by qualified but disadvantaged young people in accessing higher education. This is an issue which has strong implications for education policy, economic efficiency and social justice. Over the past two decades, despite large increases in overall access to higher education, the gap in level of participation between the most affluent and most disadvantaged school‐leavers has remained intact. This article will examine patterns of educational attrition amongst less affluent young people, who gain sufficient qualifications to enter higher education. In other words, in order to redress the imbalance in the uptake of places in higher education, this article will distinguish between the factors which qualify young people to access university and those which predispose them to participate. A range of factors (barriers) which impacted upon levels of participation in higher education was found. Access to higher education was primarily dictated by level of school achievement, although this in turn was found to be a function of disadvantage. Furthermore, some qualified but disadvantaged young people forwent the opportunity to enter higher education on leaving school, while others enrolled in less advanced courses, for reasons other than academic ability.     

Ahead of the pack? Explaining the unequal distribution of scholarships in Germany

This article investigates to what extent scholarships are unequally distributed among students in Germany and how these inequalities can be explained. Following sociological theory, the article argues that elites seek qualitative ways of distinguishing themselves in a mass higher education system. Using student surveys, we demonstrate that class effects cannot merely be explained with reference to class differences in academic achievement but that higher classes have better access to scholarships independent of earlier school performance. Class differences were particularly persistent when the intermediate classes were compared with higher classes with more education. These findings illustrate that social classes have different strategies when it comes to participating in higher education and suggest that information about and access to scholarships is important in gaining a class advantage.     

Does the private sector expand access to higher education? A cross-national analysis, 1999-2017

This article examines the relationship between the private share of tertiary enrollments and overall access, measured by the gross tertiary enrollment rate, using a cross-national dataset from 122 countries spanning 1999−2017. In contrast to the dominant assumption in international development that expanding the private sector will necessarily increase access, we find a weak association between the private share of tertiary enrollments and gross tertiary enrollment ratio globally. That said, this association is stronger when there is high demand for higher education, as proxied by secondary gross enrollment ratio and urbanization. We also find regional variation, with private higher education positively associated with access in Central and Eastern Europe and core English-speaking countries and negatively associated with access in sub-Saharan Africa, after accounting for demand factors. We argue that private higher education is only an effective policy solution for expanding access when there is high unmet demand for higher education and a conducive policy context.     

入世后的澳大利亚高等教育服务贸易

本文以跨境支付、境外消费、商业存在和自然人流动四种贸易方式为维度对入世后澳大利亚高等教育的发展和变化进行回顾,并对这些发展和变化背后的原因做出分析,最后以澳大利亚的经验为基础,针对我国高等教育入世后所面临的挑战和机遇,提出一些政策性建议.     

Geographical stratification and the role of the state in access to higher education in contemporary China

This article extends the geopolitical theory on geographical stratification to understand the persistent inequality in access to higher education in contemporary China. Drawing on empirical evidence on the geographical distribution of institutions, and differentiated admissions and recruitment processes, I examine how political and institutional arrangements shaped opportunity structures in access to higher education for students from different geographical origins. I conclude that the state's decentralised governance gave the eastern area more power and advantages while the students from the poor western and central regions suffered a lack of opportunities in achieving upward social mobility through higher education.     

Social Inequality and Access to Higher Education in Russia

This article analyses research on social inequality and access to higher education in Russia. It argues that the myth about equality of life chances, as with certain other myths, was an important part of the Soviet ideology. However, children from privileged groups traditionally received the education and professional training which were most advantageous for their subsequent lives and careers. Recent research indicates that conditions in post-Soviet Russia are not eliminating social differentiation. This is clearly seen in access to higher education. It is shown that the inequality is noticeable in secondary education and is aggravated during the transition to higher education and vocational training (universities, colleges, vocational schools). In order to explain the genesis of such inequality, the article considers research focusing on the situation at secondary school. The dynamics must be analysed over a long period, since the problems that post-Soviet youth face today have roots in the Soviet past. Hence, the article considers the results of studies conducted between the 1960s and today.     

Adequacy, efficiency and equity of higher education financing: The case of Egypt

To meet its future challenges in financing higher education, Egypt has no option but to search for alternative funding arrangements. This article considers the question of how to do so, keeping in mind the need to ensure equitable access to good quality education for those who cannot afford it. To this end, the article begins by assessing public expenditure on higher education in Egypt, with respect to its adequacy, efficiency, and equity. Next, it analyzes the impacts that demographic changes, the demand for quality education, and the transition to private provision of education will have on the nature of financing higher education in the future. It concludes by suggesting alternative strategies to address the problem of financing higher education in Egypt.     

Has massification of higher education led to more equity? Clues to a reflection on Portuguese education arena

Massification is an undeniable phenomenon in the higher education arena. However, there have been questions raised regarding the extent to which a mass system really corresponds to an effective democratisation not only of access, but also of success. With regards to access, this article intends, through a brief analysis of the expansion of higher education in Portugal (contextualised in the European context), to focus on how the political system and higher education institutions (HEIs) have answered the social need for a highly skilled workforce and an increased demand for tertiary education. If access democratisation can be questioned, then it stands to reason that more doubts may arise regarding the democratisation of academic outcomes.

The methodology underlying this study involved the collection and analysis of relevant data from official international and national sources. This allowed for a comparison of the diverse realities and building the national panorama in terms of democratisation not only of access, but also of success. The comparison of these different quantitative inputs shows that applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds are proportionally fewer in number, and tend to enrol in less socially prestigious institutions and study programmes. Students' financial support and social support systems are analysed so as to gauge the state of Portuguese higher education.

Despite the advances made in Portugal on the system's expansion and on access to higher education, equity of access and outcomes in higher education have not yet been achieved, thus meaning that the democratisation process has not been fully accomplished.     

An Australian study of graduate outcomes for disadvantaged students

Whether or not disadvantaged students are realising the same benefits from higher education as their peers is of fundamental importance to equity practitioners and policymakers. Despite this, equity policy has focused on access to higher education and little attention has been paid to graduate outcomes. The Australian study reported here used national data to investigate relationships between disadvantage and graduate outcomes. The study provides critical insights into how access to higher education does, or does not, lead to improvements in post-graduation equity. The study reveals that outcomes are not equal for all students and that higher education disadvantage persists for many students after they have completed their studies. Whilst the specific findings relate to the Australian university sector the broader discussion of the article is relevant to higher education policy more generally, especially in terms of how governments align institutional processes to measure and scrutinise achievement in relation to public policy objectives.     

Women’s education associations: the role of the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses and the Woman’s Education Association,Boston in advancing the cause for women’s admission to Trinity College Dublin and Harvard University

ABSTRACT

Examining the historiography of women’s education, the issue which dominates is understandably that of access. Access, or lack thereof, is a transnational construct which forms an over-arching framework through which the issue of historical gender equality in higher education can be interpreted and interrogated. Each of the seminal texts which examines the historiography of women’s higher education uses access as a lens. While it is important to examine access in the historiography of women’s education, a focus on access can obscure an interrogation of agency and particularly the role of social and intellectual networks in advancing key strategic objectives such as access. Against the backdrop of the higher education movements in both Ireland and the United States, this article examines the role of the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses (CAISM) in securing access for women to Trinity College Dublin and the concomitant role of the Woman’s Education Association, Boston (WEA) in securing Harvard degrees for women. Chronicling the activities of the associations, both compensatory and innovative, it interrogates how the women at the centre of the associations straddled a conservative/progressive agenda in order to incrementally open up the privileges of a patriarchal space to women.     

The Social Dimension of the Bologna Process

The Bologna Follow Up Seminar, which took place in Athens in February 2003, continued discussions that had emerged from the Prague Communique´ of May 2001 to the effect that higher education is a public good. This article focuses on the public good aspect of higher education and calls for broadened access and no tuition fees, for the social role of higher education should be viewed as a value in itself.     

Getting there and staying in: first-generation indigenous students’ educational pathways into Chilean higher education

Drawing on a total of 26 life history interviews with indigenous students in higher education, the article examines the role of activating valued resources and personal strategies to navigate unequal pathways into higher education. In Chile, the historical inequalities for indigenous people’s access to higher education are beginning to be reverted, but these changes misrecognize ongoing disadvantages in regard to experiencing university life. Selection choices regarding the institution and course are based on restricted information sources and prior knowledge, whilst the capital required to succeed is heavily biased toward higher socioeconomic backgrounds. This notwithstanding, students’ transitions into higher education are marked by spontaneous adaptations to work routines, managing crises, and the activation of other resources for ‘staying in’. Emphasis is placed on the resilience expressed by these young people, as the first-generation from their families to access higher education, to negotiate cumulative disadvantages from low-quality educational establishments and poverty.     

Affording the Unaffordable: Cost Sharing in Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

The purpose of this article is to discuss some financial aspects of the future development of higher education in Africa entering the 21st century. Two main aspects can be distinguished: first, problems that concern the economy as a whole, the macroeconomic problems; second, questions that apply to the individual institutions of higher education. The former group includes questions such as: How much will the future expansions of higher education in Africa cost? How large is the capacity of African economies to finance this expansion and to what extent can tuition be applied? The article makes three recommendations to Africa's higher education: flexible tuition fees; a well-designed loan scheme; and a proactive measure to promote access and quality.     

Implications of financing higher education for access and equity: The case of Syria

This article examines the implications for access and equity of the Syrian government’s efforts to reform higher education in the country over the past decade. In the context of social and economic reforms that are moving the county from a state-controlled to a social market economy, it focuses on adequacy in financing higher education, as well as efficiency and equity. Significant progress has been made in access to higher education. The government has introduced a rich variety of options for accessing higher education, resulting in a doubling of enrolled students over the past 10 years. In terms of equity, the gender gaps in higher education enrollment and completion have all but disappeared nationally, although regional variations persist. The study raises concerns about the system’s internal and external efficiency: despite some improvements, the quality of the curricula and their relevance for the labour market remain serious issues.     

Cultural Framework and Objective Obstacles of Arab Students in Two Public Colleges in Israel

This article presents the results of a survey of 459 Jewish and Arab students at two public colleges in Israel in 2005. The study aimed at gaining understanding of Arab students' access to higher education in comparison to access of Jewish students by the objective obstacles to such access as reflected in the admission profiles and socio‐economic background of Jewish and Arab students at two public colleges. Analyses indicated that these academic campuses constitute a site of encounter for two very different population groups, a fact that has significant implications for access and admission policies, and student aid programs. The findings of this study are the first step in further consideration of issues relating to equal opportunities and access to higher education for Arab students, and shed light on potential means for reducing the gaps between Arab students and their Jewish counterparts.     

Education,horizontal inequalities and ethnic relations in Nigeria

The article focuses on the role of higher education in generating or mitigating inequality among ethno-regional groups and its impact on ethnic relations with evidence from Nigeria. It shows that access to education in Nigeria has been politicised. This is because of the perceived role of education in engendering political and socio-economic inequalities. It assesses the intervention mechanisms of successive Nigerian governments at federal and state levels to expand access to and enhance equity in educational opportunities as well as the responses of the different publics to such programmes. The article shows that although educational inequalities persist, state policies have enhanced the ability of the different ethno-regional groups to produce qualified personnel to occupy critical public service positions. Thus, conflicts that were historically traced to the domination of the public sector of some regions by personnel from other regions have been averted. The Nigerian case study therefore suggests that while policies aimed at equalising access to education may create incentives for ethno-regional mobilisations, they are nevertheless necessary to prevent violent conflicts that arise from perceived ethno-regional domination of the public sector.