Massification and access: a slow-motion collision

Higher education systems - initially in North America, then in Western Europe and around the world - have expanded in response to the demand for a highly educated workforce in order to compete in the globalized economy. This expansion (‘massification’ and beyond) has led to the creation of very different higher education systems, with different kinds of institutions and courses designed to meet the needs and aspirations of an increasingly heterogeneous student body. Increased access to and widening participation in higher education has not necessarily, however, improved social mobility and equity. Elite sub-systems remain within higher education, and are patronized chiefly by those from higher socio-economic backgrounds, while students from the lower social classes, from families with little or no experience of higher education, are concentrated in lower status institutions and programmes.