For every step forward we make in terms of equity, we create new challenges for ourselves to think about. And that makes these debates important to carry on addressing, carry on understanding, carry on researching…
David Mills, Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), University of Oxford
World Access to Higher Education Day is a global day of action dedicated to raising awareness of inequalities in access to, and success in, higher education. This blog draws on a conversation about student equity across borders from this year’s event, featuring tertiary education experts David Mills and Jamil Salmi, and facilitated by Shamit Saggar.
During the session, speakers shared their own research and perspectives on equity in practice across the globe, from the changing environment in the US to ongoing developments in the higher education landscape in Africa and Asia. In each case, they note that positive change can bring further challenges for student equity – not only in education access and participation, but in keeping the doors open to equal opportunities for future work and careers.
Shifting sands for equity policy and practice
The US is in a very paradoxical situation; for many decades, the US was a pioneer in equity promotion policies, from outreach to high schools, to affirmative action for access, and retention policies to make sure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds would actually graduate. These policies were emulated by many countries all over the world, and then all of the sudden we see some worrisome trends…
Jamil Salmi, Global tertiary education expert
Whilst the Universities Accord has placed student equity and access at the forefront of many Australian policy and practice discussions in the last few years, there has been considerable disruption in other countries around the world. Jamil Salmi highlighted increasing anti-university sentiment, not only since the change in US government, but also over a longer period of time in other countries such as Russia and Hungary. This shift has brought with it profound impacts on equity, from banned ‘DEI’ language in the US, to ongoing discrimination against LGBTQ+ communities in African universities, many of which have inherited long-term impacts from European colonial rule.
So who gets to go to uni in today’s world?
When you look across Africa there’s massive growing demand for universities and a very young population – forecast 60 million more university-age people in the next 10 years. […] People are worried about how they make university accessible. They’re not necessarily framing it in terms of equity, but each of these countries, whether it be Ghana or Kenya or Nigeria, are all struggling with the same problem, and many of them are ‘solving’ it through the massive growth of private university provision, which obviously is not accessible to all and therefore not equitable.
David Mills
David Mills, whose research focuses on the political economy of academic research and publishing in Africa, shared perspectives highlighting how access has been shifting in some countries in this region, in some cases ‘reinventing’ university provision with a strong focus on vocational outcomes and student experience (in Nigeria and Kenya, for example). With such high demand for places, some African countries have developed affirmative action policies or quotas for students in different districts (Uganda); even so, many are seeing an ongoing tension between a metropolitan dominance of the ‘best’ universities and broader needs across regions, as well as huge growth in private institutions, potentially limiting access to those who could benefit most.
Jamil Salmi also highlighted the need to look beyond headline figures to uncover more subtle indicators, particularly at the more traditionally selective institutions in each country:
If you look at India, the proportion of female students is 46%, which is not perfect; it’s not 50:50, but it’s not bad, right? But if you look at the Indian Institutes of Technology, which are the most prestigious institutions, the proportion would be less than 15% […] So you need really to look at what kind of opportunities, what doors have been opened and what doors are still closed.
Jamil Salmi
Whilst progress is being made more broadly (e.g. participation of female students), a closer look tells us that equity progress has stalled when it comes to the ‘elite’ institutions – those likely to offer greater long-term benefits to students in terms of career access, progression, and future earnings. Jamil shared a further example from Tanzania, where despite an increase in female STEM graduates, progression to the workforce continues to be hindered by gender stereotypes, lack of mentorship and networks, and systemic barriers.
Dial down the division and join up the data
We need a joined up, integrated tertiary system where there is less of a status divide […] a system of lifelong learning and constant upskilling and re-working out what higher education means in the context of AI…
David Mills
Towards the end of the session, the speakers drew attention to the importance of looking beyond a single (higher ed) sector to support student equity. Community colleges in the US, for example, can offer an important stepping stone to university in the US higher education system. Here in Australia, the VET sector offers increasing opportunities for progression to university, with many qualifications accepted as part of applications for both school leavers and mature-age students.
Seeing education as a connected ecosystem should mean smoother, more equitable transitions between schools, colleges and other tertiary institutions, but this is only possible if our data is also present and correct:
If you don’t know the dimension of the problem, then you cannot work on that problem. And so many countries do not collect data on various equity groups […]. The bottom line is that discrimination is just not documented.
Jamil Salmi
All speakers agreed that there is much more to be done here, and particularly in forming an intersectional understanding of equity that takes into account the impact of multiple equity factors, not just one at time. For this to be possible, improvements are needed not only in the consistent and longitudinal collection of national data, but also in how it is analysed. And as session chair Shamit Saggar noted, even though universities collect large amounts of data, we don’t necessarily know what it means; the ‘joining up’ job of unscrambling and reassembling that data into something meaningful and actionable is where the real work begins.
Stay informed about global equity and access
The World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED) is an annual opportunity for individuals and organisations worldwide to come together to raise global awareness around inequalities in higher education access and success and to catalyse action at the international, regional and local levels.
This session kicked off a series of events exploring challenges and innovations in student equity from global, national, and local perspectives, jointly hosted by the Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Association (EPHEA), the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES), and the UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion.
You can view all three recordings from the global, national, and local sessions on World Access to Higher Education Day on the EPHEA website.