The Expansion of Global Higher Education Increases Inequality, It Doesn't Reduce It

For some the claim that global higher education increases inequality rather than reduces it might seem somewhat counterituitive. However, for those of us working in the field of social inclusion and social justice, a paper published by Simon Marginson in Higher Education in 2016, only confirms what we have long since suspected. The expansion of higher education is helping and shaping the drive to greater inequality.

Marginson's central thesis is that Higher Particpation Systems (HPS) have served to ring-fence the best opportunities for the dominant middle classes. Where previously people from lower social economic groups had progressed through "hard work" and proven "on the job" expertise and excellence, these avenues were increasingly closed to them through the growth of arbitary credentialism and expanded stratification. Furthermore, in the highly competitive world of education, those with more resources have greater access to that stratified market of educational goods and qualifications.

This is particularly relevant in the field of English teaching where some families can afford extra tuition, study abroad and other resources to ensure accessibility and advantaghe when taking prestigious exams which have a marked bent towards idiomatic language over what we might term International English.

This is not to say that Higher Education in itself is something bad but we should be critical of the way it reflects and reinforces inequality. At El Nostre Anglès we are playing our small part in challenging this inequality but clearly it is an urgent issue which needs to be tackled by police makers and educational activists at a macro level.