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Increasing or Widening Participation in Higher Education? — a European overview
Author(s) -
OSBORNE MICHAEL
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
european journal of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1465-3435
pISSN - 0141-8211
DOI - 10.1111/1467-3435.00125
Subject(s) - citation , library science , higher education , sociology , political science , computer science , law
In the latter decades of the 20t century we have seen a major expansion of the higher education (HE) system in Europe. From a small elite sector where some 5% of school-leavers participate - mostly immediately after leaving the compulsory sector -, there now exists a greatly expanded mass and in some cases universal system.' According to recent OECD (2001a, p. 148) statistics for 22 of its member countries (of which 16 are European), on average, four out of ten school leavers are likely to participate in higher Tertiary A education2 in the course of their lives. In some countries, this proportion rises to one in two, and in Finland, New Zealand and Sweden to at least two out of three entering this form of higher education. Between 1995 and 1999, OECD reports that, with the exception of three countries under study, all showed increases in participation in higher education, the average increase being 15%, with some nations showing rises of up to 84% (Poland) during this period. Whilst these increases to a certain extent are a reflection of changing demography, only in a minority of countries (Ireland, Mexico and Poland) does increasing population size account for significant change. Even then, as in all nations, actual increases in participation rate account for significantly more of the overall change. These figures, of course, reflect significant differences between societies that most obviously relate to the duration of higher Tertiary level A education which varies from 3 years (e.g. English and Irish Bachelor's degrees) to five years or more (e.g. the Italian Laurea). Furthermore, age of initial participation varies significantly, and, in a number of countries, entry to HE is delayed to well beyond school-leaving age, reflecting in some societies the value ascribed to prior work experience, in others the structural forms that facilitate later participation and measures that have been specifically developed to widen the constituency that HE serves.