Analysis of the existence of equal chances of higher

education
732A60 - Advanced Academic Studies
Farhana Chowdhury Tondra
2017 10 4

Abstract:
Ensuring equal rights is the fundamental duty of modern society. Any form of discrimination is considered
as violation of human rights. Since education is one of the basic need of a person in modern society, any
discrimination must be treated as violation of the rights. Surprisingly, many countries fail to recognize this
as a threat. However, some private organizations and universities are equivocal in upholding and taking steps
to ensure equal opportunities to the students. Equal opportunities in higher education means the rights
of getting resources, opportunities and support according to ones need irrespective of gender, race, belief,
disability. This paper analyzes the steps taken by such organizations and provides a general guideline to the
authorities that are in the beginning phases of taking steps for their population.

Introduction:
Higher education elevates the quality of ones life. It expands the creativity and enhances skills to work
more vibrantly compared to people with basic education. A highly educated person enjoys more dynamic
opportunities to use their skills in development of the society. In this modern era, when knowledge and
empowerment is the key to advancement then it is almost impossible to compete in job market without any
specialization. But how many students get the opportunity to take higher education? How many students are
hindered by the barriers of society? The presence of students at universities gives us a clear picture in this
regard. Unfortunately, the number of students in universities are significantly less compared to students in
schools. One reason might be because of personal choice of not continuing studies but research shows people
make such choices because of the difficulties associated with higher studies.
According to the Merav Shaviv (2013), one of the principle difficulties is not having equal opportunities in
higher education. This intrigues a question of defining the definition of equal opportunities in the context of
higher education. Equal opportunity in a community is met by providing everyone with the same opportunities,
this inherently refers to providing greater facilities to the disabled, poor and less progressive parts of the
society. Similarly, in higher education context, if every student is provided with resources and facilities
according to their needs it can be concluded that equal opportunities were provided.
However in the real world it fails societies fail to ensure this in some context. This paper will cover possible
reasons and facts for why the equality is not maintained. It will also describe some facts which are analyzed
in research works based on equal opportunities in higher education.

Equality in higher education:

John F. Kennedy said,
Not everyone has equal abilities, but everyone should have equal opportunity for education.

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Why do we need equality in higher education? A nation cannot thrive without participation of its entire
population. A population can be subdivided into different groups e.g., gender groups, religious groups, ethnic
groups, age groups and groups based on economic status and so on. Study shows that due to different belief
and social status and other facts students dont have access to higher studies. Few points will be discussed
below.
According to Singh (2014) , UNESCOs convention against discrimination in education states that education
is for all where the opportunities should be given full and equal without regards to gender, disability, social
or economic status, belief or ethnicity.
There are several grounds where the equality is not maintained.

1. Gender:

In different parts of the world, gender discrimination is a crucial problem which hinders development of the
society. In many cities or countries women are restricted to study. Sometimes they get the chance to attend
primary and secondary education but are prohibited to take higher education. From the paper Mst. Maksuda
Shilpi (2015), in rural areas of Bangladesh, it is common to prohibit females from higher education. Early
marriage and having children also hinders their dream of higher education. Lack of positive attitude from
the family and society, female students are unable to take the equal chances of higher education whereas
male students get the opportunity to go abroad for higher studies. Male students are more preferred for
engineering & science subjects and females are more preferred in medical or humanities in Pakistan, states
Maqbool (2009).

2. Ethnicity:

A country may have several tribal groups and sometimes these tribal groups get less resources to qualify for
higher education. So, the university should give priorities to this group for meeting the prerequisites of higher
education. However, it rarely happens. Without having adequate resources, they compete with all students.
As a consequence, for example the presence of tribal students is fewer in universities of Bangladesh.

3. Religion or belief:

It is often observed that some students face difficulties due to their religion or belief among study groups.
As per International student barometer in Ume? university, lack of prayer or meditation room provides a
lower average grade on the context of equal opportunities University (2014). As per Employee survey of
the mentioned institution, among those who faced harassment, almost 80% women claimed that they faced
harassment related to gender, religion, belief or age University (2014).

4. Disability:

Disabled or impaired students need special assistance whereas educational institutions are unable to provide
adequate support for them. A study was taken at Scotland among students and one of the student claimed
that he was unable to hear so he had to see the lips to understand the sentences RIDDELL (1998). However
sometimes in group discussions he couldnt understand anything if he didnt see them. Some students had
dyslexic disease so they also needed special support to understand the lectures. But authorities were unable
to provide extra care for them. In this case the equal chances of education didnt meet.

5. Age:

Due to certain issues students may not be able to attend bachelors or masters immediately after high school
graduation. Some universities and scholarships inflict age restriction in the admission process of new students.

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In Bangladesh, public universities hold their own entrance exam and any education gap is regarded as a
disqualification. This is one of critical problem which hinders students from higher education. Although
private universities are flexible in this aspect but they incur a high amount of course fee which effectively
makes them unavailable to common people.

6. Socio-economic status:

Accoring to the paper of Merav Shaviv (2013) Israels socioeconomic status is one of the prominent issue for
not having equal opportunities in higher education. Those who do not have the economic stability are far
beyond in the higher studies. Some students started working after secondary education due to family crisis.
As mentioned before, according to ORRONNO (2012) in Bangladesh private universities costs more than 9
to 10 times than a private university education. In USA, higher education is very expensive and students are
forced to take loans which sometimes takes very long time to repay. As a result, many students decide not to
continue higher studies.

7. Prerequisites of education:

University enrollment criterias, although are required for maintaining higher standard of the institution, are
sometimes too strict. As an example, public universities in Bangladesh requires separate entrance exams
which are often scheduled on the same day and usually incurs cost and travelling to remote locations. This
prevents poor and disabled students to even apply for the exam and thus essentially they drops out. Although
more solvent students have the opportunity to study in private universities, the difference in education
standards between the former and latter creates a discrimination between students.

Remedies

Modern society teaches people to be more accepting towards differences. However, it is yet to be achieved by
all countries. Few private organizations are working for awareness but governments of those countries are
remained silent. Also, discriminated people often find it difficult to receive proper justice.
To overcome discrimination and establish equal opportunities in higher education, some steps should be taken
from every sector.

1. Change the culture of discrimination:

First and foremost is to change the culture of discrimination. Students who are getting negligence due to
socio economic status or gender or disabilities should be given a safe platform to raise their voice. Also other
students should show solidarity and support towards them. Administration should deploy some ethics and
rules to ensure that students are getting equal opportunities. University (2014) LiU established several ethical
rules for ensuring equal rights for higher education among students. LiUs actions against discrimination
should be followed by every educational institution.

2. Changing perspective:

Attitude is everything. Positive attitude towards every student should be maintained. Academics should
not judge students by their race or ethnicity or gender. And for the disabled students academics should
ensure extra facilities to take lecture notes, ease of access to class rooms, special support of their needs. As
an example, recorded audio of the lectures can be provided to visually impaired studets whilst videos in sign
languages can be provided to those with hearing impairment. Admission requirements should be relaxed for
the deprived students to ensure that they can move forward.

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Men and women deserves to get the equal opportunity. Sometimes women require more facilities than men.
If a female student is pregnant or have baby then she needs more facilities than a man, if a university can
provide sufficient comfort during her journey of pregnancy then the equal chances of higher education can be
met. A quote from Anna Chennault will remind us how its important.
Equal opportunity is good, but special privilege is better.

3. Law enforcement against discrimination:

Universities and government should make some rules or laws to ensure equal opportunity. Strict enforcement
of the laws should be ensured. Furthermore, the laws should be updated periodically.

4. Authorizing special teams:

A special team or department should be responsible to ensure that equal opportunities are met. They should
provide support and help for the students; a help desk can be arranged in this regard. Surveys among the
students would enable the identification of the special needs.

Discussion:
All the studies indicate that there is lack of quantified research data providing indication of practice of
equal rights in higher education at educational institutions and count of universities that are practicing this.
However, in recent years academic institutions are becoming concerned about their students and started
deploying ethical rules and supporting departments to encourage equal opportunities among all students.
As per the rereferred papers, universities of developed countries are more cautious. They made specific
regulations and they started doing survey to quantify their progress.
In the guidelines and papers University board (2016), University (2014) of Link?ping and Ume? university
it is stated that equal opportunities are met, however as mentioned no concrete numbers are presented.
However, the problems regarding higher education is not acute in Sweden compared to Bangladesh. Hence, a
study was conducted by interviewing some young people from Bangladesh. The interviews and graphs from
the data is added in [Appendix].
According to the study of Pakistan Maqbool (2009) & Bangladesh Mst. Maksuda Shilpi (2015) the students
are restrained from higher studies due to high tuition fees, merit competition based on specific exams.
Moreover, early marriage of female students and socio-economic status are major factors where equal chances
of education hampered. However, the above-mentioned survey on students bolsters the fact that in Bangladesh
students are not getting equal chances due to high tuition fees and disability. On the other hand, students
perceive that gender discrimination has nearly been obliterated from higher education in Bangladesh.
Developed countries are far progressive in supporting disabled students by establishing different organizations
and using technology in class rooms. As a result, the problem of discrimination is nearly being resolved there.

Conclusion:
To make the world better everyone from every corner should come forward. So, the awareness among
developing countries and their universities should be guided by developed institutions and international
organizations. Funding to deliver adequate resources are also needed. In case of making ethics and rules, the
academics can share policies between universities. Collaborative research and surveys are needed to improve
the current situation. Not all students have the same capability to grow but the equal chances of higher
education can help them to develop them and their society.

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References:
Maqbool, Sara. 2009. A Study on the Equity of Higher Education in Punjab in Context of Equal
Opportunities in Higher Education. Contemporary Issues in Education Research 2 (2): 2328.
Merav Shaviv, Ari Stone, Noa Binstein. 2013. Pluralism and Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
Expanding Access for Arabs, Druze and Circassians in Israel. Planning; Budgeting Committee of the Council
for Higher Education.
Mst. Maksuda Shilpi, Salma Hasnayen. 2015. Education Scenario in Bangladesh:Gender Perspective.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
ORRONNO. 2012. Differences Between Public and Private University in Bangladesh. https://orronno.
wordpress.com/2012/04/02/differences-between-public-and-private-university-in-bangladesh/.
RIDDELL, SHEILA. 1998. Chipping Away at the Mountain: Disabled Students Experience of Higher
Educatio. International Studies in Sociology of Education 8: 20322.
Singh, Kishore. 2014. Right to Education and Equality of Educational Opportunities. Journal of
International Cooperation in Education 16 (2): 519.
University board, Adopted by the. 2016. Equal Opportunities Strategy and Action Plan 2017. Linkoping
University.
University, Umea. 2014. Plan for Equal Opportunities at Umea University. Umea University.

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Appendix:
An interview was conducted in a small scale where a group of 100 young people were asked few questions
from Bangladesh. Among them some of them are pursuing higher education and some of them are working.
The data was collected via facebook poll.
Question 1: Do you think Bangladesh preserves equal chances of access to higher education with respect to
gender, religion, age, ethnicity, disability or poverty?
Answer: Answer was yes or no based. The data based on their response is graphed below.
counts <- c(40,60)
barplot(counts, main="Equal chances of higher education ",
horiz=TRUE,
names.arg=c("Yes", "No"))

Equal chances of higher education

No
Yes

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Question 2: If the answer of question 1 is NO then in which cases (gender, religion, age, ethnicity,
disability, poverty) do you think its not being maintained?
Answer: Answers were different. As Bangladesh is not a rich country so the answers were mostly poverty.
But the promising result is that gender discrimination percieved not to be a problem now. The data based
on their response is graphed below.
library(plotrix)
slices <- c(50,30,20)
lbls <- c("Poverty","Disability","Gender")
pie3D(slices,labels=lbls,edges=NA,explode=0.1,radius=2,height=0.4,
theta=pi/6,start=0,border=par("fg"),col=c("thistle1","peachpuff1","palegreen"),
labelpos=(NULL),labelcol=par("fg"),labelcex=1,

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 sector.order=NULL,shade=0.9,pty="s",
main="Pie Chart of areas where equal opportunites are not met")

Pie Chart of areas where equal opportunites are not met

Poverty

Gender
Disability

Question 3: If yes, quantify them in percentage?

Answer: The Answer was expected from a set of choices
i) 10% ii) 30% iii)50% iv) 70% v) 100%
age <- c(70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,70,
100,100,100,100,100,100,100,100,100,100)
table(age)

## age
## 70 100
## 30 10
barplot(table(age),
main="Percentage of practicing equal chances",
xlab="Percentage",
ylab="Count",
border="red",
col="blue",
names.arg = c("70 %" , "100 %"),
density=10
)

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 Percentage of practicing equal chances
30
25
20
Count

15
10
5
0

70 % 100 %

Percentage

Based on the answers of interview we can state that Bangladesh does not preserve equal chances of higher
education and the improvement is recommended as early as possible.