This paper undertakes an analysis of Nigeria's quota-based policy for equitable higher education (HE) access with reference to the catchment criterion. HE access demand in Nigeria has far outweighed supply. With a large and diverse population and a growing HE sector, the policy sets out a range of overlapping eligibility criteria as integral to…

This article addresses a new phenomenon in higher education internationalization: national policies seeking to reduce the number of incoming international students ('de-internationalization'). Such policies have been introduced in Denmark and the Netherlands, countries traditionally welcoming large numbers of international students in their higher…

Multiple refugee crises are taking place simultaneously in several regions of the world. Despite the fact that large numbers of refugees are children and youth, research on policy discourse related to the educational access of refugees beyond remains limited. This situation is particularly acute in the USA even though over 3 million refugees have…

This article examines how Affirmative Action was used to govern access to higher education for the disadvantaged. In 1991, a gender-based Affirmative Action policy was incorporated into college admission in Uganda. Using existing empirical data at district and college levels, the article accounts for the categories of women for whom the Uganda's…

Universities around the world are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the corona virus. There has been global devastation of the entire education sector with long-term closure of schools. The health crisis and the accompanying education crisis continue, and the end of the crisis is not certain. The immediate response everywhere to the…

Like many other countries around the world, Turkey has faced several challenges in expanding higher education (HE) opportunities to masses. Trying to meet the ever-growing demand for HE, Turkey has implemented a bold expansion plan by establishing 51 public universities (PUs) after 2006, mostly in less-developed regions of the country. This study…

This study examines factors that deter students in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands from studying abroad. Using an adaptation of the Rubicon model of action phases, the path to gaining study abroad experience is conceptualised as a process involving two thresholds: the decision threshold and the realisation threshold. Theoretical…

The democratization of higher education through strategically driven science policies and higher education reforms is documented in this paper. These represent complementary policy actions oriented towards strengthening social, cultural and economic dimensions that allow higher education institutions (HEIs) to grow and to train graduates able to…

The higher education (HE) subsystem in Ethiopia has passed through a series of policy reforms in the last 10 years. Key reform areas ranged from improving quality and relevance of programmes to promoting equality in access to and success in HE. Despite the effort underway, gender inequality has remained a critical challenge in the subsystem. This…

In recent decades, the revolutionary expansion of Chinese universities has emerged as one of the most significant phenomena in the worldwide transformation of higher education. Since 2003, China has become a country with the largest national higher education system in the world, with nearly 31 million students in 2010. What have students'…

All Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have experienced an unprecedented expansion in higher education during the second half of the twentieth century. This was only possible because higher education became part of national welfare policies. OECD countries differ, however, with respect to the significance of…

I explore the question of men's participation in higher education (HE) in relation to shifting, discursive and intersecting masculine subjectivities by drawing on qualitative interviews with men participating in HE. The paper contributes to a sociological understanding of the impact of masculine subjectivities on higher educational participation…

This article examines the access policies in Portuguese higher education, from the 1974 revolution to the present. Recently, under the simultaneous pressure of a declining birth rate and increasing financial stringency, higher education institutions, both public and private, have started to compete for students, while responding to increasing…

This paper takes a feminist perspective on the UK literature on mass higher education in the 21st century, building on US critiques about marketization, neo-liberalism and "academic capitalism". Concepts of equality and diversity have been transformed by neo-liberalism and how these changes have constrained democratic contributions to UK…

Reports on the current status of higher education in Nigeria and reviews the country's new policy initiatives in this context. The discussion gives particular attention to issues of access, teaching/learning, finance, and governance/management. (EV)