This article traces the development of four narratives of financial assistance for Australian university students - to encourage excellence; to meet public need; to build the stock of human capital; and as universal provision - and their effect on the development of a fifth narrative, centred on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS).…

Science capital has proved a valuable concept for understanding a person's science-related resources and the inequities linked to participation in science education. The concept was developed in the UK and has since been applied worldwide. In this paper, we investigate the potential of the concept in Denmark. Here science capital meets a concept…

Problem: In Colombia, higher education plays a relevant role in developing human capital and equity, giving everyone the opportunity to access higher education. In particular, the government has been supporting public and private universities to open campuses in rural areas where guerrillas, the mafia, and paramilitary groups were fighting the…

Minnesota is known for its large concentrations of Hmong, Somali and Karen refugee-background students (RBSs). Drawing on an equity/heritage framework that centres educational equity and the sustaining of the cultural and linguistic practices of minoritized communities, this study examined how district/school websites with the highest enrolment of…

Educational indicators offer a straightforward means of gauging a country's education. Besides, evaluation based on these indicators is of great significance and value. Nonetheless, education does not take place in a vacuum, and thus these indicators are results of the conditions in a country. Particularly, time and money spent on education, the…

Over the last two decades, increasing participation rates in post-secondary education in many countries have been accompanied by decreases in aggregate economic growth and raising social tensions. It is obvious now that education does not 'automatically' produce more well-being (at least, if conventionally measured through income or gross domestic…

Early childhood education (ECE) is a key investment for improving learning and future outcomes. Yet, in the context of Uganda, it is not compulsory or free, which means that provision tends to be private, and hence there is limited access for children from disadvantaged families, particularly refugees. This article examines the level of access to,…

This article highlights the inequality in the Flemish education system, which disproportionately affects youngsters with low socioeconomic status. This inequality is attributed to the human capital approach characterising current educational policies, putting emphasis on educational outcomes. This results in education that homogenises and limits…

There are considerable challenges experienced by female South Sudanese refugees to access post-secondary education in the United States. Although these challenges are many, but little was known about their experiences to access and enroll into US post-secondary education. There has been a significant lack of research on how South Sudanese female…

Parents are the key people in the family when it comes to determining the extent and type of education for their children. Within the theoretical frameworks of African feminisms, human capital theory, and the liminality theory, this paper examines the parental perceptions of the girls' secondary education in Tanzania's rural communities. Moreover,…

Research suggests teachers' observable characteristics are inequitably distributed across schools, leaving minoritized students with less exposure to experienced and credentialed teachers. While prior research focuses on how the teacher sorting explains disparities in students' test scores, little research explores how teacher quality gaps might…

In-country migration is widespread in South Asia, and the region hosts the world's largest number of out-of-school children. Yet the relationship between internal migration and inclusion in formal education has received only limited academic and policy attention. The Agenda 2030 pledge to leave no-one behind prompts us to argue that when it comes…

This book examines access, lifelong learning and education for all, which have been policy preoccupations in all countries for more than half a century, but have been overlaid and pushed aside by the development of mass higher education. The authors examine what has been achieved, what lessons have been learnt and what still remains to be done,…

The convergence of a digital transformation and a growing youth population in Africa represents an opportunity to harness digital and demographic dividends to boost human capital development. Higher education institutions play a central role in this process as the demographic dividend is accrued from the rise in the proportion of educated…

The U.S. federal government has played a growing role in setting nationwide education policy since the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. This Act, along with the 'Equality of Educational Opportunity' report commissioned by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, led the U.S. Office of Education to pursue a policy agenda…