This paper explores the impact of the contraction of the mass HE system (after 2005) on rural youth who represent the biggest disadvantages group in Polish higher education. It provides empirical evidence that the system contraction is the major reason for widening access for rural youth to public (prestigious) higher education institutions. By doing so, it challenges a long established assumption that the HE system expansion reduced inequalities in access to higher learning. Instead, we argue that it was the contraction of HE system that widely opened university campuses to those previously underrepresented. The most prestigious public universities become more inclusive and less selective only when the traditional pool of students was exhausted and a big number of state's funded places needed to be filled.