eprintid: 10070848 rev_number: 17 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/07/08/48 datestamp: 2019-03-22 16:32:02 lastmod: 2021-10-01 23:51:35 status_changed: 2019-03-22 16:32:02 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Liu, Y creators_name: Green, A creators_name: Pensiero, N title: Expansion of higher education and inequality of opportunities: a cross-national analysis ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B16 divisions: B14 divisions: J80 keywords: Country groups, dual system, higher education expansion, maximally maintained inequality, opportunity patterns note: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management on 4 May 2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1360080X.2016.1174407. abstract: This study extends the comparative model of country groups to analyse the cross-national trends in the higher education expansion and opportunities. We use descriptive data on characteristics and outcomes of higher education systems in different countries groups, including the liberal market countries, the social democratic countries, the Mediterranean countries, the German-speaking countries, the Northern states, and the East Asian societies. At the theoretical level, we assess the validity of the maximally maintained inequality (MMI) theory in the cross-national contexts. We confirm the MMI theory in general patterns of the expansion of higher education opportunities; however, we argue that it is not sufficient to provide accounts on specific country differences in the strength of the relationship between participation rates and inequality of opportunities. Therefore, we explain the divergences from the general pattern of higher participation being associated with lower inequality. We propose three main contenders including the private contribution to higher education, less hierarchical higher education systems, and the participation in the dual higher education system and greater public support and entitlements. We use a series of indicators on the trends of participation in higher education and different types of universities, the private contribution to higher education, and the trends of public support and entitlements to assess the three contenders. Thus, we argue that there are different patterns of the trade-offs between expansion and equalising opportunities. Most rapid expansion is observed in countries with high private contributions to higher education and little government support for students mainly because governments can then afford more places but equalisation of opportunities from the expansion in these systems is limited because of financial barriers to access to less well-off groups. Most egalitarian systems seem to have somewhat lower participation rates with lower fees and strong government support such as the social democratic and the German-speaking countries. date: 2016 date_type: published publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD official_url: https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2016.1174407 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1108301 doi: 10.1080/1360080X.2016.1174407 lyricists_name: Green, Andrew lyricists_name: Pensiero, Nicola lyricists_id: ADGRE35 lyricists_id: NPENS74 actors_name: Allington-Smith, Dominic actors_id: DAALL44 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management volume: 38 number: 3 pagerange: 242-263 pages: 22 issn: 1469-9508 citation: Liu, Y; Green, A; Pensiero, N; (2016) Expansion of higher education and inequality of opportunities: a cross-national analysis. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management , 38 (3) pp. 242-263. 10.1080/1360080X.2016.1174407 <https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2016.1174407>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10070848/1/Green_Comparative%20Higher%20Education.pdf