15 December 2017

Call for papers on social stratification and inequality in HE access

Professor Simon Marginson and Professor Vikki Boliver are editing a Special Issue of the journal Social Sciences which will look at social stratification and inequality in access to higher education.

Background

The Special Issue will bring together the latest social scientific thinking and evidence on the relationship between social stratification and inequality in access to, and the benefits from, higher education.

High participation systems of higher education are becoming the norm worldwide, and yet access to higher education remains significantly stratified by social background. Those from disadvantaged social backgrounds continue to be much less likely to enter higher education, especially the most prestigious institutions and fields of study; they are less likely to successfully complete their studies when they do enrol; and they can be less certain of reaping the promised returns to a degree on the labour market once they graduate.

The Special Issue will bring together a collection of high-quality papers, authored by sociologists and economists of higher education at a range of career points.

The issue aims to include conceptual pieces, as well as theoretically informed empirical work focused on social inequality in relation to one or more high participation systems.

The papers will present new critical insights into the relationship between social stratification and inequality in access to higher education and offer new perspectives on what is to be done about it.