Admission Model and Equity in Higher Education

Abstract

Equity in higher education is mostly related to the context in which it is discussed. Most commonly, equity is sought for enhancing access to higher education for under-represented groups such as minorities, low income groups, or any other type of disadvantaged group of people. The plethora of research in this area mostly focuses on different types of affirmative action aiming to enroll more under-represented groups in higher education, whereas in the research on equity, within the context of educational outcomes and quality, the interaction between equity and quality in higher education is scarce. This paper discusses the entangled issues of equity and quality in higher education and explores the possible solutions to promoting both. It concludes that admission models aiming to achieve equity in higher education should be more outcomes-based (e.g., increase success) rather than process-based (e.g., increase participation).