Abstract

This article adopts an historical institutionalism perspective (Pierson, 2011; Pierson & Skocpol, 2002; Thelen, 2014). Its main goal is to understand the lasting dynamics and path dependency processes that constrain the impact of expanding access to higher education (HE) in changing the pattern of social inequalities in a given country. To do this, the article will explore two different aspects of the impact of education on social inclusion: the dynamics associated with production and distribution of portable skills and competences, and the dynamics associated with social stratification. The study follows the experience of Brazilian HE over the last 15 years. In this period, the country experienced a rapid expansion, coming from a total undergraduate enrolment of 2.7 million in 2000 up to nine million in 2016. Nevertheless, the design of this expansion assumed a very conservative pattern. Following a well-ingrained domestic pattern, most of this expansion was absorbed by the country’s huge demand-driven private sector, and into less than half a dozen very traditional types of bachelor programs. Thus, the article argues that by failing to diversify, and by preserving old institutional hierarchies, expanding access to HE in Brazil has rendered less impact than one would expect on the country’s social inequalities.

Highlights

  • Education, and higher education (HE), is seldom an area of interest to political scientists

  • The main effects of education on social inclusion are related to two different, yet interrelated, social dynamics: first, education is intrinsically connected with the processes of creating and upgrading skills and competences that are valued in society as whole, and in the labour-market (Busemeyer & Trampusch, 2012; EstevezAbe, Iversen, & Soskice, 2001; Iversen & Soskice, 2001; Thelen, 2014)

  • The changes experienced by Brazil in recent decades has had a relevant impact on the pattern of access to education in general, and on HE in particular

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Summary

Introduction

Higher education (HE), is seldom an area of interest to political scientists. While the theme has long raised interest among sociologists and economists, political science has been conspicuously absent in the debates of education in general and HE in particular. Most recent contributions to the area are focused on issues related to governance of the field and of institutions, and there are few analyses that approach the issue from the perspective of its consequences for the processes of social exclusion/inclusion. Social Inclusion, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages 7–17 of the literature tends to accept the notion that expanding access to HE should be taken as equivalent to social inclusion, without further problematization. This article raises some considerations on this equation when exploring the social consequences of the expanded access to HE experienced by Brazil in the last two decades

Theoretical Framework
Access to Education and Social Inclusion
The Brazilian Historical Experience
Stratification and Access in Brazilian HE
Changing Access to Education
Access to HE and Social Inclusion
The Conservative Response to Expanding Access to HE
Findings
Conclusion
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