What democratization of higher education

Abstract

This article discusses features of higher education democratization process. It seeks to distinguish analytically various dimensions of democratization, based in turn on different conceptions of justice: equality of opportunity, meritocracy, utilities and fairness of procedures. Each society constructs models of democratization of education. The massification of higher education played democratic role, favorable to social groups previously excluded. But massification is not equivalent to democratization. All social categories do not benefit in the same way from it. The democratization of access to higher education depends not only on the families. It also depends on the overall structure of the education system. The academic meritocracy builds a hierarchy of skills that is also social with strong reproductive impact. Utility inequalities of different courses have an impact on all the social inequalities. Educational systems implement different selection procedures, provide gratuities, grants, scholarships, which can be considered as more or less equitable according to the norms of justice that they mobilize.