Most Western European countries are rich, liberal nations with a long-standing pluralistic political tradition and a long history of emphasis on education in their economic and social development. Primary and lower-secondary education is compulsory with the legal school leaving-age set at around 16. In this context, it is not surprising to find that issues concerning the equality or inequality of access to post-compulsory education and particularly to higher education have risen to the top of the agenda over the last decades.
However, beyond these broad similarities, there are significant differences between higher education systems in their various national settings. In many aspects, France and Britain, for historical and political reasons, stand at the two ends of this broad spectrum while epitomising the problems that most western European higher education systems face concerning access and participation. In both countries, the increasing participation rate at the higher education level has been debated around the notions of access and selection. The corresponding social question has evolved around the ideas of equality and equity, two contested concepts which have been given various definitions.
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Deer, C. (2008). Different Paths, Similar Effects: Persistent Inequalities and Their Sources in European Higher Education. In: Holsinger, D.B., Jacob, W.J. (eds) Inequality in Education. CERC Studies in Comparative Education, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2652-1_14
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