Higher Education Access Reconfigured: Applying a Global South Lens to Boudon’s Inequality of Educational Opportunity

Acceso a la educación superior reconfigurado: Aplicación de la perspectiva del Sur Global a la desigualdad de oportunidades educativas de Boudon

Resumen

Inequality in access to higher education remains one of the most persistent challenges in the Global South, where the tertiary gross enrolment ratio (GER) increased from 19% to 38% globally between 2000 and 2017, but remains markedly lower in low-income regions, remaining around 9% in Sub-Saharan Africa compared to approximately 49% average across OECD countries (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2022; OECD, 2023). Despite rising enrolment and progressive policy reforms, structural barriers continue to dictate who gains entry and who is excluded from universities (UNRISD, 2021). Access to higher education plays a critical role in social mobility across these regions (McCowan & Bertolin, 2021). Among analytical frameworks, Raymond Boudon’s theory of Inequality of Educational Opportunity (IEO) has been foundational, emphasizing the distinction between primary effects (academic attainment differences rooted in social background) and secondary effects (differences in educational choices). However, the class-based assumptions underpinning Boudon’s model, derived from industrial European settings, may conceal more than they illuminate when applied in postcolonial, informal, or hybrid economies like Ecuador’s (Connell, 2007; Tikly, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to propose a discussion on methodological choices to construct socioeconomic status as proxies under the light of Boudon’s notion of IEO.