Photo by Baim Hanif on UnsplashInequality in access to and success in higher education persists in every country – regardless of wealth, geography or system design. That is the stark conclusion of Drawing the Global Access Map 2: Understanding higher education inequality across the world – the most comprehensive study yet to detail disparities in participation and attainment globally.
Produced by the World Access to Higher Education Network (WAHEN) with support from the Lumina Foundation, the report was launched on 28 October 2025 at the World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED) Conference, hosted in hybrid format at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa and online.
Drawing on data from more than 200 countries and territories, the study finds that although tertiary enrolment continues to expand worldwide, students from low-income, first-generation and marginalised backgrounds remain persistently under-represented.
Gender equality also remains elusive. In most countries, more women than men enrol, yet completion rates for women still lag. Students from higher-income families, meanwhile, are more than twice as likely to enter university.
The study calls for stronger global cooperation and better data sharing to reduce these inequalities. It urges governments to set national targets for access and attainment by socioeconomic status (SES) and recommends that the post-2030 Sustainable Development Goals explicitly include both gender and socioeconomic equity in higher education.
The lead author, Professor Graeme Atherton, Director of WAHEN and founder of WAHED, spoke at the launch. He also authored the 2016 report, which laid the groundwork for the new study.
“Bringing this report back now is crucial,” he said. “We live in an era when truth is increasingly questioned. Without evidence-based knowledge, we’re left with conjecture and opinion, which undermines the very principle of equitable access.”
A worldwide conversation
World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED) began in 2018 as an initiative of the United Kingdom’s National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) – a global day of action to address inequalities in higher education access and success.
Between 2018 and 2022, it supported nearly 200 partner events across more than 100 countries, engaging over 1,000 organisations and working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the International Association of Universities.
A three-year pause followed, not simply because of COVID-19, but to allow for the creation of a more sustainable global framework. During that period, NEON and its partners established WAHEN, formally launched in 2024, to extend WAHED’s mission year-round through capacity-building, collaboration, research and advocacy. This year’s WAHED marks the initiative’s return as a key annual activity under the WAHEN umbrella.
A global movement
WAHEN is governed by a board that includes representatives from the World Bank, UNESCO’s International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), the Asia-Europe Foundation, the Saville Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Berkeley. It operates out of Ruskin College, which is part of the University of West London (UWL).
“In these straitened times, I think we are needed more than ever. I’m sure today will give us an even stronger collective voice in this somewhat disordered world,” Professor Peter John, vice-chancellor of UWL, said at the start of proceedings.
Its 2025 conference convened vice-chancellors, policymakers, researchers and students from more than 20 countries. Over 35 research papers were on the agenda, while 21 partner events took place across the world – from Australia and Ireland to India, East Timor and Colombia.
UWC provided a fitting setting for the conference. Opening the event, Rector Professor Robert Balfour said: “Access and equity are central to our identity. Founded in 1960 within a divided, racially segregated system, UWC quickly transformed into an institution committed to the struggle against apartheid – and, ever since, to widening participation and advancing knowledge for the public good.
“We view access as the beginning of a journey supported by innovation, engagement and, above all, care.”
The conference session, ‘Pathways to Equity – Policy, Practice and Personal Journeys’, highlighted how institutions and organisations across the world are translating commitments to access and equity into concrete outcomes.
Reforming systems
Delegates heard examples of how system-level reforms are achieving measurable change in participation and attainment.
• Mauritius: Commissioner of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Professor Romeela Mohee, outlined how the country is using micro-credentials to build flexible learning pathways and promote lifelong learning across Southern Africa. This exemplifies systemic reform in small and developing states, showing how flexible learning can enhance both access and employability.
With support from UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning, the Commission has developed a national credit value transfer system, trained academic staff to create 88 open online courses, and piloted micro-credentials in fields such as information and communication technology, finance and agriculture.
HEC also coordinates PoMiSA (Potential of Micro-credentials in Southern Africa), a regional collaboration involving 18 institutions across seven countries, supported by the European Union (EU).
The initiative aims to establish a regional framework for quality assurance, recognition and regulation of micro-credentials linked to industry needs.
“Flexibility enhances both access and resilience, enabling students from varied backgrounds to enter, re-enter, or exit higher education at multiple points,” Mohee said.
• Brazil: Affirmative action here has been policy-driven, using legislation to tackle racial and socioeconomic inequality.
Erich Dietrich, professor of higher education and international education at New York University and vice-provost for undergraduate education at NYU Abu Dhabi, traced how two decades of reform have reshaped who gains access to Brazil’s most selective universities – the federal institutions that are tuition-free, publicly funded and historically dominated by wealthier white students.
The Federal Law of Quotas (Law No. 12,711/2012) reserves half of all federal university places for students who completed secondary education in public schools, with priority for those from low-income families and sub-quotas for Black, Brown and Indigenous students.
“In Brazil, the word ‘quota’ – it’s not taboo as it is in the United States (US),” Dietrich said. “The system is transparent and quantifiable.”
Research shows that students admitted under the quota programmes perform as well as, or slightly better than, their peers – challenging assumptions that inclusion comes at the expense of quality.
The impact has been transformative – in 1992, only 18% of students in Brazilian universities were Black, Brown or Indigenous; by 2019, that figure had risen to 42%.
• Australia: Dr Mary Teague of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) described how her institution’s Gateway programme is transforming access for students from under-represented communities.
Operating across more than 400 schools, it combines outreach, mentoring, financial support and early conditional offers for students from low-income, regional and Indigenous backgrounds.
Since its launch in 2020, Gateway has more than doubled enrolments from disadvantaged schools. Retention and success rates for these students now exceed national averages – 96% and 90%, respectively, among low-SES students, with similarly strong results for regional and Indigenous cohorts.
Teague said UNSW’s model shows how locally tailored, evidence-based interventions can deliver both access and success. “Widening participation is not only about access. It’s about success, belonging and transformation.”
Building a culture of care
Professor June Pym, education advisor to the Saville Foundation, emphasised the importance of collaboration, self-reflection and a “pedagogy of care” in advancing student success.
Presenting examples from the University of Cape Town (UCT), she argued that real equity work depends as much on transforming institutional culture as on supporting individual students.
She said sustainable transformation means “weaving multiple ways of being into daily operations – admin, communications, classrooms and ceremonies – rather than relying on specialists to fix systemic issues.” The aim, she added, is to build a genuine culture of care and culture of learning within universities, not just access at the point of entry.
Investing in student success
The Kresge Foundation, a private grantmaking and social investment organisation based in Detroit, focuses on expanding equity and opportunity across American cities. Its Education Programme works to increase post-secondary access and success for low-income, first-generation and under-represented students.
“We want institutions to adapt to the students they admit, not force students to adapt to the institution. If you do that, you can make a real difference in student success,” Bill Moses, managing director of Kresge’s education programme, told delegates.
The share of US adults holding a post-secondary credential has risen from 38% in 2008 to nearly 55% in 2023 – progress driven by coordinated interventions in affordability, advising, developmental mathematics and student support.
South Africa is Kresge’s only international focus. Here, the foundation supports the Siyaphumelela (“We succeed”) network, an initiative to build data capacity and strengthen student success strategies across the system. Launched in 2014 with five institutions, it now includes 20 of the country’s 26 public universities.
“We listen to students – through surveys, focus groups and participation on panels – to understand barriers and the conditions for success,” Moses said.
From exile to opportunity
Some of the conference’s most powerful moments came from students whose lives were transformed by access to higher education.
Muleka Ilunga, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ivan Hirwa, from Rwanda, fled to South Africa with their families as young children to escape conflict in their home countries. They are now postgraduate students at UCT and UWC, respectively.
They got assistance from the DAFI scholarship programme, administered globally by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which has supported more than 24,000 refugee students across 54 countries since 1992. It provides scholarships for tuition, accommodation and living costs, as well as academic and psychosocial support.
“Behind every refugee is a human being whose only misfortune was being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Refugees are not defined by weakness or despair; they are defined by potential,” Ilunga said.
“I stand here as proof of what happens when potential meets opportunity. Education changed my life, and through it I’ve seen how knowledge can restore hope where it was once lost,” Hirwa said.
Frankie Randle of the UNHCR said: “It’s not just about degrees; it’s about enabling people to live with dignity, rebuild societies and contribute wherever they are – whether in exile, in their host country or when they return home.”
The way forward
Together, these stories – from systemic reforms to personal triumphs – reflected the conference’s theme of “Opportunity, Innovation and Lifelong Learning.”
Across continents, the message from WAHED 2025 was clear – progress has been made, but the work of widening participation is far from complete.
As the world looks beyond 2030, WAHEN is positioning equity as a defining measure of success – calling on governments, universities and partners to act collectively so that access and achievement become a right, not a privilege.
As Balfour put it: “In a world shifting politically, economically and technologically, one truth remains: knowledge must serve all people, not only those enabled by it. Higher education institutions must be accountable not only for employability outcomes but for their public-good role.”
Widening access and success in higher education relates to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 (Quality education and lifelong learning for all), SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 10 (Reduce inequality within and between countries).
* This article was published by University World News on 7 November 2025. Visit: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251107130141906
