The Right to Higher Education: A Political Theory

The right to education should not be limited to high school, but should include higher education as an unconditional, absolute right of all citizens in a free and open society. Christopher Martin argues that access to educational goods is essential for helping citizens realize their self-determined goals and that higher education should be understood as a basic social institution responsible for ensuring that all citizens can access these goods. The necessary corrective is to stop allocating higher education to some and allocate it to all who choose to pursue it, with a readiness and willingness to learn as the only qualification.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 27 April 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Many believe that a person's right to education ends with high school, and that pursuing higher education is a luxury addition. However, the conversation about education changes significantly when we focus on higher education rather than the education we ordinarily think citizens are due when they are children and teenagers. We see more talk about competition for university places, standardized testing, and elite admissions. We analyze the differences between the benefits of education for the individual and the burdens of public financial support for such an education. The transition from educational provision for children to educational provision for adults marks a troubling transformation in this public conversation: from one about how it can improve the lives of all individuals to one preoccupied with fairness, competition, merit, personal responsibility, and the sharing of benefits and burdens. Issues of status, stratification, and selectivity capture as much, if not more, of our attention than the question of what higher education institutions should aim to achieve. But why should it be so different, when it is no less essential? Obtaining a higher education degree can change the course of a person's life, providing them with vast opportunities that they could not access otherwise. In fact, for many, it is a prerequisite for fulfilling their personal and professional goals, or even being able to make a living. Yet, it is almost always framed as a privilege, not a right, and a privilege many spend years or even decades paying for after their studies have ended. Our higher education systems are built on the presumption that this is all as it should be: that pursuing higher education is a choice some people make, but not something to which all of us are entitled.

Christopher Mar.

Weight: 430g
Dimension: 218 x 149 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197612910