Achieving Access and Equity in Education : An Analysis of Higher Education Reforms in Pakistan

Higher education in Pakistan was largely neglected up to the end of the 20 th century; accordingly, only a very small segment of the society has historically had access to college or universities, and their access has varied based on purchasing power, geographic, and demographic factors. More recently, the government of Pakistan has sought to enhance the engine of economic growth for sustainable development by adding more learned and highly skilled human resources into the society, and have sought to do so by way of higher education. The government initiated a major reform in higher education by establishing a Higher Education Commission in 2002. This reform set certain targets to increase access and ensuring quality, primarily by opening new campuses and supporting universities’ infrastructural and human resource development. These are highly significant efforts, but there are remaining questions as to whether they have been equitable and successful from a social justice perspective. Therefore, this study aimed to address the following research questions: 1. To what extent do current higher education reforms appear to be enhancing equity of access and degree attainment for Pakistani students?; and 2. What can be revealed about why equity is or is not being enhanced for different groups of students? We applied the framework of social justice to analyze the existing data on higher education access, ultimately showing that the system is in several ways failing to provide equal access to higher education. In the final section, we provide recommendation to enhance equity in access to higher education in Pakistan