ABSTRACT
Over the last decade or so there has been increasing global awareness of the importance of postsecondary education. Most developed and many developing societies have moved from a mid 20th century idea of postsecondary education as “elite” to a new understanding of “mass” postsecondary education (Trow, 1973), and potentially to a newer view of postsecondary education as universal. Th e growing consensus is that expanded participation in postsecondary education is important to the knowledge economy, in providing the workers required in the labor market of the 21st century, as well as to an individual’s ability to participate fully in the social health of societies.
