ABSTRACT
In a knowledge economy ethical principle of justice and equity gets paramount importance for which access to higher education is of prime concern at policy level. However, with massive expansion of HE sector experiencing the impact of neo-liberal market principles access to HE has suffered across the globe. While the operation of market forces has extended the range for the consumers’ of HE, such as students through multiple options to choose from the available educational products and services (i.e. subjects/courses), it has widened the disparities in the society as products are expensive and difficult to afford by the deprived groups in the society. The massification of higher education in the knowledge economy triggers the arguments for democratisation of knowledge. In Indian context, despite several policy initiatives by the government to make HE socially relevant as well as equitable, an unequal picture of access to HE is prevalent in terms of geographical region, gender and social and economic class. This chapter finds that with the paramount increase in fee structure, there is a distortion in choice of courses and institution by the underprivileged. Though there is a relative increase in enrolment by deprived groups due to massification, access to higher education particularly T/P education is a privilege of the urban area non-scheduled category of population from high- and middle-income families.
