Minority Ethnic Groups and Higher Education in Britain: Questions of Access and Equity

The role of higher education in Britain is in transition as the system expands to educate an ever-growing proportion of the nation's eighteen-year-olds. In the past it could have been argued that one of its mainfunctions was to reproduce the class which would direct the country in the political, Judicial, industrial ‘, commercial and educational spheres. Now, succesful completion of a first degree will be unlikely in itself to guarantee access to the ruling elites. This paper considers questions of access and equity within British higher education, andfocuses, inparticular, on howyoungpeoplefrom the minority groups constituted by recent immigration to Britain fare within the system.