Skip to main content

Higher Education, Welfare States, and Inequalities

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions

Synonyms

National welfare system; Social policies; Social state; Welfare state

Definition

Welfare state, or social state, is part of a specific political building. Since the second half of the twentieth century, it aims at improving social well-being.

Education is historically a pillar of the welfare states organization, along with defense, health, and assistance. As such, education is one of the collective goods that falls under the heading of national bureaucracy in modern societies.

The place of higher education in welfare states and social policies has been little studied. Two reasons illuminate this matter of fact: on the one hand, education and, by extension, higher education has in some countries long been politically considered and addressed apart from social policies, influencing researchers to separate studies. On the other hand, until the second half of the twentieth century, higher education has involved only a fragment of national populations.

Still, since the Second World...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andres, Lesley, and Hans Pechar. 2013. Participation patterns in higher education: A comparative welfare and production regime perspective. European Journal of Education 48(2): 247ā€“261.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  • Busemeyer, Marius R., and Rita Nikolai. 2010. Education, Chapter 34. In The Oxford handbook of the welfare state, ed. F.G. Castles, S. Leibfried, J. Lewis, H. Obinger, and C. Pierson, 494ā€“508. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Dan-Messier, Brenda. 2001. Levers for change: Educational opportunity centers and welfare reform. Opportunity Outlook. The Journal of the Council for Opportunity in Education. April: 21p. http://www.pellinstitute.org/downloads/trio_clearinghouse-Dann-Messier_April_2001.pdf.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • De Swaan, Abraham. 1995. Sous lā€™aile protectrice de lā€™Etat. Paris: PUF.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Esping-Andersen, Gosta. 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Estevez-Abe, Margarita, Torben Iversen, and David Soskice. 2001. Social protection and the formation. A reinterpretation of the welfare state. In Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage, ed. Peter Hall and D. Soskice. Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Flora, Peter, and Arnold J. Heidenheimer. 1982. The development of welfare states in Europe and America. New Brunswick: Transaction, Inc.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Goastellec, GaĆ«le. 2015. Inequalities of access in the light of welfare states regimes: A European comparison. In: LIEPPE conference, Inequalities of access to higher education. The role of policies, institutions and markets, Science-Po Paris, 8ā€“9 Oct 2015.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Hall, Peter A., and David Soskice. 2002. Les variĆ©tĆ©s du capitalisme. Lā€™annĆ©e de la rĆ©gulation 6: 47ā€“125.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Hega, Gunther M., and Karl G. Hokenmaier. 2002. The welfare state and education: A comparison of social and educational policy in advanced industrial societies. German Policy Studies 2(1): 1ā€“29.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Karier, Thomas. 1998. Welfare graduates: College and financial independence. College students: Policy note 1998/1. Annandale-on-Hudson: The Levy Economics Institute. 7p.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Kwiek, Marek. 2006. The University and the welfare state in transition. Changing public services in a wider context. Revised version of a lecture at the seminar ā€œGeographies of knowledge, geometries of power: Higher education in the 21st centuryā€. Gregynog: University of Wales. Accessible on-line http://unesco.amu.edu.pl/pdf/CPP_RPS_vol.2_Kwiek.pdf

  • Pechar, Hans, and Lesley Andres. 2011. Higher-education policies and welfare regimes: International comparative perspectives. Higher Education Policy 24: 25ā€“52.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  • Peter, Tracey, Jason D. Edgerton, and Lance W. Roberts. 2010. Welfare regimes and educational inequality: A cross-national exploration. International Studies in Sociology of Education 2(3): 241ā€“264.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  • Ramaux, Christophe. 2007. Quelle thĆ©orie pour lā€™Ć‰tat social ? Apports et limites de la rĆ©fĆ©rence assurantielle. Relire FranƧois Ewald 20 ans aprĆØs Lā€™Ć‰tat providence. Revue franƧaise des affaires sociales 71(1): 13ā€“34.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Reisel, Liza. 2010. Higher education and welfare state regimes: A comparative study of social stratification and educational outcomes in the United States and Norway. Ph.D., City University of New York, 208 pages.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • West, Anne, and Rita Nikolai. 2013. Welfare regimes and education regimes: Equality of opportunity and expenditure in the EU (and the US). Journal of Social Policy 42(3): 469ā€“493.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

  • Wilensky, Harold L. 1975. The welfare state and equality: Structural and ideological roots of public expenditures. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google ScholarĀ 

  • Willemse, Nienke, and Paul De Beer. 2012. Three worlds of educational welfare states? A comparative study of higher education systems across welfare states. Journal of European Social Policy 22(2): 105ā€“117.

    ArticleĀ  Google ScholarĀ 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaƫle Goastellec .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

Ā© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this entry

Cite this entry

Goastellec, G. (2017). Higher Education, Welfare States, and Inequalities. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_364-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_364-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics