Higher education and social justice

Abstract

This article is one of the few attempts to assess some of the social justice aspects of higher education in Lithuania. The first part provides an analysis of social justice in higher education from the perspective of political philosophy and sociological theories. Results of an empirical study on the access to and distribution of higher education benefits are presented in the second part of the article. An index of social justice in higher education is constructed using the Lithuanian Household Budget Survey database. Significant for access to higher education have proved to be the factors of disability and living in households where there are no other persons (usually parents) with higher education. Opportunities to access higher education are lower for young people from poor households. The research has showed that the benefits of higher education are unequally distributed among equally educated women and men.