EXPANDING ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES AND ITS LONG-TERM IMPACT ON INCOME INEQUALITY: A NARRATIVE REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/AIJBES.829101Keywords:
Higher Education Access, Income Inequality, Socioeconomic Mobility, Low-Income Communities, Educational Equity, Maximum Maintained Inequality, Narrative ReviewAbstract
The idea that higher education can and should be extended to low-income communities to foster socioeconomic mobility is well-touted, but the potential for higher education to lower long-term income inequality is complicated and conditional. This narrative review aims to analyze the literature from the international peer-reviewed scientific publications indexed in Scopus (2000–2026), to assess not only the expansion of higher education but also when and how it affects the reduction of long-term income inequality. The synthesis using a structured search strategy (n = 21 final retained studies) suggests that, although expansion in postsecondary education brings significant private earnings premiums, macro-level income compression does not necessarily or universally occur. This review's key takeaway is that an increase in access does not equal an increase in equality. General expansion on the supply side can lead to 'opportunity hoarding' by better-off socioeconomic groups via prestige hierarchy, selective institutions, and access to more high-reward academic programs. The Maximum Maintained Inequality (MMI) hypothesis is used in the review to explain this phenomenon, in which the socioeconomically privileged classes fill the higher echelons of the education system before upward mobility is passed on to the disadvantaged. Finally, this review provides an explicit conceptual framework that follows the entire sequential chain from the expansion of higher education to the socioeconomic benefits of higher education in the long run, through high institutional quality, strong retention support and structural labour-market absorption. Based on the evidence reviewed, expansion alone does not necessarily lead to a decrease in inequality when access is accompanied by high institutional quality, holistic retention mechanisms, equitable participation, and effective labor-market integration.
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