The right to higher education approached through a social justice lens

19 May, 2022 | UNESCO IESALC has created a new social justice framework that emphasizes the need to make structural and systemic transformations put all students with diverse backgrounds and needs at the heart of higher education.

The right to education was established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. However, the right to higher education has received less attention than other levels, even though it is a public good that should be available to all as part of the lifelong process of learning.

In a new conceptual paper published today, UNESCO IESALC has put the new framework into action. The framework applies a social justice lens to the right to higher education through four interrelated dimensions: 5As (Availability, Accesibility, Acceptability, Adaptability, Accountability), inclusive excellence, equity deserving groups and insersectionality.

“The terminology of equity deserving groups retains this focus on the need to transform structures, underscoring that it is not students who are at fault but the systems that have let them down. Identifying and acknowledging the intersectionality of many students, especially those who are equity deserving, ensures that both barriers and solutions to the RTHE are appropriately crafted.”