Policy makers, advocates and scholars have long concentrated on the importance of equal access to primary and secondary education as a foundation for a democratic and just society. Despite the growing importance of higher and specialist education in an increasingly technological and skill-focused global market, tertiary education has attracted much less attention. And yet, universities and colleges are epicentres of egregious disparities in access, which impinge on traditionally marginalized communities, such as racial minorities, migrants, indigenous populations, and people with disabilities. By drawing attention to this issue and assembling first-rate material from scholars and policy makers across the globe, this book performs an invaluable service for those interested in understanding and fighting a highly significant violation of educational opportunity and social justice.

Jacqueline Bhabha is Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Massachusetts. She is also Director of Research at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, the Jeremiah Smith Jr Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Wenona Giles is Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar in the Anthropology Department and Resident Research Associate of the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Toronto. She is also Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Faraaz Mahomed is a clinical psychologist and research associate at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Massachusetts. He is also a Research Associate at the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.