Unfair Access To Higher Education In China

Feasible Capability Theory of Amartya.Sen, Indian economist and Nobel Prize winner in economics, is mainly applied to study vulnerable groups. This theory was first released to view human development. The core of this theory lies in “four substantive freedoms” and factors for capability deprivation. This study, based on Feasible Capability Theory and falling into four parts, is aimed at analyzing the unfair access to higher education in China. The first part focuses on theoretical backgrounds introduction as well as definition of related concepts. The second part setting off from this theory makes a detailed illustration that the intrinsic nature of unfair access to higher education constitutes feasible capability deprivation for those disadvantaged candidates. In other words, they are deprived of the “four substantive freedoms”, namely economic condition, social opportunity, access to transparent information and social security. The third part lays stress on the underlying reason for capability deprivation—social exclusions in college enrollment, comprising constituting exclusion of candidates with financial difficulties caused by higher education cost compensation system, instrumental exclusion of candidates with inferior family backgrounds caused by the stipulation of awarded marks and recommendation system, active exclusion of candidates from underdeveloped provinces caused by localization of college enrollment, passive exclusion of candidates from rural areas caused by urban-rural dual structure. The fourth part, aimed at ensuring disadvantaged candidates feasible capability, probes into practical measures to tackle the problem of social exclusion existing in Chinese college enrollment. Diversification of cost sharing in higher education can serve to eliminate constituting exclusion of candidates with financial difficulties. Improvement of mark awarding system through rebuilding notion of fairness can serve to moderate instrumental exclusion of candidates with inferior family backgrounds. Active exclusion of candidates from underdeveloped provinces can be reduced by achieving a successful balance and a desirable fairness in the provincial enrollment rate(entrants/applicants). Passive exclusion of candidates from rural areas can be removed by setting up notion of equality and transforming the dual household registration system in urban and rural areas. The last part comes to the conclusion of this study.