Barriers to Equal Access to Higher Education Opportunities for Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups at Telangana State Universities

Abstract

In India, there has recently been a National Educational Policy-2020 include students with socioeconomically disadvantaged groups (SEDG) in all education levels. In recent years, Indian universities have seen a rise in SEDG student numbers access to higher education opportunities. As higher education in India is an important aspect of individual development of social, economic, political, and devotional. Due to the inequalities in the society, the disadvantaged groups are unable to access higher education. It is to be noted that Socio-economic Factors and Institutional Factors were barriers of SEDGs have access to higher education opportunities. “Issues of equity concerns in higher education include regional, social and gender disparities. They also include disparities at the entry-level, in academic interactions and outcomes, and in facilitating inclusive campuses.” (NEP-2020, Implementation Strategies). This research aimed to determine post graduate stockholders’ barriers of equal access to higher education opportunities, as their responses will help to identify and develop a framework for the same. Investigator selected 400 post graduate stockholders as a sample of research. A self-made five-point Likert scale was used to collect data; parametric and non-parametric statistics were used to analyse the data. The researcher found that Socio-Economic Factors were more hinders to equal access to higher education opportunities than Institutional Factors and have shown differences when we compared them based on gender, locality, and social group.