The Right to Higher Education

Abstract

Is higher education a right, or a privilege? The author argues that all citizens in a free and open society should have an unconditional right to higher education. Such an education should be costless for the individual and open to everyone regardless of talent. A readiness and willingness to learn should be the only qualification. It should offer opportunities that benefit citizens with different interests and goals in life. And it should aim, as its foundational moral purpose, to help citizens from all walks of life live better, freer lives. Using concepts and ideas from liberal political philosophy, the author argues that access to educational goods and services is something to which all citizens have a right over a full life. Such goods, it is argued, play a key role in helping citizens realize self-determined goals. Higher education should therefore be understood as a basic social institution responsible for ensuring that all citizens can access such “autonomy-supporting” goods. The book examines the implications of this justification of the right to higher education for questions of educational justice, political authority, distributive justice, civic education, and personal autonomy.