Abstract
As is outlined in the forgoing chapters, the Ethiopian higher education (HE) system has passed through a series of reforms and expansion, with widening access and improving relevance as key goals. However, notwithstanding the policy efforts underway in the last two decades, the problem of inequality persists. This book has presented evidence on (a) historical, political, geographic, and cultural factors of inequality in Ethiopian HE, and (b) how the framing of the problem in equity policies put in place since the early 1990s contribute to the persistence of the problem. It also argues that in order to fully appreciate and transform the problem, the Ethiopian Government needs to devise a freedom-based evaluative framework of inequality through a democratic policy process. By way of conclusion, this chapter reiterates some of the key points of the book in four themes, namely the economization of HE, the intersectionality of structural inequalities, the importance of framing equality as freedom, and the urgency of a democratic policy process. The first two themes in brief summarize key arguments of the book while the second two themes offer some policy directions as a way forward.
Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states.
Amartya Sen (1999, p. 3)
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Molla, T. (2018). By Way of Conclusion. In: Higher Education in Ethiopia. Education Policy & Social Inequality, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7933-7_10
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