"Fairness and equity in access to higher education"? : a study of the introduction of GATat university entrance exams in Georgia

Abstract

While access to HE is considered to have major impact on countries farther development, outline fair and equity friendly access policy to Higher Education is important issue for any country. This master thesis analyses the challenges of fairness and equity in access to HE in Georgia. Main focus of this study is directed to the introduction of General Ability Test at university entrance examinations and its influence on accessibility of HE for entire population of Georgia. The study aims to answer on following research questions: what are the ideas behind introduction of GAT as admission tool; what is the experience of different stake holders of General Ability Test (GAT) and its impact (role) on state study grant distribution policy; and what are general challenges of fairness and equity in access to higher education in Georgia and to what extent had introduction of GAT influenced these challenges? Access implies assessment and admission tools and financial aid policy. General Ability test was introduced in Georgia as admission tool with thinking on social equilibrium and fight against private tutoring. The study highlights some problematic issues: implications for equity on merit based grant distribution policy, quality of secondary schools and impact of private tutoring on fairness and equity in access to HE. A model of equal opportunities by Jacobs is applied to bring to light notion of fairness in Georgian admission anxiety. Education reforms driven by globalisation are used to highlight challenges of equity in access to HE within competition driven education reforms. Qualitative research methods were applied to find the answer on research questions. Policy documents, interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the data. Data analyses showed that major obstacle for equity in access to HE is low quality of public secondary schools in Georgia and flourish of private tutoring in all subjects included GAT. High correlation of GAT to other subject based test indicates that GAT is as SES biased as curriculum based subjects. Measurements made by policy makers to improve quality of public schools by introduction of voucher based financing of public schools did not result in substantial changes. Empirical findings show that majority of high scorers in GAT are students who passed mathematic as their fourth choice exam. GAT results show that it has some qualities for equity and fairness in access to HE, for instance for minorities, but can XI produce other type of inequalities. Based on empirical results it is possible to assume that introduction of GAT produced new wave of private tutoring directly in GAT or in mathematic. KEY WORDS: access to Higher Education; fairness and equity; admission tools; General Ability Test, education reforms