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Affirmative action around the world

August 8, 2017 10.59am AEST

Educafro, a Brazilian black activist movement, protested in 2012 to demand more affirmative action programs for higher education. AP Photo/Eraldo
Peres

Affirmative action around the world

August 8, 2017 10.59am AEST

As reports have surfaced of the Trump administration’s intent to investigate Authors

affirmative action admissions in higher education, the debate over whether and how
race should be considered in college admissions has emerged with renewed vigor.

In the past four years, United States Supreme Court cases like Schuette v. Coalition to
Michele S. Moses
Defend Affirmative Action and Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin have addressed
Professor of Educational Foundations,
this debate head on. Policy and Practice, University of Colorado

In what The New York Times called “a blinkered view on race in America,” justices in
the 2014 Schuette case ruled 6-2 (with Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself) that
voters could eliminate affirmative action policies in state public education. Two years
Laura Dudley Jenkins
later, however, in the Fisher case, they ruled that the University of Texas-Austin’s Professor of Political Science, University of
Cincinnati
affirmative action policy was constitutional, affirming that the goal of a diverse
student body within selective colleges and universities is a “compelling interest” in
the U.S.

Now it has emerged that President Trump’s Justice Department will be investigating a yet-to-be-
decided complaint challenging Harvard University’s affirmative action admissions policies, brought
by a coalition of Asian-American groups.

So, is affirmative action in higher education on its way out? If you look beyond the U.S. and take a
global perspective, the answer is no.
Asian-American demonstrators protest outside the Supreme Court during the Fisher v. Texas case on affirmative action in
university admissions, Dec. 9, 2015. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

A global perspective

Our research has shown that about one-quarter of the world’s countries have some form of affirmative
action for student admissions into higher education. Many of these programs have emerged over the
last 25 years.

These policies may go by various names – affirmative action, reservations, alternative access, positive
discrimination – but all are efforts to increase the numbers of underrepresented students in higher
education.

A wide variety of institutions and governments on six continents have programs to expand admission
of students from minority groups on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, class, geography or type of
high school. Several use a combination of these categories.

And given that U.S. policies are older than most, much of the cutting-edge thinking on affirmative
action is now coming from other parts of the world.
Universiti Teknologi Mara in Malaysia is one of several universities that heavily favor ethnic Malay students for admissions.
This is part of a 1971 affirmative action policy that has long been under fire, designed to help the economically
disadvantaged Malay majority compete against the Chinese and Indian minorities. Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad

Affirmative action around the world

Though affirmative action policies as we know them have been in place in U.S. higher education since
1978, they are not the oldest: India’s policies for lower-caste students take that prize.

South Africa’s many, and varied, alternative access programs not only admit underrepresented
students – especially black female students – but they also provide special courses and mentoring to
facilitate those students’ success.

The French are even more reluctant than many Americans to consider race directly, but some
selective institutions have increased students of color by targeting neighborhoods or particular
schools located in priority education areas. Areas are classified as Zones d’Education Prioritaires –
priority education zones – based on several criteria, including high percentages of immigrant students
for whom French is a second language, students performing below grade level and low-income
students. Students from these zones are eligible to compete to be part of special admissions programs,
which are designed to give them greater access to selective higher education.
In the 1990s, as minister of education and, later, prime minister of France, Lionel Jospin championed a national education
plan that would give opportunities to students by priority education zones rather than race or ethnicity. JPM/AA

India is less coy about who is being targeted, coining the rather blunt term “other backward classes”
as an official designation for one set of recent beneficiaries of affirmative action in higher education.
India continues to recognize the importance of caste discrimination, but also includes economic
criteria when defining other backward classes. They exclude, for example, individuals whose family
income or property exceeds certain limits.

Brazil has been developing affirmative action programs in its most prestigious public universities over
the past two decades. The issue is often framed by human rights and social justice concerns; the
Brazilian government first introduced the potential need for affirmative action as a “right thing to do”
after years of denial of racial inequalities in the country.

Beyond race

Whereas the earliest forms of affirmative action focused on race and ethnicity, programs that started
more recently are likely to include women. The inclusion of women has been particularly pervasive in
the wave of policies that emerged around the world in the 1990s and 2000s. Affirmative action for
women is now the most prevalent form of affirmative action for students in higher education.

Countries that have some kind of affirmative action related to gender in higher education admissions
are now spread across world regions, and include eight countries in Africa, seven in Europe and four
in North America and the Caribbean.

Affirmative action based on geography (the place a student comes from) appeals to policymakers
reluctant to give race, ethnicity or caste such a prominent and explicit role. Such policies are now
catching on around the world: In addition to France, universities in Sri Lanka, for example, use
geographic district as a targeted category because it’s less controversial than ethnicity or language.

Looking beyond US borders

In short, affirmative action is alive and well – and on the rise – around the world. Indeed, some of the
most creative discussions and innovations are happening outside the United States.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on Nov. 13, 2014.

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