Democratizing higher education through community college: Some qualitative evidences from an East Asian entrepreneurial city

Despite the prevailing “educational desire” in Confucian societies, Hong Kong, an East Asian entrepreneurial city, saw its access to higher education having been curiously restricted. Community colleges were therefore initiated by the government in 2000s to democratize the higher education sector. Purposively sampling and interviewing college graduates from different cohorts, social class and gender, this research examines the complexities of college processes and multi-dimensional notions of student success and access to higher learning in view of greater social justice. Using Bourdieu’s and Sen’s conceptual frameworks, it adds to the literature novel analytical perspective and advances the thesis about social inequalities and higher education. This paper illustrates how community college can elucidate social class disadvantages in highly competitive education systems. Copyright © 2019 AERA.