Social Stratification Perspective. A Theoretical Approach on the Massification of Higher Education

Abstract

This paper discusses one of the main theories that addresses the explanation of the causes of the expansion of higher education as a social phenomenon, namely the theoretical perspective of social stratification. I will thus try to introduce some elements for the beginning of what social stratification is, as well as about social status and how it is closely related to participation in higher education. This theoretical perspective sees individual opportunities for access to higher education as being capitalized in order to accumulate a certain social status and not for the per se's intention to acquire certain knowledge and skills. Also, it is not only the individual level that is targeted in this paper, but also the collective one, given that the groups of individuals in a society will tend towards social emancipation, given the possibility of obtaining a university degree in this regard.