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This study investigates the role of social factors in the access to and equity in higher education (HE) for students with a low socioeconomic status (SES) in Indonesia, from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students, lecturers, and support staff at a large Indonesian university. Focus group discussions were organised to validate the interview results. Family and mentoring programmes appear to play a major role in accessing HE, while lecturers and peers play a significant role in equity. This study highlights the importance of mentoring programmes that guide students to continue their study at the university level. The result provides insights into programmes at the university itself that should focus on developing social skills. This study illustrates the necessity of social support factors, including family, peers, mentor programs, teachers, and lecturers, in supporting access to and equity in HE.

This literature review study aims to provide an overview of influencing factors of access to and equity in higher education. In this way, the research offers insight into specific factors that support or hinder access and equity, respectively. Forty factors from thirty-three peer-reviewed articles, mostly from three continents: Europe, Australia, and America, published between 2014 and 2018, were selected for further analysis. The articles were analyzed into four organizational levels: government, university, pre-university education, and student. Most findings on this topic discuss government policies and financial support. In addition to financial support, the significance of this paper discusses social support influence (by peers, by family, by teachers, by university officers, and via programs) to improve access and equity in higher education. Social support emerged as crucial for both access and equity. This study alerts researchers, teachers, administrators at the university level, and policy-makers at the national level to focus more on social relations between peers, students, and lecturers, support by the managerial level, and establishing programs that provide basic academic skills to disadvantaged groups.

The policy of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is to increase school autonomy. To be able to deal with such autonomy, schools must have a policy-making capacity. The level of teacher involvement appears to be an important indicator of the extent of this capacity. This paper is based on a study of the views of 1079 teachers from 98 schools for secondary agricultural education. Two main types of teachers were discovered: those with a more and those with a less extended professional orientation. While the former were more likely than the latter to be involved in policy making, neither was heavily engaged. The report concludes with a plea for a more participatory model of policy making in schools.