Abstract

The Higher Education (HE) systems of Chile and the UK are compared in terms of the ‘massification’ (Altbach, 1989) and provision mix . the relevance and adequacy of the privatepublic Dissimilar, each country has tried to build social inclusion into HE outr each at the same time as allowing participation of the private sector. Also included in the research are a) the role of social capital as a positive contribution for the social and economic development; b) the current state of social inequality in access t o HE; and c) an indepth analysis of the implications of both state and private roles over social inclusion in HE. Outreach programmes from each country, the Propedeutico in Chile and Aimhigher in the UK, are also analysed for lessons learned.