The Wicked Problem of Social Equity in Higher Education: The Conflicting Discourses and the Impact of COVID-19

Despite Australian universities prioritising social equity in higher education, limited improvement is seen among students in under-represented groups. This has prompted the United Nations (UN) to set Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG4) prioritising access to education for all. We argue that one of the challenges in achieving goal four is the discourses that relate to the rationale for seeking social equity in higher education. This chapter explores four discourses that can be identified as meritocratic, economist, social justice and human potential. This chapter contends that three factors have or will, significantly impact these discourses. First, the steady massification of higher education where elitist discourses were largely abandoned. Second, key political documents wielded great influence on discourse. Chronologically, this chapter begins with the 1957 Murray Report and ends with discussion of the impending Performance-Based Funding (PBF). The final factor significantly impacting social equity discourse is the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this chapter is to alert stakeholders to the role they play in reinforcing, as well as shaping, social equity discourses and how this, in turn, may affect the achievability of the UN fourth goal. It is also important to counsel stakeholders to discontinue engaging in the debates surrounding discourse and begin collaborating to solve this wicked problem.