Analysis Inequality of Higher Education Access Opportunities (Case Study: Townships of West Azerbaijan)

Educational planning is one of the most important ways to improve educational justice and educational justice is achieved when students have equal opportunities to access education. The present research studies the inequality of higher education access opportunities. This study is a descriptive-analytical study. The research community is volunteers applying for admission to higher education in the townships of West Azarbayejan province during the years 2013-2016 which are studied by census method. The demographic data of this study has been acquired by statistical data from the recent census of population and housing (2016), information regarding education (2016) as well as selected statistics from the national university entrance exam (2013-2016). In order to compare and rank the different regions benefit from higher education, indicators and formulas of educational planning such as the index of region selection, Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, Gender Inequality Index, Cluster Analysis and Topsis ranking were used. The results of this study indicate that with Gini coefficient of 0.08 and Dispersion coefficient of 0.18 there is inequality among the townships in terms of equal access to higher education, In addition, there are gender inequalities between townships in access to higher education and the highest girls inequality GPI=0.68 is in the city of Piranshahr and the highest boys inequality GPI=0.135 is in the city of Salmas. Also, the results of ranking the townships of West Azerbaijan province in terms of access to higher education indicators showed that Khoy city with the 0.999 topsis is ranked first, and Chalderan city with the 0.143 topsis is ranked the last. The results indicate the need of areas that have less access to higher education, the planning and special attention of policy makers in this area to these inequalities.