Universities, Political Development and Regional Imbalance

This paper addresses the role of universities in imbalance in national development. As used here, the term 'imbalance' is broadly understood to include inequalities between regions, ethnic groups, and economic classes within a single country. In many countries, higher education policy or the unintended consequences of an existing system and/or a single institution of higher education reinforce the dominance of one region, ethnic group, or class over others. In other cases, some national and intermediary level governments (States, lands, provinces, republics) have used higher education policy to alter one or more of these imbalances. Based on research by the author and others on universities in Canada, India, Israel, Malaysia, Sweden and the United States, this paper should be of interest to scholars concerned with the issue of how universities and higher education influence and deel with social and political inquities within their host societies.