Session III: Conversation - How to Expand Access for a Diverse Population

Universities face contradictory pressures. As societies become more diverse, these institutions are under increasing pressure to be integrative forces. Indeed, universities are often held up as models for seeking excellence through diversity by treating social differences as resources for learning. Not only are institutions of higher learning expected to look like the societies that support them, they are asked to be mechanisms of inclusion that reverse inherited patterns of unearned privilege. In the scramble for rankings, recognition, and status, there has been a growing public sentiment that higher education—and elite universities in particular—have returned to old habits of enhancing social distinctions and inequalities. The result has been a decline in public support for higher education. What tools render complexity and difference into assets for learning? What interventions have not worked, and why? How do we reconcile conflict, disagreement, and collaboration within the halls of academe? Moderator: Michel Wieviorka, Director, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Pankaj Chandra, Professor of Production and Operations Management, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Caroline Hoxby, the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor of Economics, Stanford University Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, Lord Justice Professor, Constitutional Court of Uganda