Prior to 1950's only about two in every ten secondary school graduate proceeded to attain a college certificate. This small percentage mainly consisted of children from upper and middle socio economic background. The students from lower socio economic background more often seeked employment after high school to support their families (Prince, Russ and Lewis 56).There has however been a steady increase in access to higher education by most students this has greatly been contributed by a shift in public policy that govern post-secondary education with regard to issues relating to access, financial aid and equity to all irrespective of race, ethnicity or socio economic background. There has also been a gradual change in recruitment, admission, marketing and financial aid extended to students. The enactment of Servicemen's Readjustment Act in 1944 saw the expansion of the public community college system and hence expanding access to post-secondary education for thousands of student in America. Civil Rights Act of 1964 followed by the Higher Education Act of 1960's facilitated increase in number of students who proceeded to college after secondary school by more than half by putting into place the necessary legislations (Kimball and Bruce 89).The 1990's saw the increase in financial aid to students inform of tuition discounting and this enabled more students to access highly competitive courses at the university. There has also been a remarkable change in the demographics of the students accessing higher education. While in the 1940's it was mainly white males from high and middle socio economic back grounds the number of females, blacks and Asians accessing higher education has increased tremendously.
University education plays to major roles in the society that of providing high quality education and also an important social and economic role. It remains the gate way to pathways and opportunity to various careers.