Abstract

Starting from the Sixties, higher education had been increasing its reach. The exponential growth of the student population in Europe has been considered the first step toward the decline of educational inequalities. The aim of the paper, based on a descriptive analysis and a literature review, is to show how the massification of education has not determined the end of social differentiation of educational paths. In particular, the paper will focus on how the educational systems in Italy and in France still presented inequalities in the higher education, even if both had gone through a process of transformation.