Throughout history there has been oppression of minority groups within society. Higher education has often been seen as a liberal environment where discrimination has been lessened, although it should be pointed out that in reality higher education is not always the bastion of equality that it is portrayed as. Education will only be truly equal if all people can participate in educational experience, which is accessible to all and that acknowledges and responds to the diversity of the student body in terms of access, progression and outcomes.

When higher education was first conceived it was elitist in it is very nature, accepting only the very brightest in society. However, with access in the past few centuries to primary and secondary school limited to the upper classes it resulted in a higher education system that was more an Ivory Tower of self perpetuating stereotypes viewed as a finishing school for the elites of society rather than a real place for academic excellence.