Literature Review

2. Literature Review Global Education Inequality Educational inequality continues to persist globally despite the multifaceted efforts by local and international stakeholders to address this issue. For instance, Langthaler and Malik (2023) report that despite the primary school enrollment rising to about 91.24% by 2020 and children’s share without a degree shrinking to approximately 18.1%, up to 258 million global youths, translating to 17% had no school access by 2018. The author indicates that the prevalences are not evenly distributed worldwide as significant inequalities remain within developed and between other developing nations. Blanden et al. (2023) recognize the persistent educational inequalities as a concerning phenomenon because of their impact on generational, regional, and ethnic social mobility in varied contexts. Farquharson et al. (2024) also support a similar observation emphasizing that education access shapes fundamental aspects of life and that inequality in this niche has life-defining effects. The importance of education has triggered international communities to collaborate with national entities to formulate appropriate solutions that target educational inequalities. Varied frameworks intended to solve dynamic global educational inequalities have emerged, and each nation is tasked with adapting them to its unique needs. For example, Verger et al. (2018) reveal that Global Education Policies (GEPs) represent some of these tools that set the agenda for achieving global policies, such as Sustainable Development Goal number 4, which advocates for educational equality. Li (2021) also highlights Global Citizenship Education (GCE) as another global framework to eradicate education inequality issues that have triggered significant impacts in China. It has played a role in informing the Chinese educational bodies in adapting their educational policies to align with the international standards while integrating fundamental Chinese-inclined values (Li, 2021). Designing such tools demonstrates the government’s awareness that educational gaps persist and require ongoing intervention while making significant efforts to ensure China does not lag behind other global nations. Chinese Ethnic Policies China’s ethnic policies are premised on the idea of promoting ethnic diversity while guiding ethnic minorities toward socialist modernization (Leibold, 2013). The preferential higher education policies for ethnic minorities have been a key part of this approach, with the aim of increasing their representation in higher education and improving their socio-economic mobility. While basic education for ethnic minorities has significantly improved over the years, higher education remains a challenging area. Studies such as Deng (2015) and Li (2018) point out that while ethnic minority students are given preferential access to universities, the actual outcomes—such as academic success, social integration, and long-term mobility—are not as strong as expected. Hu and Liu (2017) highlight the role of PEEM in widening access to higher education for ethnic minority students, noting that these programs provide critical opportunities, though students still face cultural and institutional barriers to integration. Zhang (2017), Liuпј€2023), and He (2020) note that ethnic minority students, even with access to higher education, ofte...