Hosted by The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) on the 17th May 2024, the new book “Gendering the Massification Generation: Higher Education Access and Choice in India" received its public launch.

The launch can be listened to here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/kwVdBtZQT-5KX60R9eAUUHRqJYqA07TVtjxOtJuyhBgj_tvs8bDYoA6OaeGkpUqH.BspwkX8Wqqd323Z4

Published by Routledge in 2024, the book examines why young people from the same families and communities in India experience different decision-making processes regarding higher education access because of their gender. In India and other contexts where higher education is massifying, and gender parity of enrolment has been reached at undergraduate level, there are still many questions to be asked about gender and access to higher education. Based on an exploratory study of gendered higher education access and choice within the state of Haryana, India, the authors explore gender inequalities of higher education access and choice in the Indian context and connect this with the broader international phenomenon of widening participation. Through an in-depth analysis of the ‘massification generation’, where young people from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds are accessing higher education, often for the first time in their families and communities, the book applies a lens of social disadvantage and gender, and explores the norms and transgressions of femininity and masculinity in relation to higher education access and choice.

The launch event included presentations by some of the authors about the context for the book, an overview of the book, and the wider project within which the book is nested. Moreover, three invited speakers provide commentary on the contribution that the book makes to the international field of higher education studies:-

• Mikateko Mathebula is Senior Researcher at the SARCHI Chair’s Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme at the University of the Free State in South Africa.
• Rajeshwari is Professor in the Geography Department at Kurukshetra University, Haryana, India.
• Elaine Unterhalter is Professor of Education and International Development, UCL Institute of Education, UK

Lead author Dr Emily Henderson commented "the external speakers for the launch, each of whom delivered a rich and insightful presentation about the book, highlighted the relevance of the book across the Indian national context, as well as other Global South country contexts. We are delighted with the reception of the book so far".

The book can be ordered from https://www.routledge.com/Gendering-the-Massification-Generation-Higher-Education-Access-and-Choice-in-India/Henderson-Sabharwal-Thomas-Mansuy-Stewart-Rathee-Yadav-Samanta/p/book/9781032363004