Comparative ethical analysis of educational competition in academia : Massification and elitism in higher education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of equitable, equal, and merit equity of social and economic privileges for both gifted intellectual people and laypeople in higher educational systems. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual comparative analysis of mass education and elitist education within the context of academic justice and academic ethical fairness. This paper is based on a review of the literature pertinent to justice and fairness in designing and implementing higher educational systems. Findings – The research undertaken reveals that there are significant fundamental differences between academic justice and academic fairness. An analysis of perceptual similarities and differences, however, reveals that more variable perceptions exist between mass education and elitist educational systems. Although both sets of models consistently place great emphasis on the issue of competitive meritocracy among students, academic justice is based on a conventional idealistic system in terms of equality, whereas academic fairness is founded on a type of holistic judgment free from bias, prejudice, dishonesty, or illegitimacy that pursues ethical and moral considerations in regards to decisions and actions. Academic massification, however, shows tendencies to emphasize bureaucratic cost‐benefits in order to implement justice for all, while academic elitism places more emphasis on meritocratic cost‐effectiveness analysis. Research limitations/implications – Since this paper is based on an ethical conceptual deductive analysis of two major systems of higher education, it has pros and cons concerning each system. Ethics is a relative conceptual reasoning; therefore, there could be other types of reasoning that could be followed by other researchers. Originality/value – This paper opens arguments concerning how to respond to the needs of students with a consideration of cost‐benefit analysis and cost‐effectiveness analysis.