Socio-Economic Determinants of Access to Higher Education in Kashmir: A Sociological Perspective

Education is considered to be a democratic tool to cure and curb social evils and inequalities created on the bases of creed, colour, race and gender. However, the very access to education especially to higher education is determined by a number of such factors. Socio- economic factors are the key and crucial determinants to access higher education. This study on the basis of empirical and theoretical sources and employing quantitative methods found that income of family and gender of a person plays vital role to access education in context of state of Jammu and Kashmir. It further describes the process of feminization of social sciences or academic disciplines wherein either females are in dominant numbers or the courses are wholly opted by females.