Accessibility of higher education: the right to higher education in comparative approach

At present there is an unprecedented demand for and a great diversification in higher education, as well as an increased awareness of its vital importance for socio-cultural and economic development. The complexity of the right to education is especially at issue while discussing the right to higher education, which on a national level is non-compulsory, even though the number of people who have acquired higher education during the second half of the twentieth century has tripled. Therefore the object of this research is the content and scope of the concept of accessibility of higher education. The definition of the obligations of the states prescribed in the international and national legal instruments in respect to the right to higher education, the analysis of the standards and principles of the accessibility of the right to higher education, the discussion of the most often social, economic and legal causes for violations of the higher education accessibility, and the identification of the problems of higher education accessibility in Lithuania with respect to constitutional provisions are presented in this research.