UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

When the goal is to ensure that nearly every eligible and interested person can enter higher education, the policy is striving for universal access. This stage goes beyond elite or mass participation and seeks very high coverage of the target group.

Option A:
Option A is correct because universal access describes the aspirational stage in which higher education opportunities are available to close to 100% of those who meet academic requirements.

Option B:
Option B is incorrect as “minimal” access would deliberately keep participation low, which is the opposite of the policy aim described.

Option C:
Option C is wrong because “selective” access restricts places to a chosen few, not to almost all eligible candidates.

Option D:
Option D is incorrect since “random” access implies lack of planning or criteria and does not correspond to an explicit equity-oriented participation goal.

The transition from elite participation by a small minority to broad participation by a large share of the relevant age group is termed massification of higher education. The stem describes exactly this widening of access, so “massification” is the appropriate term.

Option A:
Option A is correct because massification captures both the scale of enrolment growth and the increasing diversity of the student body as systems move from elite to mass stages.

Option B:
Option B is incorrect since “elitisation” would mean making participation more exclusive and restricted, the opposite of what the question describes.

Option C:
Option C is wrong because “privatisation” refers mainly to the ownership or funding pattern of institutions, not directly to the proportion of the population enrolled.

Option D:
Option D is incorrect as “contraction” suggests a shrinking system with declining enrolments, which does not match the expansion scenario given in the stem.