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The use of affirmative action in college admissions is often perceived, within the United States, as a uniquely American phenomenon, born from the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Such efforts to right historic wrongs have embroiled federal judges and litigants in mammoth, long-running cases, absorbed the attention of thousands of university administrators, and frustrated both supporters and opponents.
Largely unnoticed by those mired in this debate, a number of other countries have also enacted preferential university- admissions policies in the past few decades. While each system was developed to meet the specific needs of a particular society -- whether it revolves around religion, ethnicity, race, or gender -- each country has wrestled with similar questions: How does one create a policy that helps the disadvantaged without hurting everyone else? Do the policies help or harm academic quality? And, most important, do they actually work? Typically, says Philip G. Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education, at Boston College, "it's a very mixed picture."
This report looks at programs in three major countries: India, Brazil, and Malaysia. India has by far the most elaborate system...