Ilieva-Trichkova, Petya2014-10-302014-10-302013CPP RPS Vol. 52 (2013), Poznań, 2013, pp. 1-25.http://hdl.handle.net/10593/12023The present paper aims to explore the inequalities in the access to higher education in a historical perspective. It focuses on the question of how the distribution of opportunities in the access to higher education has been changing over time among diverse groups of the population. More generally, this paper will search for an answer to this question for the period 1950-2011 using Bulgaria as a case study. Bulgaria provides a unique case for research into inequalities in educational opportunities given its historical background and the different policy instruments for their reduction. It should be noted that it is among the least explored countries with regards to this question. At the same time according to a recent report on equitable access to higher education (Bohonnek et al. 2010) Bulgaria is among the countries where inequity caused by socioeconomic disadvantages is most pronounced. This paper argues that the expansion of higher education in Bulgaria before and especially after the collapse of socialism (1989) gives an opportunity to many people to be educated in higher education institutions, but it does not go hand in hand with the corresponding reducing of inequalities (and especially qualitative inequalities) in access to tertiary education.en-USArtykuł