How countries around the world handle affirmative action in admissions

The Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to restrict racial considerations in university admissions could set the United States on a different trajectory from other countries that practice affirmative action.

Dozens of countries have affirmative action systems for higher education admissions - some that predate and others influenced by the U.S. model - forming a constellation of policies that reflect divergent political tendencies and histories of inequality. The practice has been on the rise in recent decades, including in the Western Hemisphere.

Around the globe, such policies focus on race, ethnicity, gender, geographic origin, class, caste and other considerations, with many of them highly tailored to their local context.

[What to know about the Supreme Court ruling on college admissions]

With the future of affirmative action in question in the United States, here is a look at how it has taken shape elsewhere.

Brazil

Two decades ago, some Brazilian universities adopted race-based quotas for admissions, seeking to increase the share of Black, Brown and Indigenous students, based in part on a U.S. blueprint. A lawsuit challenging the practice made it to the Supreme Federal Court, which in 2012 upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action policies that take race into account.

In the years after the ruling, the country saw a surge in public debate over the use of ethnic or racial admissions criteria. Racial identity in Brazil, which in 1888 became the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, is complicated by 500 years of interracial mixing: Most Brazilians are of a diverse racial background, and many reject a clear-cut Black or White identity, instead viewing their race as somewhere in between.

A study by Brazil’s official statistics agency demonstrated that race continues to be a major factor in inequality in Brazil. The 2021 survey showed that the earnings of White Brazilians were on average more than 75 percent higher than those of Black Brazilians. Similarly, White workers earned nearly 71 percent more than Brown workers.

After the court ruling, the country passed laws mandating that university slots be set aside for Black, Brown and Indigenous people, public-school graduates and low-income students at federal universities - reserving up to 50 percent of spaces.

Brazil’s previous, far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, criticized the law, calling it “totally wrong” and “a way of dividing society.” But it survived his administration.

Earlier this year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who supports the policy, signed a decree that set aside at least 30 percent of Brazil’s appointed positions in federal government for people who are Black or of mixed race. In April, the country’s minister of racial equality, Anielle Franco, vowed that the law would remain in place.

Other countries in the Americas, including Colombia and Ecuador, have begun to pursue affirmative action in admissions in recent decades.

India

Under India’s “reservation” system of affirmative action in admissions, which predates such policies in the United States, spots at universities are reserved for members of historically disadvantaged castes.

The approach targets those most disadvantaged by centuries-old caste hierarchies that long ruled nearly every aspect of Hindu religious and social life.

India’s constitution, adopted in 1950, sought to provide equal opportunity by reserving spaces for disadvantaged groups in educational and governmental institutions.

Critics of the system argue that reservations should instead be tied to economic criteria. Supporters of the program respond that such a move would overlook stigma and other caste-based oppression that crosses economic lines.

France

France, like Britain, does not permit “positive discrimination.” Policies meant to foster racial equality must focus on interrelated criteria such as geographic origin, socioeconomic background or attendance at particular high schools.

France’s policies include introducing large-scale vocational training and services that support and benefit the long-term unemployed as well as disadvantaged neighborhoods. Funds meant to level the educational playing field are allotted for schools in designated geographical sectors.

Sciences Po, one of France’s most prestigious universities, has taken up its own approach with the Priority Education Conventions program, or CEP, which provides students from predesignated high schools with an alternate entry procedure.