Abstract
The quantitative increase in the number of students at Czech universities has created a situation of so-called universal access (Trow) in an extremely short period of ten years. Universities operating according to the model of the so-called elite phase had difficulty coping with the situation pejoratively referred to as massification.
Negative effects (increased study failure and reduced quality of education) were attributed to insufficient intellectual preconditions and low motivation of students. The chapter also tries to show the conditions for understanding massification as the democratization of education.
It emphasizes the need to change the ways of education and involvement of students in research activities or practical applications. Only in this way is it possible to balance cultural-cognitive inequalities between students and create a relationship with education as a shared commodity passed on between the generations.