With higher education being the privileged knowledge you're addressing, you'll want to focus on educational theories. You may also want to look for theories that focus on wealth and social class, because it would be reasonable to assume that very poor people who have low socio-economic status would not be as likely to acquire higher education. Whether that is because they do not have money or because of social factors (i.e. keeping them "in their place") would be good to explore, as well.
