The findings of this research suggest that both financial and non-financial barriers affect children coming from families of less favorable socioeconomic background in Serbia. Financial barriers include the importance of the parents’ wealth and ability to cover the costs of the child’s education, while non-financial barriers regard the importance of parents’ emotional and other support for the child during their time at school. The recommended measures to remove financial barriers concern the reform of the high education financing system and the introduction of a loan system to cover the costs of attending higher education. The text also features measures to overcome non-financial barriers in the form of introduction of remidial programs, the reform of affirmative programs and the introduction of retention programs.