Financing institutions of higher education in India: The need for a realistic fee policy

The contribution of tuition fees to the income of higher education institutions in India is reviewed against a background of inadequate financial support. A differential system of tuition fees is proposed under which students not deemed suitable for higher education would be admitted to universities or colleges subject to payment of tuition fees which reflected the full costs of their higher education.The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views/policies of the Planning Commission.     

Public spending on higher education in developing countries: Too much or too little?

This paper discusses problems with the prevalent view that public resources for education in developing countries should be reallocated from higher to lower levels of education. There may be a case for maintaining and even increasing spending on higher education, as long as public funds can be directed to research and other “public good” functions of institutions of higher education. Current measures of social returns to primary, secondary and higher education do not reflect unmeasured social benefits at each level; since we do not know the relative size of these benefits across levels, we do not know the true ranking of social returns across primary, secondary and higher education. The true social rate of return to certain components of higher education, such as research and postgraduate training in science and technology, and creation of other skills where social returns probably exceed private returns (such as public administration) is probably high, and in some settings, may now be as high or higher than the social rate of return to primary and secondary education. Moreover, achieving and sustaining adequate levels of quality to capture these social returns requires minimal stability in public financing, arguing against major reallocations away from higher education. But this does not argue for more public spending on all higher education programs. On the contrary; within the envelope of total public spending on higher education, reallocation away from public spending on undergraduate training makes sense, since such training probably has low social compared to private returns, and can be accomplished by greater reliance on private universities and by increasing tuition and other fees in public universities, while ensuring equitable access through loan and scholarship programs.     

Redistributive fee increases, net attendance costs, and the distribution of students at the public university

This paper examines the effect of policies that increase tuition at public four-year colleges while returning a substantial portion of the revenue to economically disadvantaged students in the form of increased financial aid awards. Such “redistributive fee increases” are demonstrated to have potentially important effects on the distribution of students choosing to attend in-state public four-year colleges. Specifically, if in-state public four-year net attendance costs increase by themselves high-test students are far more likely than low-test students to choose alternative paths while if the net attendance costs of alternative paths also increase Black and Hispanic students are most likely to choose alternative paths.     

高等教育学费上涨与居民收入关系实证研究

运用单位根检验(ADF)、Johansen协整检验、G ranger因果检验和脉冲响应函数分析对高等教育学费上涨与我国居民收入差距进行了G ranger因果关系检验,得出的结论是:在高等教育年平均学费上涨速度高于居民年平均收入的增长速度情况下,高等教育年平均学费和年平均收入的比值与我国的居民生活困难加大存在协整关系;存在协整关系的情况下,学费上涨与居民生活困难的变化构成一定的因果关系。     

我国高等学校学费标准与居民收入水平、GDP的增长分析

高等学校实行收费政策是中国高等教育体制的一项重大改革。通过将高校学费标准的增长与城乡居民收入、人均GDP的增长进行比较分析,得出我国高校学费标准的增长大大高于人均收入水平及人均GDP的增长速度。     

英国高校国际学生学费的变化及其对高等教育的影响

在全球化时代，高等院校学生的全球流动给国际学生输入国的政治、经济以及高等教育带来了重要影响。英国作为国际学生的主要接收国之一，其优质的高等教育吸引着来自世界各地的学生。在新自由主义意识形态、国际教育服务贸易理念与高等教育财政拨款投入制度的影响下，英国逐步向国际学生收取高额学费。英国高校国际学生学费的变化呈现出新的特点，影响着国际学生的来源结构、生源数量与质量，可能导致高校课程调整与师资流失。国际学生学费的变化引发了英国社会对高等教育市场化取向与国际学生公平教育权益的讨论，并实施了将国际学生学费与院校国际教育质量挂钩、以奖助学金形式平衡国际学生学费压力等具体改革举措。     

我国高职高专学杂费的地区差异研究

目前,我国不同地区高职高专教育在生均学杂费绝对数、生均学杂费占生均教育经费比率、生均学杂费占居民可支配收入比率等方面存在较大差异.高等教育学杂费地区差异固然难以避免,但必须控制在合理区间内.提高财政性教育经费的投入力度,可以降低高职高专教育经费对学杂费收取的依赖;积极开展办学成本核算,可以提高财政性教育经费投入的科学性和地区均衡性;实施差额学杂费政策,可以减轻弱势群体的学杂费支出负担.     

The crowd in mind and crowded minds: an experimental investigation of crowding effects on students’ views regarding tuition fees in Germany

In higher education, just amounts of tuition fees are often a topic of heated debate among different groups such as students, university teachers, administrative staff, and policymakers. We investigated whether unpleasant situations that students often experience at university due to social crowding can affect students’ views on the justified amount of tuition fees at universities. We report two experiments on whether conditions that lead to experienced crowding in higher education can affect how students cognitively deal with a given topic. Experiment 1 (N = 80) showed that the mere cognitive activation of crowdedness in text stories about situations related to student activities influenced prospective students’ estimates of what are justified university tuition fees. In Experiment 2 (N = 72), student participants wrote an essay on tuition fees in a small versus large room in groups of three versus six persons. Here, results showed that students together with relatively many others in a small room estimated higher tuition fees to be justified than participants in all other experimental conditions. We discuss the implications of the present findings for the configuration of classes in higher education.     

Equity in an Educational Boom: lessons from the expansion and marketisation of tertiary schooling in Poland

This article shows how the probability of enrolment in tertiary schools has evolved for different social groups in Poland during the period of the educational boom. It also analyses how the socio-economic status influences the choices between full-time and part-time studies (the latter being of relatively low quality), and the probability of admission to subsidised, free programmes versus programmes with tuition fees. Between 1994 and 2008, Poland improved the participation of students with a low socio-economic status in university education. However, if we look at the change in the ratios of enrolment probabilities for different layers of the social strata, we find that the improvement refers to those with a low family educational background who live in small cities, but not to those from low income families. Further investigation shows that the policy makers should focus not only on ensuring equal access to tertiary education for all social strata, but on allowing the unprivileged groups access to education of acceptable quality.     

发达国家高等教育经费来源的结构特征与启示

发达国家在经历高等教育大众化以后,高等教育经费的来源结构显示出一些特征,如财政拨款向科研倾斜、学杂费收入比重基本稳定、高校销售及服务收入稳步上升等.相比之下,我国高等教育经费来源中存在着财政性经费保障力度仍需加强、居民学杂费负担过重等问题.基本对策是：保障和引导财政性经费投入,控制并分类制定学杂费标准,提高高校销售与服务收入获得能力,完善社会捐资助学机制.     

The Impact of the High Tuition Policy on Disadvantaged Students in Taiwan

Taiwan's education rate of return has increased incrementally over the long term, and education is the primary factor impacting income inequality. Its impact has been increasing every year. Having their children attend college is the way for disadvantaged households to escape poverty, but the high tuition policy is putting the poor in an increasingly difficult situation. In 1986, disadvantaged households were able to pay a portion of tuition costs; their borrowing amounted to less than their spending on education. Since 1996, however, the borrowing of disadvantaged households has been far higher than their spending on education, and the gap between the two has increasingly expanded. Moreover, disadvantaged households have to pay more tuition to have the same number of children attend university, possibly because it is more difficult for children from poor households to access quality, inexpensive public universities.     

论高校收费与教育公平

教育公平是社会公平的起点,是构建和谐社会的基石。而高等学校收取一定的费用作为新的教育投资,弥补了办学经费的不足,使更多的人享受高等教育,有助于社会资源的公平享用。但由于高教收费政策体系的种种不完善,也确实造成了低收入家庭学生接受高等教育机会和获得高等教育公共资助方面的不平等。如何协调二者的关系,建立一个公平与效率兼顾的高校收费体系是一个值得深入研究的问题。     

Social Occupational Classes and Higher-Education Opportunities in Contemporary China: A Study on the Distribution of a Scarce Social Capital

Based on the several surveys conducted since the 1990s onward, this paper aims to demonstrate that in terms of the access to higher education, social class differentiation is far starker than that of urban/rural income in contemporary China. According to the investigation that focused on students enrolled in 37 universities, the chance of farmers children to have a higher education is 5.6 times lower than that of nonfarmers. If we compare the chance of government and party officials children with that of farmers children, the ratio will rise to nearly 18:1. More seriously, the recent boom in higher education has not lessened but, in fact, worsened the structural factors of this inequality. The skyrocketing tuition fee constitutes an escalating fence that keeps the children from low-income, marginalized families away from acquiring higher education. Translated by Chen Xinqin from Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences), 2005, 3     

University Strategy in an Age of Uncertainty: The Effect of Higher Education Funding on Old and New Universities

This paper explores the effects of changes in funding arrangements, and particularly in tuition fees, on universities and their strategic responses to these changes. Using data from interviews with senior managers in four universities, it finds the most prestigious, pre‐1992, university largely unaffected by tuition fees and the others responding to changes in application patterns and intake. However, the effects of tuition fees on university strategy are not easily separated from other changes in the funding of Higher Education, and universities’ strategies were strongly influenced by the need to reduce costs and to generate income. A second major concern of all four universities was quality, both of inputs such as students and staff and of outputs, in degree results and ratings in employability, research, teaching and other activities. Marketing was assuming a position of increasing importance, with universities striving to develop a ‘brand’ to attract students, staff and funding.     

The end of free college in England: Implications for enrolments,equity, and quality

Despite increasing financial pressures on higher education systems throughout the world, many governments remain resolutely opposed to the introduction of tuition fees, and some countries and states where tuition fees have been long established are now reconsidering free higher education. This paper examines the consequences of charging tuition fees on university enrolments, equity, and proxies for institutional quality. To do so, we study the English higher education system which has, in just two decades, moved from a free college system to one in which tuition fees are among the highest in the world. Our findings suggest that England's shift has resulted in increased funding per head and rising enrolments, with no apparent widening of the participation gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. The role of fees is moderated by other key features of higher education finance which may differ across countries: in contrast to other systems with high tuition fees, the English system is distinct in that its income-contingent loan system ensures that no tuition fees are paid upfront, and provides students with comparatively generous assistance for living expenses. Still, the English experience provides an instructive case for other countries considering implementing or abolishing tuition fees.     

Educational choice and achievement: The case of secondary schools in the Arab Republic of Egypt

Before 1952 university education in Egypt was generally for the wealthier classes because the universities charged fees and only the richer families could pay those fees. For less wealthy families payment was more difficult, not only because of the direct cost of higher education, but also because of the high opportunity cost of sending children to study. After the 1952 revolution the Egyptian government introduced free education at all levels and encouraged those who wanted to further their education to enter universities. Thus elitism was eradicated from Egyptian higher education. This paper uses data from a sample of Egyptian university students and analyses the determinants of secondary school choice and the factors likely to affect secondary school certificate marks. In particular we are interested in the effect of family background, represented here by father's occupation.The results suggest that individuals with fathers in higher occupational categories tend to go to private schools rather than public schools. They also tend to choose general schools rather than technical or Koranic schools. In turn, high social background as well as attendance at a private school, have a positive and significant effect on examination marks. These findings are alarming because Egypt has a rate of increase in population of over 2% and the supply of university places will therefore have to be rationed. The most likely screening factor would be examination results and as a consequence Egyptian universities may in the future become elitist once more.     

我国普通高等教育学费增长的现状及成因分析

从1989年我国普通高等教育开始收费以来,学费水平一直增加。人们对高等教育需求巨大、财政性经费投入不足以及高校运行成本高都是造成学费增加的主要原因。高校学费水平的提高给人们带来了负担,而作为政府主要资助手段的国家助学贷款政策在降低居民负担和促进教育公平方面的作用并不显著。     

The financial burden of attending university in Georgia: Implications for rural students

By evaluating the impact of policies to financially support university students in Georgia, this article demonstrates the systematic spatial disparities that exist in a context of formally equal competition. The author uses a mixed-methods design, combining quantitative evidence on the entire population of Georgian university applicants in 2005–2009 with data obtained through in-depth interviews with rural families and with policy-makers, to understand the costs associated with attending universities, based on their prestige and location, as well as inequalities stemming from existing policies on the allocation of public funding. She suggests that the distribution of public funding is apparently fair, as urban and rural students incur the same average out-of-pocket tuition costs. Behind the façade of the fair outcome, however, lie serious spatial inequalities based on the complex interplay between the residential origin of higher education applicants, tuition costs, public funding allocations, university locations, and prestige. The analysis shows that urban applicants apply, and gain admission, to more prestigious universities which charge higher tuition than the universities where rural applicants enrol; urban students also manage to obtain higher proportions of the public tuition grant than their rural peers. Thus, rural and urban students purchase higher education of different quality for the same out-of-pocket costs, with urban students being more privileged and rural students relatively less so. Exacerbating this injustice is the fact that rural residents in Georgia earn half of the average urban income.     

不能削减大学学费

全国人大政协两会有人提出了削减大学学费,因为贫困学生付不起钱上大学,这个提议不太有道理。我国大学比起外国大学仍非常落后。由于资金匮乏,大学的人才流失严重。学费是支撑大学的重要资源之一,解决贫困生读书问题主要是靠发展经济和其它的很多办法。大学的发展直接影响经济的发展,削减大学学费,只能使社会发展进入恶性循环。     

再论高等教育的产业属性——兼论高等教育大众化的发展途径

当代,高等教育的产业属性不仅被越来越多的国家所认识,而且有成为发展高等教育的一个重要行动思想的趋势。近年来,一些发达国家的高等学校逐渐接受了投资—回报或投入—产出观念,不断提高学费标准,积极开拓和扩大高等教育国际贸易市场。为进一步加快我国高等教育大众化步伐,需要在三个方面给予政策关注:提高高等教育的收费标准;进一步推进我国的民办高等教育事业;提升我国高等教育的国际化水平。