The Economics of Education: From a Free Social Benefit to the Commercialization of Educational Services

Abstract

The article discusses the specific features characterizing the development of the market for commercial educational services under modern Russian conditions. The study finds that many parents have reacted negatively to the introduction of market forces to the education sector. Paid educational services provided by the school are not popular despite the fact that they offer a number of advantages. The results of the study have revealed a number of factors that have led to the expansion in the sector of informal education, includeing low teacher salaries, difficulties in registering a tutoring service business, the desire to reduce financial costs, and the fact that schools insufficiently prepare students to pass the Unified State Exam. The movement of students who seek assistance from the informal educational sector has placed a strain on the institutional relationships between students and teachers.     

Marketizing higher education in post-Mao China

In the post-Mao era, reformers in the People's Republic of China have taken significant steps to privatize social welfare services. After the adoption of a socialist market system in the 1990s, educational development has been affected by strong market forces. It is argued that the emergence of private educational institutions, the shift of state responsibility in educational provision to families and individuals, the prominence of fee-charging, as well as the introduction of internal competition among educational institutions, clearly suggest that China's education has been going through a process of marketization. The principal goal of this paper is to examine institutional origins of the policy change in education, with particular reference to the process and implications of such changes. The paper will also appraise the Chinese experience in the light of global practices on marketization of social welfare services.     

INTEGRATING RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING

Fundraising has long been a central activity in four‐year institutions, whereas community colleges have only recently begun to see the necessity for such efforts. Resource development and private fundraising as a community college function have only been marginally understood and often are only instigated in times of financial crises. In today's educational arena, development needs to become a long‐term core function in order to maximize the funding base of community colleges. This article gives a brief look at the historical background of fundraising in community colleges, contrasts such efforts with the four‐year institutions, and discusses the matter of integrating resource development with institutional planning processes. Several examples of successful community college development efforts are given, along with a discussion of several planning models that might be used as guides for integrating resource development efforts with institutional planning.     

The characteristics of the school organization and the constraints on market ideology in education: an institutional view

The paper raises theoretical insights against central premises underlying the policy of parental choice and educational market from the standpoint of the institutional theory of organization. It discusses how the institutional theory may explain the barriers to diversity, responsiveness, and improvement, all of which are assumed to be driven by the implementation of parental choice reform at the school level, and it looks at what this perspective says about rational decision‐making. In general, institutional elements such as conformity to institutional rules, isomorphism, decoupling, and loose coupling argued to prevail in schools seem to be obstacles for many educational processes and outcomes ‘promised’ by advocates of parental choice and market in education. Implications for the study of parental choice and educational marketing are suggested.     

On markets,autonomy and regulation the Janus Head revisited

The relationship between governments and higher education institutions has been changing in Europe over the last few decades. The mechanisms of steering and regulation have moved away from the model of centralised control by allowing more institutional autonomy. Even if the government has been using an increasing array of market and market-like mechanisms instead of more traditional regulation mechanisms, the state has not really stepped back in favour of the market, and this has led to a hybrid situation where increased institutional autonomy is still facing significant government regulation — the Janus Head effect. It is our opinion that the regulation of higher education cannot be left in the sole hands of the market, and for this reason hybridism can play a very important role.     

我国中小企业融资现状、问题与对策分析

中小企业是市场经济的重要组成部分,是推动我国经济发展的主要动力之一,但其融资难题仍旧很突出。针对我国中小企业的融资现状,从企业自身、金融机构和社会金融环境的视角分析了我国中小企业融资存在的问题,并试图从健全中小企业管理、加强金融创新、推进信用体系建设、加快担保体系建设、拓展资本市场等方面提出切实可行的建议。     

Community Colleges and Market Responsiveness: A Conceptual Analysis and Proposed Model

In this article, we explore the functions of the traditional community college and its expanding mission in regard to its responsiveness to changing economic conditions and workforce development needs. To date, few researchers have specifically addressed market responsiveness in community college settings across the United States. In addition, we introduce a model in which a comprehensive framework of the components and dimensions that comprise a market responsive institution is provided. Examining dimensions that characterize market responsive community colleges helps to deepen the theoretical and practical understanding of market responsiveness in two ways. First, it helps educators gain a greater understanding about the internal and external contexts in which community colleges operate. Second, it helps educators better understand how core institutional internal and external dimensions interact to create a market responsive environment. The proposed Model of Market Responsive Institutions can be used by community college leaders as a guide for understanding their internal and external context. In addition, community college leaders can use this model in identifying factors that support their ability be responsive in a constantly challenging and changing environment.     

Reform in Higher Education in Canada

Reform in higher education is a topic of great interest world-wide because of the financial pressures facing institutions and the increasing demand for access. Also there is a perceived reluctance to respond to the political will of governments and the forces of the marketplace. Universities and colleges are accused of being complacent, unresponsive, and more concerned about maintaining their autonomy and self-interests than in providing service to the public.
Canadian higher education is not immune from such criticism, but the extent to which it is justified is by no means clear. In order to explore the responsiveness of Canadian universities and colleges to the forces of change, two surveys were recently conducted to obtain an institutional perspective. The findings reveal that higher institutions in Canada are in a ferment of change, but the changes described are more in the nature of responses to forces in the social, financial, and political environment than policy-driven, sustainable, long-range, system-wide reforms.
The surveys confirm patterns of change found in other federal nations and reflect a government strategy of self-regulation blended with fiscal controls. Provincial governments have shown a reluctance to bring about change by legislation, but the threat of legislation is a powerful incentive for reform, without compromising the essentially autonomous nature of the institutions.     

试论民族自治地方教育财政自治的基本内涵及教育财政投入体制的理论依据

财政自治与教育财政自治同属于我国民族自治地方依法享有的民族自治权利.由于我国多年来教育财政投入不足,致使民族自治地方的教育自治权难以得到根本保障.本文主要对财政自治与民族教育财政自治的基本内涵进行阐释,并对我国目前教育财政投入体制对民族教育和民族教育财政自治的影响做出分析.     

中小企业融资困难与非对称信息问题分析

融资难一直是困扰世界各国中小企业可持续发展的普遍性问题。而对于目前我国尚处不完善的市场经济发展阶段以及金融领域高度集中的体制来说,中小企业融资更非易事。本文着重讨论从非对称信息角度制约中小企业发展过程中实现融资的因素,并寻求中小企业融资的出路。     

Choosing teaching in Hong Kong: a strategy to survive the financial crisis?

Background:?Hong Kong is currently a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It has autonomy over many policy areas, including finance and education. It is a community of seven million people, which has changed its focus and identity significantly over the last 25 years, from predominantly manufacturing to a service and knowledge economy with particular strengths in financial services.

Purpose:?This paper will consider the market for teacher education places and the market for teachers, and explore the career intention and commitment implications of high numbers of well qualified applicants applying for teaching in the context of reduced work opportunities elsewhere, an increasing higher education focus on intake scores and the challenge, for the teaching profession and the education system, of teaching becoming less secure work.

Sources of evidence:?Governmental and institutional publications and data, along with research and survey findings, together with comparative literature underpin the reactions to past, present and possible future effects on teacher education in Hong Kong.

Main argument:?Given its financial focus, Hong Kong would be expected to suffer significantly during the recent financial crisis and that this would impact across all its sectors including Education and Teacher Education. In addition to the financial crisis, other changes have affected teacher education in Hong Kong, including major reforms in curriculum and school and higher education structure and a significantly diminished birth rate reducing posts in teaching, and raising concerns about job security.

Conclusions:?Hong Kong is a very prudently managed economy with substantial reserves and a commitment to ‘small government’ and the impact has been different from many other systems. Places on teacher education programmes remained unchanged. Applications for teacher education programmes however increased significantly during the crisis.     

Academic restructuring: Organizational change and institutional imperatives

A perennial challenge for universities and colleges isto keep pace with knowledge change by reconsideringtheir structural and resource commitments to variousknowledge areas. Reflecting upon changes in theacademic landscape of public higher education in theUnited States over the past quarter of a century, theauthor diagnoses a macro-trend whereby the dominantlegitimating idea of public higher education haschanged from higher education as a social institutionto higher education as an industry. Threeinterrelated mechanisms are identified as havingadvanced this process: academic management, academicconsumerism, and academic stratification.This pattern of academic restructuring reflects multiple institutional pressures. Whilepublic universities and colleges have increasinglycome to rely on market discourse and managerialapproaches in order to demonstrate responsiveness toeconomic exigencies, they may end up losing legitimacyas they move away from their historical character,functions, and accumulated heritage as educationalinstitutions. Thus, responsiveness to compellingeconomic pressures that dominate contemporaryorganizational imperatives in an attempt to gainlegitimacy in one dimension may result in loss for another.Wholesale adaptation to market pressures and managerialrationales could thereby subsume thediscourse about the future of colleges anduniversities within a logic of economic rationality ata detriment to the longer-term educational legaciesand democratic interests that have long characterizedAmerican public education.     

Agricultural extension as adult education: institutional evolution and forces for change

Agricultural extension is generally considered by adult educators to be one of the many different providers of adult education. Agricultural extension's pragmatic, specialized content and its task‐oriented field‐directed methodologies for providing information and technology transfer, and often other services as well, places this education provider in a unique category, so unique in fact that it is often overlooked in discussions of formal as well as nonformal education. This paper briefly reviews the value and current reforms taking place to reform agricultural extension, through structural, financial and managerial decentralization strategies and through the shift of government power and responsibility to market‐oriented approaches. The paper highlights the major forces for change that underscore the challenges facing this specialized provider of non‐formal adult education, including sociopolitical, economic, institutional and programmatic forces, which are affecting and will continue to affect extension worldwide.

     

Education in Thailand after the crisis: a balancing act between globalization and national self-contemplation

Preparing a country for economic competitiveness and contributing to the preservation of the national cultural heritage are two demands that fall on education systems across the globe today. This paper relates the recent academic debate on the effects of globalization on education systems to current developments in Thailand, as reflected in recent Thai education policy documents. The 1997 financial and economic crisis has intensified thinking among Thai policy makers about a new balance of autonomy and dependency, of inward and outward orientation, of economic competitiveness and cultural self-reliance. Among others, life-long learning and educational decentralization are considered as instruments to balance the conflicting demands on the education system.     

Social reproduction in Vietnam: Educational attainment,employment, and skills usage

Education can be seen as a social structure that reproduces existing levels of social, economic, and cultural distributions. Using Vietnam as a case study, this paper seeks to examine how these theories hold up in a socio-political and socio-economic context that has been less examined, specifically in one of the few remaining single-party socialist countries that advocates Communism. The findings suggest prior levels of social stratification are predictive of educational attainment, and educational attainment is predictive of employment. Higher educational attainment is also predictive of having occupations in economic sectors with less repetitive work and more autonomy.     

政府、市场、高校:高等教育资源配置“三位一体”模式探析

在市场经济和高等教育大众化条件下,高等教育资源的配置是政府调控、市场调节、高校自主三支力量相互制衡、博弈的结果,三者之间彼此互动,此消彼长:政府在高等教育资源配置中的管控力量逐步消减,市场介入高等教育资源配置的领域和力量日益扩大,高校作为政府力量的执行者、教育资源的消费者和市场力量的承受者,通过大学自治、学术自由、学生自主已经成为资源配置中不可忽视的第三支力量。高等教育资源配置原有的政府—市场二元模式随之被政府—市场—高校"三位一体"模式所取代。     

我国高等教育财政体制改革与大学基金会的兴起

我国的经济转型与高等教育财政体制改革,扩大了高等学校的办学自主权,也极大地增强了高等学校多渠道筹集教育资金的自觉性和主动性,而市场经济的发展和民间财富的积累又在客观上提供了这种可能性。在这样的社会经济条件下,大学基金会应运而生,反映了一种历史必然性,呈现出捐赠金额不断突破、校友捐赠不断增多、捐赠形式和用途日趋多元、组织机构不断完善、筹款专业化程度逐步提高的局面。随着我国改革的不断深化、开放的进一步扩大、国民经济的高速增长、民间财富的持续积累以及公民慈善意识的不断增强,我国大学基金会的发展必将实现新的跨越。社会捐赠将可能成为大学最具增长潜力的经费来源渠道之一,为我国高等教育事业的发展作出更大贡献。     

欠发达省区高教资源整合机制基本动力探析

中国社会主义市场经济渐进式的转型过程中,政府、市场、学校这三种机制同时成为高等教育资源配置的动力。由于高等教育准公共产品属性,政府在资源整合机制中起着宏观主导作用。市场基础性作用影响的过程,使得资源配置过程趋向优化。高等学校办学自主权和大学与身俱来的学术力量不是市场或政府力量能替代的。整合不同分配机制的过程是高等教育资源配置机制创新过程,三种机制力量互为基础、相互作用形成三环相联的机制模型。整合机制有利于解决欠发达省区高等教育资源配置中的基本矛盾。     

学生合约与学生消费者：学习的市场化与高等教育公共产品性质的侵蚀

自20世纪80年代中期以来,全世界范围内接连出现的政府主导的改革将高等教育系统向"教科书般"经济市场越推越近已实施的改革包括公司化、引入竞争性资助、增加学费和其他费用、使用高校管理中产出模式和绩效报告。但是,没有一个国家面向本国学生的第一学位教育是按照真正的资本主义经济市场来运作的,没有研究型大学的发展是被股东、利润、市场份额、配置效率或商品形式所驱动的。在一些国家,只有职业培训和国际教育才会真正收取商业性质的学费。虽然高等教育中普遍存在激烈的竞争、企业家精神和消费者话语,但资本主义在其中没有一席之地;现有的高等教育市场充其量是一个受监管的准市场在许多国家,高等教育领域的"市场改革"不同于交通、通信、广播电视和医疗保险界的私有化和商业化。究其原因,本文发现真正的市场改革受制于高等教育领域特定的内在限度(公共产品、地位竞争)以及与这些限度相关的政治因素、高等教育市场改革计划在本质上是乌托邦式的,目前市场改革的抽象理想仍在持续并不是因为它具有真正实现的前景,而是由于外源性政策的推动(如财政缩减、政府控制等)。如果资本主义市场是无法实现的,为什么要继续假装它们可以实现呢?我们需要一个与教育系... 更多还原     

ASSESSING THE FINANCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CONCERNS OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES: A MODEL APPROACH

We surveyed Arkansas community and technical colleges to determine the extent to which these institutions had been affected, during the past 3 years, by tight budgets, volatile enrollments, unstable state support, and other unfavorable forces. In addition, we requested information concerning methods used by these institutions to address such problems. The survey instrument collected data pertaining to institutional demographics, budgetary trends, tuition trends, faculty issues, expenditure control methods used, institutional advancement activities, projections as to future financial directions, and staff development needs. The findings indicate that enrollments at most Arkansas community and technical colleges are increasing and budgets are growing, but often in amounts inadequate to compensate for rising costs. Arkansas 2‐year institutions are responding to this challenge by raising tuition, increasing the use of part‐time faculty, and seeking new sources of revenue. Staff development needs were identified for those functional areas in which additional training and development will enhance staff members’ ability to respond to changing economic conditions. This survey can be replicated in other community college systems, thus serving as a model for assessing the financial and institutional concerns of community and technical colleges nationwide.