Public-Private Substitution in Higher Education: Has Cost-Sharing Gone Too Far? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Funding in Higher Education and Economic Growth in France and the United Kingdom, 1921-2003
Higher Education Management and Policy
"The 2004 Higher Education Act generated important debates about the relationships between higher education (HE), economic growth and social progress. The range of positions expressed in relation to the increase of annual tuition fees raises crucial questions about the public and private funding of HE and its individual and social economic benefits. The analysis of new historical data from the 1920s onwards shows that the expansion in university resources was not linear and may be related to long economic cycles. Moreover, private funding periodically increased in order to replace diminishing public funding, rather than taking the form of additional resources. In consequence, private funds did not provide an overall rise in the universities’ income. The considerable fluctuations of funding, combined with a more consistent growth of enrolment, led to a recurrent mismatch between resources for and access to HE, explaining the wide fluctuations of resources per student over the period. Such historical trends question whether, in the future, increased fees will be a substitute for public spending. Or will variable fees rather combine with even greater increases in public funding as part of a national project to support HE students from all social backgrounds and to boost expenditure per student?"
Changes in Higher Education Public Funding During Economic and Financial Crisis
2014
European higher education systems are at stake, since global economic and financial crisis emerged in 2009. The aim of the paper was to test the research question: How did higher education funding change in response to the crisis (compared with pre-crisis period)? We observed changes in higher education funding during crisis through three indicators in comparative perspective to pre-crisis period. We found that we cannot provide any clear patterns, since there are different responses to the crisis resulting from different funding traditions. Nevertheless, we also found significant differences in expenditures on tertiary education as % of GDP between two groups of countries. Countries that invested high levels of funding on tertiary education before the crisis did also increase their investment during the crisis. On the other hand, we found no significant differences between groups of countries regarding two other indicators, namely the annual expenditures for public and private tertiary education institutions per student and financial aid to students.
Impact of the recent economic crisis on tertiary education funding - a comparative study
International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2018
We examined how the recent global economic crisis and the necessary cuts in public expenditure affected the funding for tertiary education in European countries. We clustered the countries into two groups with respect to the severity of the impact of the global crisis on their economies. Then, we comparatively studied the changes in the funding of tertiary education during the recent economic crisis. We found that tertiary education was less exposed to austerity measures than the education sector as a whole and, in the group of countries that were more affected by the crisis, several countries decreased the share of public expenditure on tertiary education. We also found that, on average, countries with high pre-crisis public spending on tertiary education increased the share of GDP for tertiary education more than those with low pre-crisis spending. Overall, the results of our research show how the governments of different countries adjusted public funding for tertiary education during the economic crisis.
A Decade of Ups and Downs in Public Expenditure on Higher Education
Concentrating on a few important dimensions, and reviewing the allocations made in the eleventh and twelfth five year plans, this paper analyzes, based on data drawn from secondary official sources, a few major trends in public expenditure on higher education: • Trends in public – union and state government -- expenditure on higher education • Relative priority given to higher education o In national income, total budgetary expenditure, and in the education budgets • Inter-state inequalities in public expenditure; and • Economic growth and expenditure on higher education While analyzing some of these aspects, responsibilities of union and state governments in funding higher education, trends in plan and non-plan expenditure, and intra-sectoral allocation are also reviewed. It is clear that many other important and related aspects are left outside the scope of the paper.
International trends in the public and private financing of higher education
Prospects, 2011
Beginning by analyzing the major qualitative and quantitative changes in higher education around the world, this article examines international trends in their financial implications. It then demonstrates the state's inability to bear the entire rising financial burden, and explores the role of self-financing, and of the non-profit and for-profit private sectors, in sharing the enrolment and the cost burden. Examples of cost-sharing from around the world are given, with an analysis of the complexities and ambiguities of the meanings of public and private in reference to financing higher educational institutions. A discussion of private-public partnerships follows, and of the role that non-profit and forprofit cross-border higher education plays in financing. The conclusion offers eight policy themes for coping with the underlying situation of financial strategy and the simultaneous need to supplement scarce public revenues with private revenues, meanwhile increasing access to and participation in higher education for those not yet benefiting from it. Keywords Higher education finance Á Resource allocation Á Cost sharing Á Private higher education Á Privatization of public higher education Á Cross-border higher education Á Student financial assistance All over the world, higher education is at a crossroads today. Significant changes, both qualitative and quantitative, are challenging and changing institutions of higher education and the roles these institutions are playing in their economies and larger societies. Among the most salient qualitative changes are the following five. First, developments in information and communication technology (ICT) are revolutionising our day-today lives as well as our colleges and universities. ICT is the source of
Higher Education, Welfare States and Austerity: Pressures on Competing Public Institutions
In: Jon Nixon (ed.), Higher Education in Austerity Europe. London: Bloomsbury. 20-38, 2017
This chapter is about increasing internal competition between major components of the widely understood welfare state architecture as it has emerged in the last half century: in particular, between old-age pensions, health-care systems and higher education and academic research as major claimants to the public purse. The competition is not only for public funding, although the financial dimension of ongoing transformations is of paramount importance (Kwiek, 2015b), but also for the place these three public institutions hold in the global, European and national social imagination. The assumption of this chapter is that public institutions cannot thrive without powerful supportive discourses concerning their social roles. When these discourses - which provide social legitimation combined with public funding - weaken, institutions weaken together with them. I focus on an ongoing and still largely latent struggle between major public institutions, with some predictions about its outcome. The current condition of permanent financial austerity may redefine the nature of the European university as a public institution. Its future depends, to a considerable extent, on favourable social attitudes and strong supporting public discourses, both changeable under economic, ideological and electoral pressures. Therefore, no public institution should take for granted its survival in an untouched form without powerful social support. No rights seem to have been given forever, and public trust does not seem to have been guaranteed: both need to be thoughtfully and continuously fought for. Their combination indirectly determines the level of public subsidization, which, after a long period of post-World War II growth when the cross-sectoral competition between the different public sector claimants for public funding was not present, is being redefined. Although relatively friendly towards each other prior to the age of financial austerity, different public services in Europe are now beginning to operate in the context of increasing, albeit still latent, competition: for social trust, public support and public funding. To thrive in the age of permanent financial austerity, the academic profession needs to know what their preferred image of the university is, how they want to function within it and why they want it - in order to be able to promote a strong supporting discourse about the key social and economic relevance of their institutions and themselves. In tough times, under adverse economic conditions, the preferred image needs to be clear and widely promoted. Confronting the two competing high spenders, pensions and health-care systems, does not seem to be easy in the context of growing cross-generational conflicts over public resources. However, optimistically, European governments most often follow public attitudes, and electoral pressures still do matter. All we need to do as academics is to promote universities in our societies as (still) highly legitimate, socially useful and publicly fundable institutions, and count on public trust and public support in the future. If we do not do this, why should anyone else?
2013
The paper deals with changes in tertiary education (TE) funding in 28 European countries after 2007. We focus on two aspects: first, does the public expenditure on TE change (decrease/increase) in proportion to the changes (decreases/increases) in public expenditure on education and second, did countries, which invested the highest share of public funds on TE (measured in % of GDP) before the crisis (in 2007), managed to maintain or increase their share during the crisis (until 2012)? We cover public funding using quantitative methodological approach, complemented with the results of research conducted from European University Association (EUA) and others. The results imply that in proportion to the reduction in the share of public expenditure on education generally decreases the share of public expenditure dedicated to TE, but more slowly. Majority of countries with high or medium investment in TE (as % of their GDB in 2007), managed to maintain or increase public expenditure on TE...