Financing Higher Education Worldwide: Who Pays? Who Should Pay?

by D. Bruce Johnstone, Pamela N. Marcucci

Overview

No issue in higher education is as salient, or as controversial, as finance. As demand for higher education around the world grows, so do the costs associated with it, especially as governments shoulder less of the burden. Tuition fees rise and student loan debt grows. Who pays for these surging costs? Who should pay?

D. Bruce Johnstone and Pamela N. Marcucci examine the universal phenomenon of cost-sharing in higher education—where financial responsibility shifts from governments and taxpayers to students and families. They find that growing costs for education far outpace public revenue streams that once supported it. Even with financial aid and scholarships defraying some of these costs, students are responsible for a greater share of the cost of higher education.

Featuring comprehensive economic and policy data, the authors' international comparative approach shows how economically diverse countries all face similar cost-sharing challenges.

So, who should pay for higher education? While cost-sharing is both politically and ideologically debated, Johnstone and Marcucci contend that, for almost all countries, it is imperative for the financial health of colleges and universities, bringing better efficiency, equity, and responsiveness.

Financing Higher Education Worldwide combines sophisticated economic explanations with sensitive political and cultural analyses of the financial pressures facing higher education throughout the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801894589
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	06/07/2010
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

D. Bruce Johnstone is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Higher and Comparative Education Emeritus at the State University of New York at Buffalo, author of Financing Higher Education: Cost-Sharing in International Perspective, and coeditor of In Defense of American Higher Education, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Pamela N. Marcucci is project manager of the State University of New York at Buffalo’s International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project. The Project, directed by Professor Johnstone, is recognized worldwide as a source of descriptive and theoretical studies of tuition fees, financial aid, and student loans.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

1 Diverging Trajectories of Higher Education's Costs and Public Revenues Worldwide 11

2 Financial Austerity and Solutions on the Cost Side 30

3 The Perspective and Policy of Cost-Sharing 44

4 Parental Contributions, Means-Testing, and Financial Assistance 74

5 The Spread of Tuition Fees 102

6 Student Loan Schemes in Purpose, Form, and Consequence 129

7 Student Loan Schemes in Practice 161

8 Cost-Sharing, Financial Assistance, and Student Behavior 202

9 Cost-Sharing in Practice Worldwide 223

10 Cost-Sharing and the Future of International Higher Educational Finance 275

Appendix: Selected Country Examples of Cost-Sharing 285

Selected Bibliography 313

Index 317

Editorial Reviews

This book is a must read for policy-makers, researchers, educationalists, journalists and students of financing higher education worldwide for the theoretical insight and empirical data.
—Asha Gupta, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration

This is a book full of detail and informed comment that should be read by all who want to understand and be informed about many of the major issues surrounding the financing of higher education in the 21st century.
—Johns Mace, HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW

This book is a must read for the policy-makers, researchers, educationists, journalists and students of financing higher education worldwide for the theoretical insight and empirical data.
—Journal of Educational Planning and Administration

A great overview of the financing challenges facing each country's higher education system.
—John J. Cheslock, Journal of Higher Education

Usefully describes various policies and different countries' approaches to dees, loans, and other financial aid.
—Claire Callender, Comparative Education Review

From the Publisher

This is a book full of detail and informed comment that should be read by all who want to understand and be informed about many of the major issues surrounding the financing of higher education in the 21st century.

HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW - Johns Mace

Usefully describes various policies and different countries' approaches to dees, loans, and other financial aid.

— Claire Callender

Comparative Education Review

A great overview of the financing challenges facing each country's higher education system.

— John J. Cheslock

Journal of Higher Education

This is a book full of detail and informed comment that should be read by all who want to understand and be informed about many of the major issues surrounding the financing of higher education in the 21st century.

— Johns Mace

HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW

This book is a must read for policy-makers, researchers, educationalists, journalists and students of financing higher education worldwide for the theoretical insight and empirical data.

Journal of Educational Planning and Administration - Asha Gupta

This book is a must read for the policy-makers, researchers, educationists, journalists and students of financing higher education worldwide for the theoretical insight and empirical data.

Journal of Educational Planning and Administration

Usefully describes various policies and different countries' approaches to dees, loans, and other financial aid.

Comparative Education Review - Claire Callender

A great overview of the financing challenges facing each country's higher education system.

Journal of Higher Education - John J. Cheslock