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The finance of higher education faces a clash between technological advance, driving up the demand for skills, and fiscal constraints, given competing imperatives for public spending. Paying for universities is also immensely politically sensitive. This paper sets out core lessons for financing higher education deriving from economic theory, including the desirability of loans with income-contingent repayments. Subsequent discussion includes a general strategy for OECD countries derived from the theoretical analysis, and reforms in England in 2006 which illustrate the strategy. The paper concludes with discussion of the appropriate role of government in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to elucidate the different meaning of university autonomy historically and comparatively. The paper examines the shift in the definition of the university autonomy in England and Japan. It argues that the definition of university autonomy in England and Japan differed traditionally. In England, university autonomy functioned as the universities' ideology to protect the universities from outside of pressure. In Japan, university autonomy was understood in relation to the Ministerial coordination. The market-oriented policies in those countries have changed the meaning of university autonomy, bringing about “contractual autonomy” in England and institutional autonomy in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Education for All initiative is one of the best known and most widely referenced policies in the development field. This paper investigates the extent to which the most recent EFA conference in Dakar (2000) addresses the complex issue of women and higher education. Two questions guide this inquiry. First, what are the basic concepts and definitions used in a feminist policy analysis? Second, to what extent, and in what ways is the topic of higher education and women referenced in the document (Dakar Framework for Action, 2000).2 Employing content analysis, this paper reveals the EFA policy's minimal attention to tertiary education for women throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries have experienced soaring enrolment rates into tertiary education. While this is beneficial both to involved students and to knowledge-based societies, it also makes the funding issue even more crucial than it is usually seen to be. This paper presents first results from an analysis of the effectiveness of student loans as a funding strategy using unique student-level data from Finland. The focus is on the effect of student loans on the likelihood of graduation, as well as on the socioeconomic background dimension of such an effect. We find no evidence in support of the latter effect being significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the influence of student loans on the accessibility of disadvantaged groups to higher education. Three key conditions are necessary for success, but are often neglected. These are: that effective eligibility and screening criteria are in place and that pro-active targeting measures are employed to reach out to the most deserving sections of the target population defined in terms of those most in need of help; that the scheme is sufficiently sizeable to achieve an impact nationally; and individual loans are sufficiently large to cover the needs of the students at whom the scheme is directed. The varied experience of loans schemes in Asia, aimed directly at enhancing the access of students from low-income backgrounds, is examined. These schemes are often to be faulted because they lack a number of necessary prior conditions for success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While higher education is regarded a high priority for economic development in many countries, public budgets often fall short to support desired levels of expansion in higher education. This leads to cost-sharing: students and their families are required to contribute more to the costs of higher education. This paper explores worldwide trends to cope with this issue based on the following questions: Is it fair to ask for larger contributions from students? What are the global patterns and forms of higher private shares in the costs of higher education? And what is the impact of cost-sharing on higher education access and equity? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of appropriate indicators of public and private expenditures, from which statistically significant differences in funding policies can be identified, constitutes a solid foundation in which the assessment of the role of governments in promoting higher education can be grounded. Based on a carefully selected set of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development indicators, this paper explores the effects of education funding policies, along with research and development expenditures and tax levels, on the entry rate to higher education. The results from the statistical analysis of the data confirm the existence of two distinct approaches to higher education funding, the Scandinavian approach and Anglo-American approach, and help to define their characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]