Cost Sharing in Higher Education: Tuition, Financial Assistance, and Accessibility in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Cost sharing in higher education is the assumption by parents & students of a portion of the costs of higher education - costs that in many nations, at least until recently, have been borne predominantly or even exclusively by governments or taxpayers. The author presents empirical evidence of, & various theoretical justifications for, increasing cost sharing throughout the world in the forms of tuitions & fees, the diminishing real value of student maintenance grants, & an increasing reliance on private forms of higher education. Resistance to cost sharing, both ideological & strategic, is also analyzed. The author discusses policy alternatives such as grants vs loans & the criteria for an appropriate tuition level, as well as the impact of cost sharing on enrollment behavior. He concludes that increased cost sharing is probably inevitable, less on the basis of the classical neoliberal economic claim for greater equity & efficiency than on the basis of the sheer need for revenue & the increasing priority of alternative claims on public treasuries.