Vouchers in higher education - a practical approach

Abstract

"As far as we have been able to establish in a comprehensive survey, however, no country has introduced vouchers for higher education funding. A few countries, such as Finland and the Netherlands had political discussions about the introduction of a voucher scheme some years ago, while others, such as Australia, Germany and again the Netherlands, have recently started a discussion on the introduction of vouchers and their pros and cons. Whilst consideration must be given to the voucher schemes for school and nursery education mentioned above, in view of the important differences between these levels and higher education, it is not possible to rely exclusively on their experience. The following discussion starts in chapter 2 with an overview of the expectatins placed on the introduction of vouchers. Chapter 3 reviews the different possibilities for the face value of the voucher whilst Chapter 4 adresses other technical questions. Chapter 5 deals with the costs of vouchers and Chapter 6 briefly reviews the international experience and debate on voucher models. Chapter 7 discusses further important issues concerning vouchers so that a conclusion can be drawn in section 8." (excerpt)