Developments in Higher Education Financing from an International Perspective

On January 12, 2006, the World Bank sponsored a workshop on Developments in Higher Education Financing from an International Perspective at the University of Military Technology.  Country Director for Poland, Daniela Gressani made the introductory remarks on behalf of the World Bank. The meeting was opened by Minister of Education and Science of Poland, Michal Sewerynski, who stated that he agrees with the current Government policy of not charging fees for undergraduate education in public institutions in accordance with the Polish Constitution, although he does not rule out the possibility that the policy will have to be changed eventually in order to assure the sustainability and quality of the higher education system.

The fact that 60% of students do pay fees, and that some of these students are those least able to pay, makes the issue of quality in Higher Education Institutions most pressing.     So, although he does not consider this is an appropriate moment to raise the issue of constitutional change in relation to fees, the real issue is what happens to the access for those less well off. 

Professor Nicholas Barr (LSE) and Dr. Daniel O'Hare (Founding President, Dublin City University) made the two key presentations which were followed by discussion.

With a focus on access, Nicholas Barr  covered  the background to funding problems in the UK against a rapid increase in numbers with no parallel increase in funding, making it clear that the UK situation has "loud resonances" for Poland.   He also discussed the lessons from economic theory including, inter alia, his central contention that graduates and not students should contribute to the cost of their degrees.  He went on to outline the key design features of income contingent student loans whose objective should be to make HE free at the point of use and finished his presentation with lessons from international experience about: (i) fees, and (ii) loans, together with some thoughts for Poland.   Read Nicholas Barr’s presentation:   (Click here for the pdf file)

The representative of the State Professional Schools raised the access issue for the rural and poor students:  often students coming from rural areas are the first in their families to attend third level education.  Sadly, their numbers are now actually dropping in Poland.   All workshop participants agreed that education has to solve the access problem for third level before school leaving age hence the importance of early childhood and first years of school in every country.  

The Leader of the Student Parliament pointed out that, before any further investment, most universities should be restructured and reformed and went on to state that most students would oppose fees.   Professor Barr replied that his argument for income contingent loans is based on the premise that higher education should be free at the point of use and graduates should repay loans.  Read his views on how income contingent loans could be a solution to improve access for Polish students:   (Click here for the pdf file)

Daniel O'Hare discussed the role of higher education in the context of recent developments in the Irish economy, briefly reviewing the history of the period when there were university fees (including tax free covenants, inequities in the higher education grants scheme, proposals for the modification of fee levels including differential fees, issues of equity of access under a fees regime) and the reasons and consequences of the current “no fees” system in Ireland.  He focused on two key questions:  “How Should Government support Higher Education Institutions”? And “In the absence of fees, what can Higher Education Institutions do”?   Read Dr. O’Hare’s answers to these questions (Click here for the pdf file)  and his presentation    (Click here for the pdf file).

The President of the Rectors Council stated that for university leaders a key point is how to ensure that enough money goes to research while teaching does not suffer; in part this will involve good estimates of the respective costs of teaching and research, an issue about which opinions differ but evidence is scarce.  The presenters agreed that the issue of proper support for research is a vital one for the nation and for the university system However, all countries have to make choices as to the disciplines in which they would fund research; this is usually done following on a Technology  Foresight  assessment. Not all areas can be supported and economies of scale and impact are important in order to achieve a critical mass. A basic question has to be answered about why research is important in any country and about how technology transfer processes could be organized within a country and between the university system and the business community. The issue of technology transfer has not been addressed adequately, particularly in relation to research outputs that are freely available in the international literature and to the many patents that become “off patent” or have been made publicly available. There is generally no system for harvesting such knowledge and bringing it to the attention of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)   in particular through technology transfer mechanisms.  Read Dr. O’Hare’s ideas on how academic research could serve SMEs using Ireland as an example(Click here for the pdf file).