Financing Bologna: Which Country will Pay for Foreign Students?

Abstract

In an integrated set of jurisdictions, where residents of one country may obtain higher education in another country and later return home (with some probability), the question arises of which country has to pay for higher education abroad—the country of origin of the student, which is likely to benefit from the education acquired abroad, or the country that has produced the extra human capital? This paper, nested in the philosophy of the Bologna process and the reality of today’s European Union—where such issue is hot for countries like Belgium and Austria, which host numerous students from France and Germany—investigates under which conditions it can be recommended to set up a network of bilateral treaties or a multilateral arrangement, in some sense similar to what exists for taxation, social security or health expenditures, which imposes the country of origin to be responsible for the payment of studies of its resident students either at home or abroad, provided it is in a certified institution.