Investigating Vietnamese undergraduate students’ willingness to pay for higher education under the cost-sharing context

Abstract

Currently, Vietnam is adopting a cost-sharing policy for public higher education. A dual mechanism of tuition fees has been introduced: (i) the tuition fee covers part of the instruction cost; and (ii) the tuition fee covers the full instruction cost. Despite this, Vietnamese public universities still face a shortage of income for maintaining good quality higher education. There has been ongoing debate about measures to resolve this problem: while some suggest the current tuition fee cap predetermined by the government should be raised, in conjunction with high levels of aid, others are opposed to this idea. However, this debate lacks students' perspectives. In this paper, we examine student’s willingness to pay for tuition in association with its predictors. A survey of 237 students shows that there is a high willingness to pay for higher education, evidenced by their willingness to pay for extra classes in addition to tuition fees for universities. The study also revealed that the following factors affect students’ views on total payments for higher education (including tuition fees and fees for extra classes): the academic year of the student, their major, whether they are fully self-paid vs. state-subsidized, their family’s economic situation and academic-related factors. Meanwhile, their willingness to pay was not influenced by gender and economic-related factors. These findings provide implications for policymakers and university administrators for the adjustment of financing policies.