Abstract
The objective of this paper is to compare the average annual and total cost of obtaining a university degree in three different universities: an Open and Distance Learning university serving lifelong learning purposes and two conventional universities in Greece. Our findings show substantial differences in average annual costs (per student) among these three universities with the Open and Distance Learning University (Hellenic Open University-HOU) having both the lowest annual average private and university cost. Consequently, HOU has the lowest average social cost. Moreover, comparing the total private cost for obtaining a university degree, the lowest cost is in the HOU despite its longer period of studies. This raises expectation to perspective students of HOU for higher rates of return after graduation. A similar pattern, also, holds for the social cost showing that HOU is socially cost effective. Clearly, our findings suggest that an Open and Distance Learning University that serves lifelong learning purposes is a cost effective investment in creating human capital privately and socially.
Highlights
In this paper we compare the cost of studies between a distance learning university and two conventional universities in Greece
We distinguish two types of costs accrued by university studies: first, the financial costs incurred by students and their parents representing the private cost of studies and second, the financial costs undertaken by a university due to its operation and named university cost
Given that all universities in Greece are public universities mainly financed by the ministry of Education and partly financed by research funds raised through research projects, we define as university cost, the amount that a university spends per student from its own financial budget
Summary
The sum of private and university costs is defined as the third type of cost, the social cost of education per student. For our analysis we have selected three universities: the Greek distance learning university, named the Hellenic Open University (HOU) and two traditional universities requiring physical presence of their students: the University of Macedonia (UOM) and the University of Crete (UOC). The selection of these traditional universities was based on two criteria: first, both universities are located in the Greek periphery, as HOU does, and second, these two universities are about the same size of HOU. We compare private cost, university cost and the sum of them defined as the social cost of education for the average student in these three universities, as well as, the total cost of obtaining a university degree in each of the three universities
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