Market Forces In Higher Education Research Articles

Higher Education Funding Strategies: Towards Equity, Efficiency, and Quality

As economists have become increasingly interested in higher education, economic reasoning has been applied, resulting in extremely useful research in higher education. With the growth of market forces in higher education, the changing role of government, and advances in research on the economics of higher education, higher education funding is increasingly seen as a tool to stimulate the market. The development of an effective funding strategy may be one of the keys to developing higher education - its quality and efficiency, increasing equity and equality. The article adds to the existing literature on higher education funding and the impact of market forces on higher education. It aims to provide an analysis of economic reasoning applied to higher education, which can be used as a tool to develop a funding strategy. It also includes an overview of different funding models concerning economic reasoning and synthesizes different funding strategies regarding their impact on the higher education market.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Teresa A. Sullivan of University of Virginia reviews “Saving Alma Mater: A Rescue Plan for America's Public Universities” by James C. Garland. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins, “Examines how to reform the economic model of public higher education, drawing upon the example of Miami University of Ohio. Discusses where the money comes from; market forces in higher education; why public universities cannot restrain costs; the university prime directive; whether the faculty are ….”

Market Forces in Higher Education---Chinese and British Experience between Mid-1980s and Mid-1990s

This paper tries to examine how higher education in China and Britain has been affected by market forces between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, from three major issues. Comparing the experiences of both places, the paper argues that unlike the case of British counterpart, where marketisation of education has shifted to a corporate management approach, the Chinese experience can be argued as being the government’s attempt to use market forces and new initiatives from the non-state sectors, rather then an ideological shift to managerialism and its practices.

Greece Before the Bologna Process: Confronting or Embracing Quality Assurance in Higher Education?

The globalization of education, with its multiple associations with the growth of the knowledge society, the increasing penetration of market forces in higher education and the treatment of education as an exportable good, supplied in different forms and by various providers, exerts the need for systematic quality assurance in higher education. In Europe, the Bologna Process has urged member-states to respond quickly to the impact of globalization by facilitating tertiary assessment mechanisms to make European education attractive to foreign ‘consumers’ and at the same time to prevent academic migration to the USA. At present, Greece is among those member-states lacking some type of formal tertiary evaluation. The paper examines socio-political and economic conditions in which hostility towards quality assurance has developed. It discusses the prospects of Greece's converging towards the quality goals of the European Higher Education Area. This case goes beyond the limits of a strictly technical debate about the implementation of evaluation procedures or what its criteria ought to be, with the purpose of presenting the broader socio-political and economic background that influences the enactment and operation of quality assurance in Greece.

Horizontal Stratification of Higher Education in Russia: Trends, Gender Differences, and Labor Market Outcomes

Using survey data collected in fall 2000, the authors analyzed four aspects of “horizontal” variation among Russian university students: field of specialization, cost (paid versus free), intensity (full- versus part-time study), and timing of study (Soviet versus post-Soviet era). For each type of variation, they examined trends over time, gender differences, and effects on earnings and employment opportunities. In Russia, as elsewhere, horizontal differentiation of higher education has stratifying consequences. Unlike in many countries, gender differences along horizontal dimensions have not narrowed in Russia; in fact, the gender gap in part-time study has widened. But the introduction of market forces in higher education and the economy has shaped both male and female distributions across specialty, cost, and intensity. The labor market advantages accruing to a university degree differ across these horizontal dimensions and by the timing of the degree. Some of the patterns observed in Russia resemble those in the United States, while others are distinctive.

The quality assurance system and market forces in Japanese higher education

This article analyzes thedevelopment of the quality assurance system andchanges in market forces in higher education inJapan. First, the article focuses on thefunction and impact of self-monitoring andself-evaluation systems as unique processesoriented towards decentralization and internalreflection. Second, the changes in marketforces in higher education during rapideconomic globalization are discussed. Third,the possibility of external evaluation by theNational Institution for Academic Degrees isintroduced as a bureaucratic approach to showaccountability in the national universitysystem. Finally, the relationship between thechanges in the quality assurance system and thechanges in market forces is addressed.

Market Forces in Higher Education

AbstractThis article, by a Government Minister, sets in context and describes the developing role of market forces in higher education. Four markets are considered: for students; for graduates, research and other services; for academic staff; and for public funds. Limited market forces already operate in all these areas. Policies such as the shift to fees and student loans are expanding and focusing their role, offering new opportunities to higher education's providers and users. The national benefits are a more efficient and responsive system and fairer sharing of its costs.

Academic freedom, autonomy and accountability in British universities

ABSTRACT This paper argues that, using Eric Ashby's earlier writing on academic freedom and autonomy and Burton Clark's more recent essay on the different modes of co-ordination, the current British Government has unnecessarily terminated the University Grants Committee and in its overreliance on market forces in higher education is threatening the future academic integrity of British universities. (The public sector is not dealt with in this paper.) Ashby sees academic freedom as an “internationally recognized and unambiguous privilege of university teachers˚d which must be protected whenever and however challenged. In contrast, “the question as to what constitutes autonomy in universities is anything but unambiguous, and the patterns of autonomy which satisfy academics are very diverse˚d. In exploring autonomy issues, it is helpful to know whether the Government is intervening in procedural or substantive matters. The former (e.g. pre-audits, controls over purchasing, personnel, capital construction) ca...