As the world seeks to build back better into a new era of green and equitable economic growth, tertiary education systems are at the heart of the big transformations required throughout economies and societies. Tertiary education is vital for the development of human capital and innovation. Strategic and effective investments in tertiary education…

Financing is the lifeblood of any public policy. First, because the availability of monetary resources conditions the affordability and sustainability of this policy. Second, because the financing systems in place, including the channels, mechanisms and tools for resource collection, allocation and management, are essential, structural factors to…

COVID-19 school closures initially revealed more than 75% of children lacked access to critical digital learning opportunities. Three out of four were living in the poorest 40% of households. Digital learning is impossible without connectivity and electricity. However, in places like Chad, Malawi and Niger, the proportion of people with access to…

This study focuses on the state and effectiveness of national funding systems of Higher Education to support the European Universities Initiative. Its focus lies on the mechanisms employed by Member States for the core funding of higher education institutions, in particular the mechanisms that include performance elements. More specifically, the…

Across the Central Eastern European region, inclusive education has become a policy aim. Europeanization, influence of United Nations agencies, and shifts away from Soviet models of education have led to new policy aspirations for the inclusion of children with special education needs (SEN). At the same time, policies in many countries often lack…

This study provides comparable lower-bound estimates of inequality of opportunity for tertiary education (EIOp) for 31 countries in Europe, by using the two EU-SILC waves for which information on family background is available (2005 and 2011). The results reveal an important degree of heterogeneity, with Northern European countries showing low…

The focus of this paper is upon an examination of the 'direction of travel' in European countries from special needs education to inclusive education -- a development influenced by the Salamanca Statement. The 1994 Salamanca Statement argued that inclusive schools provide 'an effective education for the majority of children and improve the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define the impact of the investment in training in education by the European Social Fund (ESF) in four Eastern countries, namely, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Hungary. Those countries have some political, cultural, social and economic similarities and share some common ground in the human resource…

This article analyses how political preferences, which are co-determined by the beliefs of decision-makers and influences of interest groups and the general public, affect the decisions to maintain or cut public funding for tertiary education during the economic crisis. Our sample included 29 European countries which we divided into two groups…

This paper looks at how countries have mobilized additional resources for education and assesses their impact on access and learning outcomes, using the World Bank's new Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling measure. The paper shows that global spending on education has risen significantly over the past two decades, although spending as a share of…

The higher education experience was markedly different than usual for those enrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education institutions of all kinds found their instructional methods profoundly disrupted by the closure of their physical campuses, and the crisis exposed the urgent need for policy makers and institutional leaders to adjust…

Within the process of harmonizing and strengthening Europe as a competitive knowledge economy education is presented as a basic pillar of economic growth in a multitude of European policy papers. But how do individuals respond to incentives coming from European education politics? (How) are they appropriating given targets and how do they engage…

In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, and its expected economic impact, this European University Association (EUA) briefing explores the possible implications for university funding in Europe in the short to medium term. Based on a wealth of data collected under the EUA Public Funding Observatory over more than a decade, the briefing focuses…

This article describes the changing face of institutions of higher education in Russia in comparison with other countries. It is shown that the ratios of funding sources for higher education in Russia are similar in structure to those in other countries. However, the absolute amounts of funding from these sources are three times less in Russia…

This Policy Paper aims at analysing the most important aspects of Public Responsibility, Financing and Governance of Higher Educations while seeking to formulate a students perspective on the state of play within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). In doing so it touches upon the very foundation of how and in which socio-political…