The UK government wishes to increase participation in higher education to 50%, with a key target group being students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds. At the same time, top-up fees have been introduced. Following the fierce parliamentary debates which threatened to derail the passage of the Higher Education Bill 2004, an amendment was…

The educational and living costs of undergraduate studies and the ways these costs are shared among parents, students, taxpayers, and philanthropists/donors are considered for five countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and Sweden. Five policy issues that are linked to how costs are shared by…

This paper surveys European and United States approaches to public funding for post-compulsory education and offers an analytical framework describing how the funding is allocated, with a particular focus on identifying the principles that governments use to determine access to public funding for post-compulsory education. The study identifies two…