Tuition fee: the remedy for growing inequality A public response to the growth of inequality in acce

1
Tuition fee the remedy for growing
inequalityA public response to the growth of
inequality in access to higher education in the
Czech Republic Petr MatejuAcademy of Science
of the Czech RepublicandAnglo-American College
in Prague
2
Overview of findings presented last year

• There is a strong relationship between spending
  on tertiary education, enrollment, and
  participation ....

3
Expected years of tertiary education as a
function of total expenditure on tertiary
education (2000)
FIN
KOR
US
NOR
SWE
SPA
CAN
IT
HU
GER
SWI
CZ
SLV
MEX
TUR
4
Expected years of tertiary education as a
function of total expenditure on tertiary
education (2000)
FIN
KOR
US
NOR
SWE
SPA
CAN
IT
HU
GER
SWI
CZ
SLV
MEX
TUR
5
Overview of findings presented last year (cont.)

• There are three distinct types of systems of
  financing tertiary education in terms of the
  relative use of public and private funding
  resources

6
Expenditure on tertiary education from all
sources as a percentage of GDP (2000)
Non-European systems
European-Scandinavian systems
Traditional European systems
Mean 1.54, Stdv. 0.54Varcoef 0.42
Post-Communist systems
7
Expenditure on tertiary education from public
sources as a percentage of GDP (2000)
Mean 1.0Stdv. 0.29Varcoef 0.29
8
Expenditure on tertiary education from private
sources as a percentage of GDP (2000)
Mean 0.40 Stdv. 0.51Varcoef 1.28
9
Relative proportion of private sources on total
expenditure on tertiary education in (2000)
Mean 21.4 Stdv. 19.6Varcoef 0.9
10
Overview of findings presented last year (cont.)

• There are two types of systems in terms of
  demand-supply relations
• Demand-driven systems (both public and private
  sources, number of opportunities grows along with
  demand)
• Supply-driven systems (mostly publicly financed
  systems, number of opportunities limited by
  available sources, numerus clausus)

11
Overview of findings presented last year (cont.)

• In terms of student financial aid, there are also
  three types of systems
• Financial aid (grants, loans, subsidies) towards
  the overall costs of higher education (tuition
  fees living expenses)
• Financial aid towards the living costs (in
  systems with no tuition fees)
• Poor (if any) financial aid (in systems with no
  tuition fees and limited supply of opportunities)

12
Overview of findings presented last year (cont.)

• In terms of the structure of the post-secondary
  education, there are two main types of systems
• Binary (two-tier) systems (bachelor master)
• Unitary (traditional) university systems (long
  masters degree programs)

13
Overview of findings presented last year (cont.)

• Demand driven systems show lower inequality
  (social selectivity) than supply driven systems
  (more constraints on the expansion)
• Binary (two-tier) systems show lower inequality
  (social selectivity) than unitary systems
• European university systems are undergoing only
  slow transformation from unitary to binary and
  from supply to demand driven

14
Central questionDo different systems of
financing post-secondary education generate
different patterns of inequality in access to
higher education?
15
Widely shared myth Opening private resources
for financing tertiary education results in an
increase in inequality (i.e. low participation of
children from low SES families)
16

• Preliminary analysis based on OECD data
• Education at a Glance (2003)International
  Adult Literacy Survey

17
MODELS OF FINANCING, OPPORTUNITY,AND
INEQUALITY
18
Private sources and financial subsidy to students
in OECD countries
State subsidy to students as a proportion of
total expenditure on tertiary education
The proportion of private sources in university
budgets
19
Private sources and financial subsidy to students
in OECD countries
20
Private sources and financial subsidy to students
in OECD countries
TYPE 2
TYPE 1
TYPE 3
21
Opportunity to study at the tertiary
levelexpected years of tertiary education
22
Population 25-34 attaining type A tertiary
education (2001)
23
Population 25-34 attaining type A tertiary
education (2001)selected countries
24
Change in the proportion of adults with tertiary
education 1996-2001 (1996100)
25
Change in the proportion of adults with tertiary
education 1996-2001 (1996100)selected countries
26
Social selectivity
27
Proportion of tertiary education graduates of
working class origin (father in manual
occupation)
28
Examining the Inequality Ratio

• The idea to assess the relative chances of
  attaining certain level of education for
  individuals of different social origin
• For example what is the chance of a person whose
  father was from a professional occupation
  obtaining a tertiary degree compared with a
  person of working class background?

29
Inequality ratioEducational attainment by social
origin (Czech Republic, SIALS)
30
Inequality ratioEducational attainment by social
origin (Czech Republic, SIALS)
R(prof/worker) 29.8/7.6 3.9
31
Inequality ratioEducational attainment by social
origin (Czech Republic, SIALS)
The chance of attaining tertiary education for a
person of professional background is 3.9 times
higher than for a person of working class
background
R(prof/worker) 29.8/7.6 3.9
32
Inequality ratios for achieving tertiary
education by age cohortParents education
(Tertiary/Lower Secondary)
Type 1 USA, Type 2 FIN, NOR, SWE, NET Type 3
CZR, POL, HUN, GER, SLO)
33
Inequality ratios for achieving tertiary
education by age cohortFathers social class
(Professional/Manual)
Type 1 USA, Type 2 FIN Type 3 CZR, POL, HUN)
34
Summary 1

• The development in OECD countries indicates that
  for establishing greater equity, financing
  opportunity growth is essential
• OECD and SIALS data suggest that opening private
  resources for financing tertiary education does
  not result in the increase of inequality

35
Summary 1 (cont.)

• Inequality in access to tertiary education is in
  fact higher in systems where low expenditure from
  public sources is coupled by restrictions put on
  the use of private sources (tuition fee not
  permitted at public universities)
• In terms of inequality, there are no significant
  differences between systems based on generous
  public financing (Type 2) and systems combining
  cost-sharing with programs of financial aid to
  students (Type 1)

36
Summary 1 (cont.)

• The poor seem to do better in demand driven
  systems based on cost-sharing and financial aid
  than in supply driven systems with restrictive
  entry, low fees and weak financial aid also

37
The case of the Czech Republic

• Czech Republic is a typical representative of the
  Type 3 systems unitary, supply driven, no
  tuition fees, severe austerity of university
  system

38
Secondary school graduates, enrolled to
university, and the proportion of enrolled
between 1962 and 1999 in the Czech Republic.
Both graduates and enrolled include part-time
students
1989
1968
39
Inequality ratio for achieving tertiary education
by parents education (tertiary/lower
secondary)(Source SIALS)
40
Inequality ratio for achieving tertiary education
by parents education (tertiary/lower
secondary)(Source SIALS)
41
Inequality ratio for achieving tertiary education
by fathers class (professional/manual
worker)(Source SIALS)
42
Inequality ratio for achieving tertiary education
by fathers class (professional/manual
worker)(Source SIALS)
43
The results of logit models of the development
in inequality in access to higher education
44
Principal hypotheses

• Socialism
• Socialism didnt bring any significant change in
  the odds of making transition from secondary to
  tertiary education (conditional models)
• The same holds for the odds of achieving tertiary
  education (uncoditional models)

45
Principal hypotheses

• Post-communist transformation
• Post-communist transformation has brought
  significant increase in class inequality, both in
  term of odds of making the transition between
  secondary and tertiary education, and odds of
  attaining tertiary education
• The most evident loser of this change was working
  class

46
Odds ratios for the success in the transition
between secondary and tertiary education sex
and parents education (based on odds predicted
by Model I) L2 20.5, DF 24, p 0.666
47
Odds ratios for the success in the transition
between secondary and tertiary education
fathers class (based on odds predicted by
Model II) L2 26.1, DF 31, p 0.718
FCLS1 unskilled and semiskilled workers (30 )
48
Odds ratios for the success in the transition
between secondary and tertiary education
parents education and fathers class (based on
odds predicted by Model II) L2 26.1, DF 31, p
0.718
Disadvantage of working class children
49
Summary 2 - Czech Republic

• In a long term perspective, socialism didnt
  improve relative chances of working class
  children for attaining tertiary education (the
  effect of quota system was only temporary)
• Post-communist transformation brought significant
  increase of inequality, particularly due to the
  growth of relative disadvantage of children of
  working class origin.

50
Summary 2 - Czech Republic

• This development has been caused primarily by two
  factorsa) rapid growth of demand for tertiary
  education after 1989b) maintaining the
  elitist nature of the tertiary system
  (supply driven unitary system)

51
Current governments position

• implementing tuition is unacceptable solution it
  would raise inequality in access to higher
  education particularly among working class
  children !

52
Odds ratios for the success in the transition
between secondary and tertiary education
parents education and fathers class (based on
odds predicted by Model II) L2 26.1, DF 31, p
0.718
Disadvantage of working class children
Government we will protect children from low
SES families from the plans to implement tuition
fees and loans!
53
Public response to the critical situation

• Three surveys
• public opinion on 2.400 adult respondents
  (September 2003)
• longitudinal study of 15 year olds (PISA)
  launched in June 2003
• longitudinal study of the first year university
  students (January - May 2004)

54
Public response to the critical situation

• PROBLEM 1 Tertiary education significantly
  improves ones chances for life-success (90),
  BUT only the rich can secure good education for
  their children (60)
• PROBLEM 2 Tertiary education should be free of
  charge (ideal for 70) , BUT limited public
  sources of financing higher education result in a
  slow growth of opportunities and in the growth of
  inequality in access to higher education

55
Public response to the critical situation

• QUESTION Would introducing tuition fee and loans
  enable a greater number of young people to study
  at the tertiary level? In other words Would
  people be willing to compromise the ideal of free
  university education?
• WHO SHOULD GET FINANCIAL AID? Should financial
  aid from the state be universal or targeted?

56
Q Good tertiary education must be seen as an
investment that brings benefit to both the
individual and the societyQ Only the rich can
secure a truly good education for their children
in our country.
95
58
57
Q The government should provide a college or
university education free of charge to all who
express an interest in it.Q Tuition fees with
the possibility of a loan would enable a greater
number of young people who are interested in
tertiary education to receive it.
71
70
58
Q The government should provide a college or
university education free of charge to all who
express an interest in it.Q Tuition fees with
the possibility of a loan would enable a greater
number of young people who are interested in
tertiary education to receive it.
71
70
59
Q The government should provide a college or
university education free of charge to all who
express an interest in it.Q Tuition fees with
the possibility of a loan would enable a greater
number of young people who are interested in
tertiary education to receive it.
71
70
60
Q The government should provide a college or
university education free of charge to all who
express an interest in it. Q The government
should provide financial help towards receiving a
tertiary education only to those who really need
it.
80
70
61
Q Tuition fees with the possibility of a loan
would enable a greater number of young people who
are interested in tertiary education to receive
it by electoral preferences
76
71
65
62
Q Tuition fees with the possibility of a loan
would enable a greater number of young people who
are interested in tertiary education to receive
it by social class
63
Q Do you think that colleges and universities
should introduce tuition fees with the students
having the possibility to get a favorable loan
from the state?
59
58
31
64
Conclusions

• The Czech population reflects growing inequality
  in access to post-secondary education as a
  serious problem
• In a long term perspective, public resources
  cannot secure the growth of opportunity which
  would allow higher participation

65
Conclusions (cont.)

• Majority of the population (70 ) still believes
  that tertiary education should be free of charge
  (IDEAL)
• However, the same proportion of the population
  (70 ) agrees that cost-sharing and students aid
  would allow to solve the problem of limited
  opportunity and unequal participation
• This solution is supported regardless
  respondents political orientation

66
Conclusions (cont.)

• Cost-sharing and targeted students aid is
  supported regardless of social class, including
  students themselves
• Governments in East-Central Europe, incl. the
  Czech government, still reject the solution for
  being socially unacceptable (will hurt
  primarily low-income families)

67
Conclusions (cont.)

• Populations in East-Central Europe clearly begun
  to outrun their political elites in understanding
  the dilemma between raising educational
  aspirations and declining ability of government
  to meet the growing demand for higher education
  within the existing system relying solely on
  public financing !!!

68
Thank you !

• www.isea-cz.org
• or
• www.stratif.cz