1、2075 单词， 3485 汉字 出处 : Arthur M. Hauptman, 2006.“Higher Education Finance: Trends and Issues”. Springer International Hand books of Education, Volume 18.pp.83-106. Higher Education Finance Public and Private Support of Institutions Higher education systems around the world depend on a combination of
2、public and private resources to fund their operations. There is a great deal of variation among countries in the proportion of public and private resources they consume. In the majority of countries, institutions are primarily financed through public resources in the form of government support； tuit
3、ion fees and other private sources of support are low or nonexistent. At the other end of the spectrum are countries such as the United States where private resources constitute as much as half or more of the total resources devoted to higher education. Public Sources of Support In most countries, p
4、ublic sources of support represent by far the largest resource for higher education institutions. The way in which these public funds are distributed and the signals that these funds provide to institutional officials are critical in defining the financing structure of the country. There are a numbe
5、r of issues that help to characterize public support of higher education, including: how research activities, recurrent operating expenses (running costs), and capital expenses are financed； funding governance issues including who is responsible for distributing funds； accountability models； and tax
6、-based support. How are capital improvements financed? Capital improvements in higher education the construction and renovation of facilities and the acquisition of large equipment tend to be financed in one of several ways. A number of countries pay for capital expenses through the same public fund
7、ing mechanisms that pay for instruction, operations, and possibly research. But in many other cases, capital expenses are paid for through private sources, either the issuance of bonds in which repayment often comes from dedicated revenues that relate to the capital expense, or through donations and
8、 endowments in countries where private giving is a source of funds. Facilities also might be paid for through tuition fees, often a major source of financing for capital expenses. As a general matter, it is better if capital expenditures are not financed through the same mechanism as instruction and
9、 operations, as short-terms needs for operating funds often squeeze out legitimate longer term needs for improvement. Improving Coordination Among Funding, Fee, and Financial Aid Policies. A fundamental weakness in the higher education financing approach employed in most countries is the inadequate
10、degree of coordination among the three key elements of financingthe funding of institutions, the setting of tuition fees, and the provision of student financial aid (Hauptman, 1998). Among the many challenges in coordinating, three are most prominent. First, policymakers in every country should cons
11、ider whether government funding of institutions and tuition fees should be uniform across institutions or differentiated. To put this question into context, one must first recognize that public universities around the world have two major sources of revenuespublic funding support and the tuition fee
12、s which students and their families pay. These two revenue sources can vary by institution or they can be equalized. The best policy, in this authors opinion, is one in which one of these revenue sources is differentiated among institutions and the other is not, for the following reason. If both fee
13、s and public funding are differentiated by institution, the best funded universities will get richer while those with the least resources will fall further behind as the gap between them grows. On the other hand, in systems where both fees and funding are equalizing forces fees are kept the same acr
14、oss institutions, while public funds are distributed in an equal manner quality is likely to be compromised because high quality institutions are unlikely to emerge in such a funding scheme. It is much better if one of these sources is differential and the other is an equalizing force. In the opinio
15、n of this author, it is better for government funding to be uniform across institutions in part because it is difficult for governments to pick winners and for tuition fees to be differentiated, thus providing a measure of quality. A second issue involving the relationship between fees and funding i
16、s what happens to government support in response to changes in tuition fees. The question is, when fees are increased, what happens to the government support those institutions receive? If there is no reduction in public support, institutions have little reason not to increase their fees. On the oth
17、er hand, if government funds are reduced one-for-one with any increase in fees, then the institution will have little incentive to raise fees because the other major form of support will be correspondingly reduced. The appropriate policy is somewhere in between, with public funding reduced to reflec
18、t increases in fee revenues but not as much as the increase in fees. A third challenge of coordination involves the relationship between fees and financial aid when fees are increased. Most countries seeking to raise tuition fees in relative terms have not adequately recognized the need to increase
19、student aid to protect against the adverse effects of increasing fees for students and families that cannot afford those increases. Concerns about this nexus of higher fees and more financial aid center on three issues. First, loans are relied upon much more than grants as a means to pay for fee inc
20、reases. Second, the aid provided, whether in the form of loans or grants, is generally insufficient to meet the increased financial need created by higher fees. Third, typically fee increases are put in place before an adequate student financial aid system has been put into operation, thereby creati
21、ng a new and growing class of needy students and feeding student fears that aid will not be there to offset the effects of higher fees. Private Sources of Funds to Institutions Colleges and universities around the world depend on a variety of private sources of funds to help support their recurrent
22、operations and fund their capital improvements. These private sources of revenues include tuition fees； gifts and other forms of philanthropy； payments from a variety of services； and the commercialization of research conducted on campus and for the support of other private entrepreneurial enterprises. Tuition fees Tuition fees in most countries represent the largest private source of revenues for
