Tuition

Tuition fees are part of a larger context concerning funding higher education investigated under the term ‘cost-sharing’. As discussed in the work of Bruce Johnstone, cost-sharing recognises that participation in higher education has costs attached to it and the fundamental question is how to find the right balance between public and private investment. In OECD countries during 2015, 66% of the costs of higher education were publicly funded, whilst the remainder were privately funded. This entry first describes the main design aspects of tuition fee schemes and how they work. It then puts these schemes in a larger policy context as an instrument for changing—and adapting to—how higher education works.

Tuition fees are individual payments required by students participating in higher education. Sometimes they are directly ...