The Returns Of Education Investments: A Research For Anadolu University Social Sciences Faculties Graduates

Education is one of the most important elements of human capital that determines economic development at macro level and individual income at micro level. For this reason, spending on education is an investment, whether it is done by individuals or by the state. Evaluation of education as an investment brings the question to mind-"What is the return on this investment, compared to other alternative investments?" Return on investments in education is calculated by taking into consideration the education expenditures made during the training, opportunity cost of time spent on education and expectations of future returns. The purpose of this study is to calculate the private rate of return on their investment for the university training of graduate students from faculty of humanities, faculty of education, faculty of law, faculty of communication sciences and faculty of economics and administrative sciences providing education at the undergraduate level of Eskisehir Anadolu University. For this purpose, a survey was made to those who has graduated from these faculties between the years 1999-2009 and the return on higher education were calculated in respect to the data obtained. A cost-benefit analysis method was used for calculating the internal rate of return. As a result of research, among related faculties, the highest return on education investment was found to be law school faculty. Respectively faculty of communication sciences, faculty of economic and administrative sciences, faculty of education and faculty of humanities followed this.