Tuition Fees as a Source of Funding and a Policy Instrument: International Experience

The article discusses conceptual grounds of tuition fee policies based on literature review and the study of country-specific cases of the USA, France and Russia in order to highlight general trends and identify practices which can be considered for implementation in Russia. The Authors believe that scholarly publications offer contradicting empirical results related to the impact of tuition fee policies on the performance of higher education institutes. Several theoretical frameworks such as human capital, demand and consumer choice theories as well as the concept of new managerialism are used to explain controversial empirical evidence. Moreover, the effects of tuition fee policies are proven to be contingent on multiple factors such as state governance system, dynamics of labor market, organizational design of higher education, maturity of financial assistance system, prestige and uniqueness of specific educational programs. It is concluded that, apart from PhD studies, overall trend is towards wider application and increase in tuition fees combined with high price for foreign students. Doctoral students in most cases do not pay tuition fees, but get salary for work in research projects conducted to develop new knowledge. Both in the USA and France the best education is provided by highly selective expensive private institutions (although in both countries there are high quality public education). In Russia the most attractive, though expensive for those who pay tuition fees, are public universities because they provide high quality education. Potential change in tuition fee policy in Russia should acknowledge that, in general, higher tuition fees are justified for studies providing higher future earnings. Increase in tuition fees should be coupled with more developed financial aid system.