The End of Free College in England: Implications for Quality, Enrolments, and Equity

Richard Murphy, Judith Scott-Clayton and Gillian Wyness

No 23888, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Despite increasing financial pressures on higher education systems throughout the world, many governments remain resolutely opposed to the introduction of tuition fees, and some countries and states where tuition fees have been long established are now reconsidering free higher education. This paper examines the consequences of charging tuition fees on university quality, enrolments, and equity. To do so, we study the English higher education system which has, in just two decades, moved from a free college system to one in which tuition fees are among the highest in the world. Our findings suggest that England’s shift has resulted in increased funding per head, rising enrolments, and a narrowing of the participation gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. In contrast to other systems with high tuition fees, the English system is distinct in that its income-contingent loan system keeps university free at the point of entry, and provides students with comparatively generous assistance for living expenses. We conclude that tuition fees, at least in the English case supported their goals of increasing quality, quantity, and equity in higher education.

JEL-codes: I22 I23 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
Note: ED
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published as Richard Murphy & Judith Scott-Clayton & Gill Wyness, 2018. "The end of free college in England: Implications for enrolments, equity, and quality," Economics of Education Review, .

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23888.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The end of free college in England: implications for quality, enrolments and equity (2017)
Working Paper: The end of free college in England: implications for quality, enrolments and equity (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23888

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23888

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().