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Higher Education Funding Reforms: A Comprehensive Analysis of Educational and Labor Market Outcomes in England

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  • Azmat, Ghazala
  • Simion, Stefania

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of changes in the funding of higher education in England on students’ choices and outcomes. Over the last two decades – through three major reforms in 1998, 2006 and 2012 – undergraduate university education in public universities moved from being free to students and state funded to charging substantial tuition fees to all students. This was done in conjunction with the government offering generous means-tested maintenance grants and loans. Using detailed longitudinal micro-data that follows all students attending state schools in England (more than 90 percent of all school-aged children) from lower education to higher education, we document the socio-economic distributional effects of the 2006 and 2012 policy reforms on a comprehensive set of outcomes, including enrolment, relocation decisions, selection of institution, program of study, and performance within university. For a subset of students, we track them after completing higher education, allowing us to study the labor market effects of the policy reforms. Despite the substantial higher education funding reforms, we do not find large aggregate effect on student enrolment or on other margins. Moreover, the small negative impacts found on the enrolment were largely borne on those in higher parts of the wealth distribution – reducing the enrolment gap across socio-economic groups.

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  • Azmat, Ghazala & Simion, Stefania, 2017. "Higher Education Funding Reforms: A Comprehensive Analysis of Educational and Labor Market Outcomes in England," CEPR Discussion Papers 12389, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12389
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    1. Bas Jacobs & Sweder J. G. van Wijnbergen, 2007. "Capital-Market Failure, Adverse Selection, and Equity Financing of Higher Education," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 63(1), pages 1-32, March.
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    4. Hübner, Malte, 2012. "Do tuition fees affect enrollment behavior? Evidence from a ‘natural experiment’ in Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 949-960.
    5. Philip Oreopoulos & Daniel Lang & Joshua Angrist, 2009. "Incentives and Services for College Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 136-163, January.
    6. Chapman, Bruce & Ryan, Chris, 2005. "The access implications of income-contingent charges for higher education: lessons from Australia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 491-512, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Molina, Teresa & Rivadeneyra, Ivan, 2021. "The schooling and labor market effects of eliminating university tuition in Ecuador," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    2. Bradley, Steve & Migali, Giuseppe, 2019. "The effects of the 2006 tuition fee reform and the Great Recession on university student dropout behaviour in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 331-356.
    3. Jo Blanden & Matthias Doepke & Jan Stuhler, 2022. "Education inequality," CEP Discussion Papers dp1849, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Britton, Jack & Gruber, Jonathan, 2020. "Do income contingent student loans reduce labor supply?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Antonio Cabrales & Maia Güell & Rocio Madera & Analía Viola, 2019. "Income contingent university loans: Policy design and an application to Spain," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 34(99), pages 479-521.
    6. de Gendre, Alexandra & Kabátek, Jan, 2021. "From Subsidies to Loans: The Effects of a National Student Finance Reform on the Choices of Secondary School Students," IZA Discussion Papers 14686, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Hassani-Nezhad, Lena & Anderberg, Dan & Chevalier, Arnaud & Lührmann, Melanie & Pavan, Ronni, 2021. "Higher education financing and the educational aspirations of teenagers and their parents," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Oyvat, Cem, 2020. "The role of global finance in the provisioning of social infrastructure and the welfare state," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 26750, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    9. Murphy, Richard & Scott-Clayton, Judith & Wyness, Gill, 2019. "The end of free college in England: Implications for enrolments, equity, and quality," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 7-22.
    10. Ghazala Azmat & Richard Murphy & Anna Valero & Gill Wyness, 2018. "Universities and industrial strategy in the UK: review of evidence and implications for policy," CEP Industrial Strategy 06, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher education; Tuition fees; Means-tested support; Career choices; Career outcomes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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