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Higher education (HE) sectors form an important part of societies and their economy, on which the members of a society depend for their individual and collective future benefit. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the perceptions of accounting academics on the introduction of HE tuition fees in both England and Germany, and how this policy has affected the everyday life of academics and students alike in each country. The respective funding and reform approach sets the context of this study.

The study has adopted a qualitative methodology, analysing data collected through semi-structured interviews. Accounting academics discuss their perceptions of both policies in the respective context. Academics were focussed on as implementers of educational policies. Accounting academics were chosen due to their academic and professional background, changing academic position in the global market and their representative stance in the academic context. The data analysis took place through coding interview data.

While England’s fees have been increased several times over the past 15 years, few German federal states have introduced, and have already abolished the policy. Reasons as to why the outcomes are so radically different are discussed based on interviews with accounting academics, and the implications for future practice are that to be successful political support must be sustained regardless of the changing governments, and the HE sector itself must have strong champions supporting this policy. Furthermore, the effect of the respective tuition fee policy with regard to education is addressed, which suggests that English students have a broader education package expectation, while with regard to actual classroom education both German and English students have similar outlooks. A further issue is the different political and education contexts, the current state of affairs and the societal impact.

This study is one of the few to compare directly the differing tuition fee policies and the educational implications of these policies of Germany and England. These two cases are an illustration that Germany and England are at the opposite ends of the reform spectrum and that academics experience different expectations due to such different fee policies.

In this chapter we provide a brief history of student fees in Australian higher education (HE), particularly from 1974 when fees were abolished but more substantially from 1989 when they were re-introduced. Of particular interest is the impact of student fees on the equity of access in HE: what has become known in Australia as the proportional representation of ‘equity’ groups (i.e. groups defined by gender, socioeconomic status, disability, indigeneity, rurality or language background; see Martin, L. (1994). Equity and general performance indicators in higher education. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.), although latterly the focus has been on socioeconomic status (SES). Our analysis is of Australian Government policy, framed by a ‘quality of mind’ that C. W. Mills (1959, p. 14) refers to as the ‘sociological imagination’. That is, we draw attention to the absence of this imagination in much government policy, which falsely separates the personal troubles of individuals (e.g. in financing access to HE) from the public issues of societies (e.g. in universalising HE), with a tendency to ascribe responsibility for student fees to the former over the latter. In these terms, we characterise the history of access to Australian HE — specifically the role that student fees have played in this — as fluctuating from personal trouble to public issue and back again.

This chapter discusses the Government of Barbados’s 2014 introduction of partially student paid tuition fees for Barbadians attending the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus. This introduction of a student paid tuition component came after fifty years of state-funded education at the local UWI campus. In this chapter I assert that this introduction of fees altered the existing postcolonial “social contract” that has developed in the country and that has been integral to Barbados being presented as a “model” for small developing states in the Caribbean and beyond. In the chapter I argue that the social contract in the country was altered in light of the alleged demands of financial crisis and that this crisis climate allowed for “decision-making by surprise” in a country in which collaborative education governance has grown to be accepted as the norm.

The higher education system in Vietnam has expanded rapidly during the past two decades, creating opportunities for personal advancement by hundreds of thousands of young Vietnamese. On the limited evidence available, however, it appears that these opportunities have not been distributed equitably. Young people from better-off homes from urban areas and from the ethnic majority group seem more likely to have benefitted. Girls also appear to have benefitted, a trend that is a reverse of the past. In this paper, we report on the state of access to higher education in Vietnam and we report on areas of policy that relate to achieving a more socially inclusive higher education system.

The Printemps Érable has become a landmark event in the history of Québec’s student movement. The Printemps Érable protesters expressed demands on several fronts, including the freezing of tuition fees, free education, the preservation of a just and universal student loans and bursaries programme, the right of access to higher education for all the province’s youth and freedom of association. The 2012 movement echoed protests in the 1950s. This chapter provides an overview of the history of student protest over fees and access to higher education in Québec and considers its implications for student struggles more widely. The Printemps Érable ultimately led to the freezing of tuition fees. It also ensured the preservation of the universal student loan and bursary programme, and reaffirmed the students’ right to free association. This chapter gives an historical overview of the student protest movement in Quebec, and ponders its impact on student struggles everywhere.

Given the well-reported concerns over cost containment in public higher education, we believe performance should be measured based on cost efficiency and spending choices. This study develops three regression models linking presidential pay and public university performance with data for public universities that have no president change for fiscal year 2007 to fiscal year 2010. Analysis finds a statistically significant inverse relationship between presidential pay and resources devoted to instruction, the primary mission of most universities. A relationship for presidential compensation and enrollment is found for the individual fiscal years examined but not over time. Presidential compensation over time is positively related to spending on areas other than instruction.

To study the quality in higher education in Cambodia and explore the potential factors leading to quality in Cambodian higher education.

Five main factors that were deemed relevant in providing quality in Cambodian higher education were proposed: academic curriculum and extra‐curricular activities, teachers' qualification and methods, funding and tuition, school facilities, and interactive network. These five propositions were used to compare Shu‐Te University, Taiwan with the top five universities in Cambodia. The data came in the forms of questionnaire and desk research. Descriptive analytical approach is then carried out to describe these five factors.

Only 6 per cent of lecturers hold PhD degree and about 85 per cent never published any papers; some private universities charge as low as USD200 per academic year, there is almost no donation from international organizations, and annual government funding on higher education sector nationwide in 2005 was only about USD3.67 million; even though there is a library at each university, books, study materials etc. are not up‐to‐date and inadequate; 90 per cent of the lecturers never have technical discussion or meeting and about 60 per cent of students felt that their teachers did not have time for them to consult with.

A useful insight was gained into the perceived importance of quality in higher education that can stimulate debate and discussion on the role of government in building the standard quality in higher education. Also, the findings from this research can assist in the development of a framework of developing human resource.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the outcomes of the financial optimization process launched by the recent reforms in the Russian higher education sector and its impact on access to higher education, its quality and competitiveness within the sector. The study of the economic performance of higher educational institutions includes complex analysis of financial and educational components of their structural dynamics and their impact on their development strategy.

The methods used in the study of the segmentation of the higher education sector involve a combination of theoretical developments in economics and the modeling of the economic behavior of universities on the market for educational services, procedures for the evaluation of transaction costs in the markets with asymmetric information and recent conceptions of the interrelation of factors affecting quality and accessibility of higher education.

In this paper, the economic potential of Russian universities is considered, making use of a segmentation of the higher education sector, based on sampling of state and municipal higher education institutions from different industry groups, depending on their development strategy under changing social and economic conditions. The research data for 2006‐2009 help to define five clusters of the higher educational establishments with different approaches towards public funding and different strategies.

Based on the research data, the paper evaluates the current situation in the Russian higher education sector and some skewed structures of the reforms and outlines some policy implications.

Tightened government budgets are forcing public universities to confront a new economic reality as the traditional low tuition‐high subsidy model of public higher education becomes increasingly unsustainable. The shift toward reliance on tuition relative to taxpayer support reflects adjustments in consumer preferences, increased mobility, enhanced competition from non‐traditional providers, and reallocated government budgets. The outcome is clear: taxpayer support for higher education is decreasing, and is decreasing sharply and permanently when measured on a per student basis. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for university leaders that can provide the foundation for the transformation that needs to take place as universities face a permanent decline in public support. The primary goal is to point out differences between private business enterprises and public universities and then to suggest that many of the characteristics that define private sector excellence are applicable, often with modest modifications, to higher education.

The paper discusses and contrasts methodologies from the business and academic environments and suggest a hybrid framework for universities that captures appropriate business principles and provides beneficial outcomes while supporting and promoting academic excellence. It examines public university business schools as an example that provides initiatives that can be applied in many other areas of the university.

It is argued that many traditional practices in public higher education are incompatible with a changing environment that features permanent reductions in taxpayer support and greater reliance on tuition revenue from students who face attractive alternatives. There is also a changing demographic profile of applicants, many of whom require expensive remedial programs. The main result of the analysis is that a hybrid model of business and academic practices can provide a meaningful path for public universities to sustain excellence in a period of declining subsidy.Social implications – The framework developed in this paper includes the adoption of a distinctive, focused mission with a transparent budgetary system combined with the setting of differential tuition across areas based on willingness to pay and cost factors. Implementation of this framework can lead to an increase in social welfare by increasing efficiency, lowering costs, and effectively allocating resources across the university.

This paper's intent is to reach out to administrators and leaders in public higher education with an appeal to recognize that the new funding environment requires new ways of thinking about developing and implementing strategy. There is much to gain by becoming externally focused and accountable to those who are willing to pay for teaching and research, and also to recognize that vast differences in costs requires more attention by asking the fundamental questions: What products and services define our excellence and what should we not provide?

Discusses the results of a survey on aspects of the student experience of university at a semi‐rural faculty of a metropolitan university in England. The research found that students tend to be amassing considerable debts, have little financial parental support and some are dependent on wages from part‐time work as a source of funds. It would appear that there is some financial hardship among the students surveyed, with a significant minority paying their own tuition fees. It is a possibility that these students would not be able to afford the higher top‐up tuition fees proposed for 2006. However, it is suggested that, for most students, there is a good social life, and university remains an enjoyable experience.