Higher Education and the Spectre of Variable Fees

As part of a larger effort to fund public universities, variable fees at the graduate and undergraduate levels are a topic of discussion in the United States and increasingly throughout the European Union. This essay describes the relatively new shift to have students pay for a significant portion of their university education, emerging fee structures, and discusses the possible policy implications of variable fee structures. We argue that emerging cost-sharing fee policy in the United States and in England is being pursued incrementally, without an adequate conceptual model for long-term funding of universities and their possible impact on students and academic programs.

Higher Education Management and Policy, Volume 18 Issue 1

Higher Education and the Spectre of Variable Fees

Public Policy and Institutional Responses in the United States and the United Kingdom