Funding Instruments in Higher Education: an Analysis Across Six National Systems

Originally prepared during the spring of 2005, this report is based on the aggregation of a set of descriptive elements shedding light on the funding instruments being used by governments across six countries. The data collected were, in the great majority of the cases, based on publicly available reports and policy documents. When suitable, the author drew upon previous studies from higher education research as to shed light on some of the aspects covered. Each one of the reports should be read individually, and no attempt was made here to neither establish a comparison between them nor theorise upon the results found. This data collection exercise was part of a larger strategic analysis looking at the future alternatives for the funding of higher education in Finland. The project, undertaken by HEG (University of Tampere) and in collaboration with Hedda (University of Oslo), was part of larger project commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Education in the context of future changes in the policy instruments regulating the domestic higher education sector.