The Political Economy of Higher Education Tuition Fees and Subsidies

Why do students in some countries pay so much for college while students elsewhere study free of charge and even get high public financial support? This paper provides an answer by analyzing the politics of higher education tuition fees and subsidies. Applying cluster analyses to a genuine dataset of 33 OECD-countries, I demonstrate that four “Worlds of Student Finance” can be distinguished. What are the politico-economic factors that shaped and sustained these regimes? This question is especially puzzling because the higher education systems in all OECD-countries were similar in the immediate post-WW-II period. My argument is that the partisan composition of government and especially the duration of left and right parties in office explain the Four Worlds. Empirically, I test this argument in a multi-method design, combining qualitative case studies and quantitative analyses on the macro-level of policy-making, the meso-level or party positions, and the micro-level of individual attitudes.