Economic Insights on Higher Education Policy in Ireland: Evidence from a Public System PDF
Preview Economic Insights on Higher Education Policy in Ireland: Evidence from a Public System
ECONOMIC INSIGHTS ON HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY IN IRELAND Evidence from a Public System Edited by John Cullinan and Darragh Flannery Economic Insights on Higher Education Policy in Ireland John Cullinan • Darragh Flannery Editors Economic Insights on Higher Education Policy in Ireland Evidence from a Public System Editors John Cullinan Darragh Flannery National University of Ireland University of Limerick Galway, Ireland Limerick, Ireland ISBN 978-3-319-48552-2 ISBN 978-3-319-48553-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-48553-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017931594 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Nate Umstead – Getty Images Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Foreword Globally higher education is in a state of considerable policy confusion. The dual policy motivation of equating highly educated populations with high levels of economic growth, and the desire to use education as a means to promote social equity, is appealing for policymakers. Organisation of the sector veers between the largely private higher education market (usu- ally bringing to mind the USA—perhaps unfairly given the wide breadth of institutions there, ranging from the private ‘Ivy League’ to the great public universities and through to Community Colleges) and the wholly public systems (usually associated with the European system). But even in this public structure—the core focus of this volume— eventually the costs of expanding education access leaves governments clambering for funding solutions. Despite the public funding, these solutions are often dressed up in the language of the market, such as encouraging private ‘competitors’ or imposing quality rules in return for state support. This model of funding institutions based on student participation, but also encouraging some market-style engagement, has been likened by the University of Melbourne’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Glyn Davis, as being akin to having a fixed exchange rate and a floating exchange rate at the same time. It becomes confusing to know what to target and, moreover, the targets move as key drivers of policy positions, most notably exchequer funding, change. v vi Foreword The motivation for expansion within the sector was a sense of equity— that somehow the best institutions were off limits to lower socio- economic status students, or minority groups, due to how universities played with the capacity at their institutions. The problem is that old economics adage that supply will create its own demand—or the Hollywoodism of ‘build it and they will come’. This is coupled with a pronounced sense that the vocational/apprenticeship system has become quite ‘unloved’—not only by government policies but also by parents and prospective students who see the university degree as the desired result. Despite the very sizeable investments in higher education, participa- tion is still largely a middle-class outcome. Institutions pursue strategies for improving diversity, but ultimately the issue of under-participation by lower socio-economic background students in higher education has a fault-line firmly in the secondary school system and in the hard-wired nature of educational choice. This is, of course, closely aligned with the returns to education. If you don’t know the value of education to you as an individual (because you have no reference points—no peers, no sib- lings, no parents who have experienced higher education), you will see other alternatives as better choices. These other choices may be jobs that do not allow you to realise your full potential but can also be other out- comes such as crime or welfare dependency. As a result, reviews, debates and policy papers abound in many countries. The fact that governments are engaging in substantive reviews of their higher education systems dur- ing a period of intense strain on the public purse is no coincidence. Improvement in access to higher education is an important aim. But higher education in itself will not create opportunities in life. A demand- driven system will create a response in demand, but not necessarily where you want it, or from whom you want it. All evidence on access, for exam- ple, says start early, lock in a student mid-high school and raise their ambitions. King’s College London, for example, runs its own secondary school with a particular focus on mathematics. This is an increasingly clear mantra from research which thankfully policymakers are listening to. In this complex context, this volume is very much to be welcomed. The Irish experiences provide a very important lesson for many countries. A public system, in a country that quickly embraced the value of higher Forewor d vii education, effectively within a generation, which led to a massive expan- sion of participation, though perhaps in a socially uneven manner, and quickly had that expansion hit by a massive economic shock. Ireland has been on a rollercoaster of ‘mass’ higher education aspirations for the last 20 years of the twentieth century, to having that demand but no funds to pay for it in the first decades of the twenty-first century. Ireland is a very interesting laboratory for the study of how economics can interpret and influence higher education. Spread across three key domains (participation, progression and financing), the volume examines how the returns to education is met with a persistent problem of low participation by some groups and, more importantly, examines the stresses of a public system trying to deliver a laudable aim of education-led growth and greater equity against the real- ity of a post ‘great recession’ public purse. Professor Colm Harmon Head of School of Economics University of Sydney Contents Part I Introduction 1 1 E conomics and Higher Education Policy 3 Darragh Flannery and John Cullinan Part II Participation & Preferences 25 2 Th e Economics of Higher Education Participation 27 Kevin Denny and Darragh Flannery 3 A Spatial Economic Perspective on Higher Education Choices 53 John Cullinan and Brendan Halpin 4 F actors Influencing Higher Education Institution Choice 81 Sharon Walsh and John Cullinan ix x Contents Part III Progression & Outcomes 109 5 S tudent Retention in Higher Education 111 Selina McCoy and Delma Byrne 6 A ccess Programmes and Higher Education Outcomes 143 Patricia McMullin 7 O vereducation in the Irish Labour Market 165 Seamus McGuinness, Ruth O’Shaughnessy, and Konstantinos Pouliakas Part IV Benefits & Financing 197 8 Th e Economic Impact of Higher Education Institutions 199 Qiantao Zhang, Charles Larkin, and Brian M. Lucey 9 Th e Returns to Third Level Education 221 Darragh Flannery and Cathal O’Donoghue 10 S tudent Financing of Higher Education 247 Darragh Flannery, Aedín Doris, and Bruce Chapman Index 273 Notes on Editors John Cullinan is a Lecturer in Economics at the JE Cairnes School of Business & Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He holds a primary degree in Actuarial and Financial Studies and an MA in Economics from University College Dublin, an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the National University of Ireland. He was previously a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. John is an applied economist with research interests in the fields of higher education, health and natural resource economics and his work primarily involves the application of econometric and spatial modelling techniques to examine public policy issues. He has a particular interest in the spatial economics of higher education. Darragh Flannery is a Lecturer in Economics at the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick (UL). He holds a PhD in Economics from the National University of Ireland (NUI), an MSc in Economics (NUI Galway) and a primary degree in Business Studies (UL). He specialises in applied microeco- nomics, focusing on a range of public policy issues including local government finance and public/private partnerships. He has a specific focus on issues relating to higher education policy. These include higher education participation, the returns to education and higher e ducation financing. Darragh has published over 20 peer-reviewed publications across these topics and currently has a num- ber of on-going research projects related to the economics of higher education. xi
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