The Finance of Higher Education: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice (Higher Education Series) - Hardcover

Michael B. Paulsen

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9780875861340: The Finance of Higher Education: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice (Higher Education Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875861342 ISBN 13: 9780875861340

Publisher: Agathon Press, 2002

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Edited by Michael B. Paulsen and John C. Smart, this volume is a comprehensive examination of policies and practices and the essential theories and areas of research that comprise the field of higher education finance. Nine of the fifteen chapters were written for this volume; the other six are reprinted from various volumes of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Finance, each with an updating epilogue provided by the authors.

A unique feature of the book is its comprehensive, systematic presentation of the theories and models from the policy science of economics that have been the most frequently and productively applied to the study of higher education finance. These perspectives include human capital theory, public sector economics, the microeconomic theories of cost and productivity, and the price theory of microeconomics, each of which is addressed in a separate chapter.

Among topics addressed in other chapters are how affordable college attendance really is for students under different circumstances; trends in the revenues and expenditures of public and private colleges and universities; detailed examinations of the nature and effects of federal, state, and institutional policies in the area of higher education finance; the new student-choice construct as a framework for expanding our thinking about how financial policies related to grants, loans and tuition can affect students' enrollment decisions; the effects of financial and other policies on the aspirations and participation of prospective and current students from families of varying socioeconomic status; state and institutional budgeting practices; and the many issues associated with the finance of community and technical colleges, including the special role of state and local sources of revenue and the importance of the tuition charged by such institutions.

A groundbreaking chapter by David W. Breneman, James L. Doti, and Lucie Lapovsky examines the analytics of tuition discounting as the predominant means by which many private colleges and universities achieve enrollment targets. Based on the results of their latest research, the authors present a new model of the pricing and enrollment practices of private institutions and use it as a framework for examining the key relationships between tuition, enrollment, merit-based and need-based aid, composition of the student body, and tuition discounting practices. Their analysis redefines the boundaries and extends the frontiers of knowledge about tuition discounting.

Taken together, the fifteen chapters of this book provide a set of rigorous, but accessible and workable, frameworks that can help build a strong analytic foundation to better inform and forearm those engaged in the development of policies and practices related to the finance of higher education.

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About the Author:

MICHAEL B. PAULSEN is Professor of Education and Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Foundations at the University of New Orleans. He earned his Ph.D. in higher education and economics from the University of Iowa and his M.A. degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His scholarly work in the economics and finance of higher education has been published in both economics and education journals, including Economics of Education Review, Journal of Education Finance, The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and other research journals, as well as in his book, College Choice. Previously, he held faculty appointments in economics at Coe College and St. Ambrose University and subsequently joined the faculties in higher education at the University of Illinois and the University of Alabama. He is consulting editor for Research in Higher Education, associate editor for economics and finance of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and Chair of the Budget Committee for the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

JOHN C. SMART is Professor of Higher Education at The University of Memphis and formerly was a member of the faculties at the University of Kentucky, Virginia Tech, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has served as the editor of Research in Higher Education since 1990 and formerly was the editor of The Review of Higher Education (1980-86). Professor Smart founded Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research and has served as editor of the annual volumes since its inception in 1985. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (1993), the Distinguished Career Research Award from the American Educational Research Association (Division J, 1997), and the Sydney Suslow Award from the Association for Institutional Research (1998).

Review:

Offering an overview of governmental and institutional policies and practices, this book outlines the prominent theories and major areas of research in the field of higher education finance. Among the theoretical perspectives explicated are human capital theory, public sector economics, microeconomic theories of cost and productivity, and the price theory of microeconomics. Together, the 15 chapters provide policymakers a framework for analysis. Contributors included economists, social scientists, policy analysis, and university administrators. --Book News, March 28, 2002

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