The EU8 countries have enthusiastically embraced mass higher education, and are rapidly closing the gap between themselves and the EU15 in enrollment rates and the incidence of higher education in the population of working age. This expansion is helping these countries to insert themselves into the global knowledge economy, as a high proportion of their graduates get jobs in the knowledge-intensive services sector. At the same time, resources per student are declining, raising concerns about the quality of higher education. Also, the emergence of private higher education institutions and introduction of fees for student who do not gain regular admission, have resulted in a dual-track system that is affecting the equity of access to higher education. The study by Mary Canning, Martin Godfrey, and Dorota Holzer-Zelazewska reviews the experience with a variety of financing mechanisms in the EU8 countries and seeks to develop some useful policy options to “level the playing field” for countries contemplating further reforms, which would include the introduction of variable fees, needs-based grants and loans to increase private financial flows into higher education while facilitating equal access across the board.
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