OECD (2000)

Educational Expenditure per Student
Today, students can choose from a range of types of institutions and
enrolment options in order to find the best fit between their degree objectives,
abilities, personal interests and social and economic circumstances.
Many students attend part-time, work while enrolled, attend sporadically or
attend more than one institution before graduating. These varying enrolment
patterns can affect the interpretability of expenditure per student.
The ranking of countries by annual expenditure per student on
educational services is strongly affected by differences in how countries define
full-time, part-time and full-time equivalent enrolment. Some countries count
every participant at the tertiary level as a full-time student while others determine
a student’s intensity of participation by the credits which he or she
obtains for successful completion of specific course units during a specified
reference period. Countries that can accurately account for part-time enrolment
will have higher expenditure per full-time equivalent student than countries
that cannot differentiate between different modes of student attendance.
Similarly, comparatively low annual expenditure per student may result in
comparatively high overall costs of tertiary education if the typical duration of
tertiary studies is relatively long. Table B4.4 shows the average expenditure that
is incurred per student throughout the course of tertiary studies in 17 countries.
The figures account for all students for whom expenditure is incurred, including
those who do not finish their studies. Although the calculations are based on a
number of simplifying assumptions and therefore should be treated with some
caution (see Annex 3), some striking shifts in the rank order of countries between
the annual and aggregate expenditure can be noted.
For example, annual spending per tertiary-type A student in the
Netherlands is about the same as in Germany (US$10 028 in the Netherlands
compared with US$10 083 in Germany). But because of differences in the
tertiary degree structure (Indicator C4), the average duration of universityequivalent
studies is more than one third longer in Germany than in the
Netherlands (6.1 years in Germany, compared with 3.9 years in the
Netherlands). As a consequence, the aggregate expenditure for each
university-equivalent student is more than 50 per cent higher in Germany than
in the Netherlands (US$61 415 compared with US$39 108).
The total cost of tertiary-type A studies in Switzerland (US$90 298) is more
than twice the cost of these studies in Australia, Canada, France, the
Netherlands, and Norway. These differences must be interpreted in the light of
possible differences between countries in the academic level of the qualifications
of students leaving university. While similar trends are observed in tertiarytype
B studies, the total cost of these studies tends to be much lower than that
of tertiary type-A programmes, largely because of their shorter duration.
Important notes on interpretation
When differences between countries in expenditure per student are
interpreted, a number of factors should be taken into account.
The data used in calculating expenditure per student include only direct
public and private expenditure on educational institutions. Public subsidies
for students’ living expenses have been excluded to ensure the international
comparability of the data.
Students can choose
from a range
of institutions
and enrolment options.
Part-time attendance
may explain some
of the differences
between countries.
Low annual expenditure
may translate into high
overall costs of tertiary
education if
the duration of tertiary
studies is long.
B4
© OECD 2000
91