The Paradox of State-Funded Higher Education: Does the Winner Still Take It All?

Abstract

Contrary to the overall tendency to increase student participation in the financing of higher education, Estonia abolished student tuition fees in 2013. We study the effects of this reform on the students’ access to and progress in higher education, concentrating mostly on the changes in probabilities of rural and remote students being admitted (extensive margin) and graduating within a nominal time (intensive margin). We distinguish between four different outcomes: admission in general, admission to vocational education, admission to high-rank curricula, and graduation within nominal time. We confirm the tendency that a high socioeconomic status increases the probability of being admitted to high-rank curricula and reduces the probability of choosing an applied curriculum, and the 2013 reform did not change that. While the reform weakly improved rural students’ tendency to graduate on time, it diminished the probability that they were admitted to high-rank curricula. So, paradoxically and contrary to the intention of the reform, higher state involvement in higher education financing has not improved the equity in university admission in Estonia in terms of either socioeconomic background or regional disparities. We claim that part of the explanation of that paradox lies in the conditionality of this reform and the combination of a scarce needs-based and a competitive merit-based student support system in Estonia. We see our broader contribution in emphasising the important role of support systems in the future analysis of the potential to improve students’ access.

Regional Disparities in National Education: Origins, Governance, and Consequences (Special Issue)

“…In their article, "The Paradox of State-Funded Higher Education: Does the Winner Still Take It All?" [18], Kaire Põder and Triin Lauri analyse how far the abolishment of tuition fees in Estonia in 2013 has influenced students' access to and progress in higher education, especially for rural and remote students. Surprisingly, the abolishment has not improved the equity in university admission in Estonia, in terms of either socio-economic background or regional disparities.…”

Cumulative advantages and disadvantages in attainment of higher education: Set-analytic comparison of asymmetric inequalities in six European countries

“…Higher education, since independence in 1991, saw a rapid growth in the numbers of tuition-fee paying students, both in absolute terms as well as in terms of proportion of all students. The tuition-fee free model was restored in 2013 but this shift has not had major impact on existing disparities (Põder and Lauri, 2021).…”

Transition from hierarchy to adhocratic organizational culture in a Ukrainian university: From survival to successful development in the conditions of war

“…The importance of the problem is that managing transformation processes in education requires tools to test hypotheses on which proposals for education reforms are based (Mohamed Hashim et al, 2022;Põder & Lauri, 2021). False paths that look attractive but cannot be implemented in reality with the declared result should be rejected at the stage of discussion (Hiebert et al, 2023).…”