ABSTRACT
Globalisation and internationalisation of higher education have made the world realise the importance of knowledge economy. The Universalisation of school education and the gradual expansion of the knowledge economy by leaps and bounds have resulted in massification of higher education in many countries like India. Nevertheless, the growing demand for knowledge, skills, technology and relevance has brought into the fore many challenges in terms of financing, access, equity, quality, governance and employability. Such challenges have become even more acute for the policy-makers with rapid expansion of higher education sector in many of the countries in terms of expansion in higher education institutions and enrolments and hence managing students from diverse social and economic backgrounds. The mode of financing of higher education gets critical significance for government as well as students/households with neo-liberal policy guidelines across the globe towards privatisation and participation of private sector in the provision of higher education. Access and choice suffers with the lack of or inadequate finance.
The book extensively discusses the modes of financing higher education with a focus on educational loan method and other alternative methods of financing which are practiced in different countries. However, all these macro methods of financing restricts further access to higher education for underprivileged sections of population. At this juncture, the book unravels various innovative methods of financing at micro level which are explored by countries to improve access to higher education when there is competing demand for public funds.
