Accessibility and Affordability of Tertiary Education in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru within a Global Context

Murakami, Yuki ; Blom, Andreas

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABSOLUTE COSTS;    ACADEMIC YEAR;    ACCESS INDICATORS;    ACCESS TO EDUCATION;    ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4517
RP-ID  :  WPS4517

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper examines the financing oftertiary education in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru,comparing the affordability and accessibility of tertiaryeducation with that in high-income countries. To measureaffordability, the authors estimate education costs, livingcosts, grants, and loans. Further, they compute theparticipation rate, attainment rate, and socio-economicequity index in education and the gender equity index asindicators of accessibility. This is the first studyattempting to estimate affordability of tertiary educationin Latin America within a global context. The analysiscombines information from household surveys, expendituresurveys, and administrative and institutional databases. Thefindings show that families in Latin America have to pay 60percent of per-capita income for tertiary education perstudent per year compared with 19 percent in high-incomecountries. Living costs are significant, at 29 percent ofgross domestic product per capita in Latin America (19percent in high-income countries). Student assistancethrough grants and loans plays a marginal role in improvingaffordability. Moreover, the paper confirms previousfindings of low access to tertiary education in the region.One policy implication of the findings is that LatinAmerican governments could take steps to make tertiaryeducation more affordable through student assistance.