Do Lower Tuition Fees Expand Opportunities for Higher Education? A Study of University Choices in Japan

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Abstract

Because of financial deficits, rising tuition fees or the introduction of tuition fees in tertiary education can be observed in several countries. This trend may restrict opportunities for tertiary education for socially less advantaged students. In this background, this paper examines whether universities with lower tuition fees have expanded the opportunity of university advancement for less advantaged students. This paper uses survey data from Japan, which has two types of universities, public universities with relatively lower tuition fees and private universities with high tuition fees, and examines whether public universities help to compensate for the reduction in educational opportunities for less advantageous students. However, the historical context of the Japanese educational system needs to be considered. Passing the entrance examination for public universities is often regarded as difficult, and public universities are highly ranked, although several private universities are also prestigious. Since academic grades and socioeconomic backgrounds are positively correlated, it seems that students with wealthier backgrounds would choose public universities. In this case, public universities may not be expanding opportunities for higher education to those at a socioeconomic disadvantage. In order to examine these two contradictory hypotheses, this paper estimated Heckman’s bivariate probit models. This analysis found that those who have lower levels of parental education and lower annual household incomes were more likely to choose public universities, and those who originally tend to consider attending university were less likely to choose public university. Thus, this paper concludes that the public university system in Japan has a function of compensating for a lack of possible advancement to university.

Author

• Wataru Nakazawa, Osaka University