Determinants of bilateral aid to higher education - Focusing on the sociopolitical, economic & educational dimensions of recipients

2020년 8월

서울대학교 대학원

협동과정 글로벌교육협력 전공

김성겸(Kim, Sung Kyum)

The importance of promoting higher education through global

development efforts and foreign aid is growing. Bolstered by efforts

of higher education institutions to internationalize, the volume of

foreign aid for the purpose of developing the world’s higher

education institutions is increasing. Such phenomenon especially

gives importance to aid modalities of international scholarships and

subsistence support to international students. Even when

commitments are made to aid types that are not scholarships, the

frequency of institution-level involvement by both donor and

recipient institutions in bilateral aid programs for higher education

is increasing (Varghese, 2010). However, not many studies have

been conducted about the determinants and effectiveness of

bilateral aid to higher education. Therefore, this study aims to

contribute to the literature of higher education aid by analyzing the

determinants of bilateral higher education aid of DAC donors based

on empirical bilateral ODA data provided by OECD from 2000 to

2017.

For the analysis of collective and individual determinants, this

study has utilized explanatory variables that have been selected

based on the donor-interest and recipient-needs (DI-RN model)

to examine the impact of a recipient’s economic, humanitarian and

educational needs, as well as a donor’s political and economic needs

on the amount of higher education aid a country receives. In

addition, explanatory variables that represent the ease of crossborder information flows have also been used in order to estimate

the impact of a recipient’s conditions that facilitate international

information flows on higher education aid.

A key finding is that even with the regional development

cooperation priorities of donors considered, the amount of higher

education aid that a country may receive in general is determined

by various factors. The empirical analysis result of DAC donors as

a group indicated that several factors of recipient needs, donor

interest, and the recipient’s social knowledge infrastructure were all

considered in the allocation of higher education aid. While aid to

higher education followed the basic principle of aid, wherein it is

conceptualized by many that aid should be given to larger countries

with low GDP, it was also revealed in the results that insufficiencies

in a country’s labor force as well as gross tertiary enrolment rate

were relevant to the amount of higher education aid. At the same

time, it was estimated that countries with high levels of information

infrastructure and more global ties were more likely to receive

larger amounts of higher education development support.

Second, in addition to an assessment of the composition of aid

types committed for the purpose of higher education, it was

revealed that different variables were significant to different donors

as determinants for providing higher education aid. For instance,

France, Germany and Austria would both allocate more higher

education aid to encourage international student mobility through

scholarships and student benefits to politically global yet poorer

countries. However, ceteris paribus, it was estimated that France

will most likely be preferential to francophone countries with good

information infrastructure and higher needs in secondary education

whereas Germany would more likely be open to accepting

international students from countries with a reasonably capable

higher education institution. Similar to France, it can be assumed

that Austria will also provide more aid to countries with better

information infrastructure. However, Austria showed a tendency to

provide such aid to countries with higher youth unemployment and

lower primary education capacity. Furthermore, it was estimated

that the U.S will commit more aid to countries lacking in social

infrastructure and a weaker labor market, while Japan’s will most

likely support higher education development in countries with low

upper-secondary education achievement.

In summary, the empirical analysis conducted in this study

revealed that different needs and interests were considered by

donors in allocating higher education aid. The allocation of aid to the

subsector on a collective level was examined to be affected by

normative determinants that include humanitarian, economic, and

educational needs as well as political interests and the recipient’s

infrastructural readiness to support the development of institutional

development of higher education. However, individual donors

showed differences in the type of specific need or interest that

impacts the allocation of aid to higher education. Regardless,

normative needs such as low GDP and different educational needs

were identified to be key considerations for donors in allocating aid

to higher education.

The significance of this study lies in the identification of such

differences in the determinants existent within and across different

needs and interests as well as infrastructural conditions extraneous

to the DI-RN model. However, such findings further require us to

conduct studies that are more contingent to individual donors in

order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the political and

strategic drive of DAC donors within the higher education subsector.

Additionally, studies about higher education aid allocation based on

the recipient’s perspective, such as the evaluation of specific

outcomes of the different types of aid provided by different donors,

is also expected to significantly contribute to the literature of higher

education aid effectiveness.