The Effects of Vouchers in Higher Education: An Italian Case Study

摘要

The aim of this article is to analyse the effect of introducing voucher schemes in higher education context. In the first part, the main economic characteristics of educational vouchers are discussed, in order to identify their expected effects on efficiency and equity in tertiary education. The second part contains the results of a case study that documents the experience gained at the University of Bologna between 2003/04 and 2005/06. The results suggest that the main effects of vouchers are on (1) the effectiveness of public support, and (2) course prices (fees).