The Effect Of Government Funding On Higher Education Development In Developing Countries

Pakistan is the world’s 5^th most densely populated country and is located in South Asia.Pakistan is tackling with financial crisis owing to its high population,poverty,the war against terrorism,and sanctions imposed by the United States of America.Consequently,all sectors of the country including higher education（HE）are facing financial challenges.HE is undergoing enormous economic,cultural,political,and social reforms such as financial pressure,decreasing expenditures on education,an increase of enrollments,low paid faculty,mobility of students,number of institutions,lack of academic equipment,approachability of computerbased learning,and pursuit of study which directly or indirectly impact the future development of HE.Government funding on HE effects development and general growth of the country.The government of Pakistan like governments of other developing countries have initiated monetary plans to enhance the share of government allocation for financing HE to improve the educational achievement and encourage demand for HE.The enhanced and sustained allocation of resources by developing countries governments for development of HE sector is imperative for their socio-economic development.However,the provision of government funding to HE institutions in Pakistan is sometimes not consistent due to the socio-economic and socio-political situations which ultimately results in failure of HE institutions in performing several fundamental functions such as faculty development,undertaking research,and training of skilled workforce for the economic development of the country.Therefore,huge budgetary allocation for funding HE in the form of loans,endowments,fees,and grants for research and development of HE institutions are few efforts implemented by the governments of Pakistan to increase the development of their HE systems.Despite all the challenges,the HE sector in Pakistan has shown rapid growth during the past decades.However,the HE sector requires consistent funding to ensure the attainability of HE and to minimize the brain drain of qualified human resources from the country.The study was designed to disclose the effect of government expenditure on HE along with socio-economic indicators,educational factors affecting the outcomes（student’s enrolment,cross-border mobility,and total graduates）of HE institutions of Pakistan.The specific objectives include a)To assess the effect of government funding on students’ enrolment in HE institutions of Pakistan;b)To assess the effect of government funding on cross-border mobility of students in HE institutions of Pakistan;c)To assess the effect of government funding on the total number of graduates in HE institutions of Pakistan.This study established the quantitative relationships as well as to assess the extent of the association between government expenditures on HE,socio-economic indicators,education factors affecting HE,student’s enrollment in HE,cross-border student’s mobility,and the total number of graduates in HE institutions of Pakistan by employing Pearson’s correlation coefficients,Stepwise regression,Principle component analysis,and Cluster analysis over a time-span of fifteen years（2001-02 to 2015-16）except the total number of graduates with data over time-span of five years（2010-11 to 2014-15）.The trends indicated that student enrollment,cross-border mobility,number of graduates,government expenditure on education and,government expenditure on HE gradually increased in the investigated period.The present study was endeavored to assess the impact of government expenditures on education（total expenditures on education,current expenditures on education,and development expenditures on education）,government expenditures on HE（total expenditure on HE,recurring expenditure on HE,and development expenditure on HE）,socio-economic indicators（general government expenditure,gross domestic product（GDP）per capita,GDP at market price,unemployment rate,and per capita income）,and educational factors（number of universities and number of teachers）on student’s enrollment（total enrollment,male enrollment,and female enrollment）,cross-border student’s mobility,and the total number of graduates in HE institutions in Pakistan.The research shown that:1.The enrollment has a robust and positive relationship with current expenditure on education,total expenditure on HE（total enrollment）,current expenditure on education and recurring expenditure on HE（male enrollment）,and current expenditure on education,total expenditure on HE,and development expenditure on education（female enrollment）.2.The results exposed that students’ enrollment in HE has a robust and positive relationship with general government expenditure,unemployment（total enrollment）,general government expenditure,unemployment（male enrollment）,and general government expenditure（female enrollment）.3.The study demonstrated robust and positive association of cross-border students’ mobility with total expenditure on education,GDP on education,and development expenditure on education（Government expenditure on education）,GDP at market price,unemployment rate,GDP per capita,general government expenditure,and per capita income（socio-economic indicators）,and students’ enrolment in HE,number of universities,and the number of teachers in HE institutions（educational factors）.4.The study demonstrated robust and positive association of the number of graduates with total expenditure on education and recurring expenditure on HE,general government expenditure（socio-economic factors）,and students’ enrolment in HE,the total number of institutions in HE（educational factors）.The projected results would help educationist,economists,and policymakers to better understand the relationship between different forms of government expenditure on HE,socioeconomic indicators,and educational factors with student’ enrollment（total,male,female）,cross-border mobility,total graduates（outcomes of HE）in HE institutions of Pakistan and their influence on society to formulate the future education policies and funding structure to receive money from regular state funding allocation to improve the performance of HE institution.Additionally,this study makes various imperative methodological contributions to the current knowledge that will assist the future advances in the research about HE policy management by testing the hypothesis considering the critique of the critics of government expenditure.Besides,the models established in this study not only include the different form of government expenditure on HE but also includes socio-economic and educational factors,which are considered vital in quantifying the good organization of HE systems worldwide.Consequently,the finding will assist the researchers to test and validate the newly developed models in studies quantifying the outcomes of HE institutions for their management.Finally,the quantitative relationships developed in this study will help in defining government funding as a formal policy for regulating government funding to public and private sector universities to enhance the development of HE institutions in terms of outcomes and playing a decisive role in the development of individuals and nation.Higher education institutions require continuous monitoring of their outcomes（enrollment,cross-border mobility,and the number of graduates）for the fulfillment of national development plans to ensure the development of the knowledge-based economy.Besides,the findings will assist which form of government funding alone or in combination with socio-economic and educational factors develops the HE institutions.The effective use of non-government funding might also lead to improvements in the HE institution’s outcomes.However,owing to lack of framework regarding HE’s funding from the non-governmental sector,the role of different forms of non-governmental funding on the outcomes of the HE institutions has not yet been fully investigated.Therefore,it needs to be investigated to develop the HE institutions and related cooperate sector.