A Study On The Revenue Sources Of American Higher Education In The Post-war Era

Higher education is a kind of quasi-public goods, which decides the revenue sources of higher education must be diversified. Following the train of thought of D. Bruce Johnstone's higher education cost-sharing theory, there are four main revenue sources of higher education, as follows: the government or the taxpayer, parents and the student, the donator, and higher education institutions.The thesis aims at excavating the social and historical factors which advance America's leadership in higher education throughout the world, then to seek the way which will be effective to the reform of revenue structure of higher education in China. At the beginning, the thesis analyses the whole condition of American higher education finance after World War II, and come to the conclusion, that it is the perfect revenue system that maintain the enormous expenditure of American higher education. Government subsidy, tuition and fees, endowment, and higher education institutions' own earnings, etc., all of which contribute to the diversification of revenue sources of American higher education. Upon the macro analysis, the thesis studies the four sources above separately, stating its history, analyzing the factors which affected the sources, summing up the characteristics of revenue sources, etc. In the end, the thesis sums up the main characteristics of revenue sources of American higher education, then come to the revelation to higher education revenue structure reform considering the difference between China and the USA.