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Pattern and Determinants of Household Expenditure on Higher Education: Evidence from Rural Odisha

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The Future of Higher Education in India

Abstract

This chapter examines the variability of household expenditure on higher education in rural Odisha (one of the backward states of India) and its relationship with individual, household and institutional factors. This chapter uses the data collected through a student survey in two tribal dominated districts of Odisha (Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar) in 2016–2017. In total 563 scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward class students pursuing their undergraduate and postgraduate courses in 19 colleges are surveyed for the study. The findings suggest that the annual average household expenditure on higher education among marginalized sections of the society in rural Odisha is approximately 30% of the annual family income. Also, students enrolled in government and aided colleges have spent more than the students enrolled in unaided higher education institutions and interestingly; this difference is largely due to the difference in the payment of non-fee items such as private tuition, food and accommodation, transport, Internet, etc. On an average, students pay only about 5% of their total expenses in higher education as fees per year and rest on non-fee items. The pattern of household spending on higher education varies significantly between hostellers and day scholars. As expected, students belonging to poor households have invested less on higher education than the households with better income. Results also indicate pro-male bias in household spending on higher education in rural Odisha.

The chapter is based on an ICSSR-sponsored study titled ‘Effectiveness of Select Scholarship Schemes for the Improvement in Access and Retention of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Students in Odisha’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Institution-wise students surveyed are given in Table 10.5 in appendix.

  2. 2.

    In Odisha, degree colleges are classified into five groups on the basis of fund they receive from the Government of Odisha. These are: government, aided, block grant, unaided, and self-financing. The government HEIs receive highest fund (almost all the expenses) from the Odisha Government, aided and block grant colleges get partial funding while unaided and self-financing colleges do not get any money from the government. For this chapter, the sample colleges are categorised into three groups: government, aided (aided and block grant colleges taken together) and unaided (unaided and self-financing combined).

  3. 3.

    Out of the total students surveyed (563), only about 20% stay in the hostel and this share varies significantly by type of HEIs. More than half (54%) of the students in government institutions avail hostel facilities while it is 11.36% in aided institutions and 10.24% in unaided institutions and this variation is largely due to the availability of such facility in sample HEIs.

  4. 4.

    The expenditure of the day scholars incurred on food and accommodation largely includes their occasional spending in college canteen and short-term stay in private accommodation during examination time.

  5. 5.

    The families are classified under four different groups according to their annual family income which ranges from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 2,35,000. These are lower income (< Rs. 20,000), lower middle income (≥Rs. 20,000 but < than Rs. 40,000), upper middle income (≥ Rs. 40000 but < Rs. 60,000), and higher income (≥Rs. 60,000 but < Rs. 2,50,000).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Pradeep Kumar Choudhury

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  1. Pradeep Kumar Choudhury
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Correspondence to Pradeep Kumar Choudhury .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Higher and Professional Education, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Sudhanshu Bhushan

Appendix

Appendix

Table 10.5 Institution-wise number of students surveyed for the study
Full size table
Table 10.6 Sample students by type of institution, gender, caste, religion and region
Full size table
Table 10.7 Notation and definition of the variables used in the regression analysis
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Table 10.8 Summary statistics of the variables used in the regression analysis
Full size table

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Choudhury, P.K. (2019). Pattern and Determinants of Household Expenditure on Higher Education: Evidence from Rural Odisha. In: Bhushan, S. (eds) The Future of Higher Education in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9061-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9061-7_10

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