Abstract
The idea that higher education institutions receiving public funds should be accountable for working towards socially desirable goals became increasingly popular on both sides of the Atlantic since the early 1990s. Policies have been introduced to promote accountability in higher education, including various models of performance assessment and performance, or output-based, funding. This paper offers an overview of recent empirical research on performance funding policies in the US and Europe. It compares and contrasts findings from multi-state stakeholder analyses, along with a review of preliminary evidence on the impact of performance funding policies on institutional behaviour and institutional performance. The systematic review of research evidence reveals that higher education institutions with a joint teaching-research mission are more likely to oppose performance funding measures than other academic and non-academic stakeholders, and that academic stakeholders consider performance funds an additional revenue source. The impact of performance funding policies on institutional behaviour and performance is found to be modest at best across studies.
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Orosz, K. (2012). Accountability and the Public Funding of Higher Education. In: Curaj, A., Scott, P., Vlasceanu, L., Wilson, L. (eds) European Higher Education at the Crossroads. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3937-6_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3937-6_37
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