Abstract
Cost sharing in higher education is the assumption by parents and students of a portion of the costs of higher education - costs that in many nations, at least until recently, have been borne predominantly or even exclusively by governments, or taxpayers. The author presents empirical evidence of, and various theoretical justifications for, increasing cost sharing throughout the world in the forms of tuitions and fees, the diminishing real value of student maintenance grants, and an increasing reliance on private forms of higher education. Resistance to cost sharing, both ideological and strategic, is also analysed. The author discusses policy alternatives such as grants versus loans and the criteria for an appropriate tuition level, as well as the impact of cost sharing on enrolment behaviour. He concludes that increased cost sharing is probably inevitable, less on the basis of the classical neoliberal economic claim for greater equity and efficiency than on the basis of the sheer need for revenue and the increasing priority of alternative claims on public treasuries.