The Effectiveness of Free Education, or Again on Scholarships

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of payments state university scholarships to students in question in the context of the principle of "equal access to education" and the concept of "free education." Now in Ukrainian universities there are students of two different categories: the so-called "budget students" who study for free and receive scholarship from the state, and the so-called "payers" who pay tuition fee and do not receive stipends from the state. This situation leads to decline of the scholarship’s role as a stimulator, and, as a result - to general decline of the efficiency of higher education. In this regard, methodological aspects of improving the efficiency of public scholarship funds allocated to higher education are discussed. In particular, the term "scholarship" is analyzed in the context of the value of public education as the institutional system. Unfortunately, we continue to understand this concept in the Soviet interpretation as cash payments for students who use it to meet their personal needs during training. At the same time, the world understood as non-cash aid to pay tuition fee.

Keywords

• free education
• paid education
• equal access to education
• investment scholarship
• personal scholarship
• efficiency of higher education