The Market Distortion Effect of Government Intervention in Higher Education

Abstract

In the Philippines, a mixture of public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) exists. Because of the government subsidy among the public HEIs, the major concern of the private sector is the “uneven playing field”. This study hopes to eliminate this unhealthy competition and market distortion in the educational landscape. This study utilizes the quantitative non-experimental retrospective explanatory design. Results show that regardless of the extent of state intervention, the market can be distorted. Hence, assigning specific programs to be offered based on the type of HEI is a good alternative. The programs to be fully subsidized and offered by the government are agriculture, sciences, engineering, manufacturing and construction, and humanities and arts (HA) while services, health and welfare, education and social sciences, business and law programs will be for private sector service providers. This stimulates healthy competition among the HEIs leading to a better quality of education.

Keywords

• higher education
• government subsidy
• government intervention
• public heis
• private heis
• market distortion