THE DEMAND FOR HIGHER-EDUCATION IN BELGIUM

This paper investigates the determinants behind the spectacular growth in higher education enrollments in Belgium since 1953. The Belgian ed ucation system offers an interesting case as enrollments are solely de mand driven and have so far not been subject to any supply constraints . We use a higher education demand model that integrates consumption a nd investment aspects and empirically test the specification based on time-series data between 1953 and 1992. We investigate whether differe nces exist between the demand for university and non-university higher education. Overall, income and foregone earnings seem to be driving e nrollments, thus suggesting the importance of consumption aspects or i mperfect access to capital. We find that income, opportunity costs and the wage differential matter more for participation at non-university higher education institutes than for enrolling in universities. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.