Sources of funds and quality effects in higher education

Economists have suggested that the quality of higher education is not indep endent of the sources of funds used to fund that education. This paper exam ines the relationship between student measures of teaching quality and inst itutional revenue sources. The results indicate that a greater reliance on private subsides is associated with higher measures of teacher quality. A g reater reliance on public subsidies, however, leads to lower teacher qualit y ratings. The importance of these results for shaping public policy decisi ons is also discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.