Arbeitspapier

The effect of abolishing university tuition costs: Evidence from Ireland

University tuition fees for undergraduates were abolished in Ireland in 1996. This paper examines the effect of this reform on the socio-economic gradient to determine whether the reform was successful in achieving its objective of promoting educational equality that is improving the chances of low socio-economic status (SES) students progressing to university. It finds that the reform clearly did not have that effect. It is also shown that the university/SES gradient can be explained by differential performance at second level. Students from white collar backgrounds do significantly better in their final second level exams than the children of blue-collar workers. The results are very similar to recent findings for the UK. The results show that the effect of SES on school performance is generally stronger for those at the lower end of the conditional distribution of academic attainment.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IFS Working Papers ; No. 11,05

Classification
Wirtschaft
Analysis of Education
Educational Finance; Financial Aid
Subject
tuition costs
university
fees
socio-economic background
educational attainment

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Denny, Kevin
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
(where)
London
(when)
2011

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Denny, Kevin
  • Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)

Time of origin

  • 2011

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