In: Economics
Employers often select applicants based on whether they hold an academic degree. In most countries, universities need to be granted charters from government to be able to award academic degrees to their students. In return, universities must abide by comprehensive and detailed government regulations upholding appropriate standards for teaching, examination and lecturers. Use the theories of market failure and government intervention to explain the reasons for government intervention into the market for higher education. Critically discuss potential problems with these interventions.
Theories of market failure and government intervention emphasize that markets bring about negative externalities if they are left to operate on their own which is why government intervention is required. Thus government intervenes in this market for higher education because they want to give bring about universal access to education. If the government does not intervene than the institutions charge exorbitant rates which dissuade students from seeking education. They also provide scholarships with government intervention. Too much market control is also avoided so that other world class institutions are also given access to the market. It creates a future market for employment opportunities because of which the government needs to intervene.
Potential problems on the other hand are that the curriculum is sometimes forced onto the institutions especially with regard to history of a country and geography, this limits scope of imparting knowledge and building a critical workforce which further dents the chances of bringing transformative change in the society. There are other additional disadvantages such as Teachers being permanent and less skilled, this reduces the scope of imparting knowledge and understanding thereby creating a rigid workforce going ahead. It further leads to less stable growth rate as the country is not able to advance because of this discrepancy as human capital quality threatens to decline because of this factor.