Who will fund us? The drifting dynamics of “who pays for what” in higher education

5 October 2026

12:00 noon UK | 7:00 a.m. New York | 19:00 Beijing | 21:00 Melbourne

Overview

Higher education almost everywhere is experiencing financial and resourcing pressures. Government support is becoming unreliable due to its own revenue challenges and competitive demands coming from elsewhere within society/economy, and learners’ and the public's unwillingness to cover the costs.

At the same time, private, for-profit higher education is growing, even where public tuition fees are low or non-existent. Different funding models have evolved over recent decades but funding a tertiary/post-secondary system with numbers of students growing beyond 50% of the age cohort is very different from funding an elite system. These pressures are further compounded by socio-economic inequalities, digital transformation and significant shifts in the labour market.

Loud concerns surround the sustainability of current systems, governance arrangements, value propositions, and funding models. Inevitably, questions narrow in around who pays and what kind of service we expect and need into the future. This webinar explores these critical issues and the implications for institutions, students, governments and society.

Schedule

Speaker bios

Hamish Coates is a global leader in higher education with major contributions to policy and innovation who designs and strengthens higher education systems, institutions and leadership. He is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University and Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University.

Professor Christopher Millward joined the University of Birmingham in January 2022 as Professor of Practice in Education Policy, having previously served as Director for Fair Access and Participation and as Director of Policy for England’s regulatory and funding agencies. His work is focused on generating and deploying robust evidence for tertiary education policy and practice. He is particularly interested in issues of equity and inclusion across the life-course, how different educational systems influence local and national prosperity, and how they could be improved.

Professor N.V. Varghese is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. He is a former Vice Chancellor of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi (2017-2022), and founding  Director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE/NIEPA), New Delhi (2013-2019). From 1999 to 2013 he served as a leader at the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP/UNESCO), Paris.

Lorraine Margaret Dearden is an economist and professor of economics and social statistics at the Department of Social Science of the Institute of Education, University College London.

Professor Huw Morris is an Honorary Professor of Tertiary Education at the Institute of Education, University College London. He was Director of Skills, Higher Education and Lifelong Learning in the Welsh Government between 2013 and 2022. Over the preceding 27 years he held a variety of academic roles from research assistant to professor, dean and deputy vice chancellor in UK universities. He has advised each of the governments of the British Isles in recent years on tertiary education funding, regulation and research issues.

Angel Calderon is director, strategic insights, at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and a member of the QS Rankings Advisory Board.

Ellen Hazelkorn is Joint Managing Partner, BH Associates education consultants, and Professor Emeritus, Technological University Dublin (Ireland).

Hans de Wit is Professor Emeritus of the Practice, Distinguished Fellow and Former Director (2015-2020) of the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, USA.

Event recording link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/3P1gdyNrQ3wwtD2ThkeieM_2RKkkmpeJ2AczXcqUQDAR3w5VWmopiSn3YsqA8ZA.yXPXf7l3gtPuaMa5

Passcode: Tc!ek^^0