Investing in tertiary education

Rising tertiary educational costs and budgetary deficits has made the Dutch government and its society wonder in the early nineties and starting the new millennium if they should be the ones who should be paying the lion’s share for higher tertiary educational levels. This research looks at the wage premiums of tertiary graduates between 1999/2000 and 2005. The results of the Internal Rate of Return method show that the individuals and the Dutch society are the main beneficiaries and are the ones who need to pay for the higher tertiary educational levels. A possible solution is the social feudalism that fits well to this description. A trade off can then be made by changing the current scholarship to the social feudalism (can be considered as a loss for the students, but a gain for the Dutch society) and increasing the age to receive this new type of scholarship thereby retaining the current (income dependable) additional scholarship (considered as a gain for individuals, but a loss for the Dutch society). The proposal in this trade off is a way to keep these higher tertiary educational levels obtainable even for the relatively poor individuals.