Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2019
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/2nd.icarss.2019.11.748
Higher Education Financing System in Georgia Problems and Future Challenges
Nino Kavtaradze, Maia Amashukeli and Nino Davitaia
ABSTRACT:
There are several ways of financing higher education and research: state financing, households and individual funding. Most common ways used currently in Georgia are: 1. State funding, which includes: 1.1. Budgetary funding- when student gets state grant, regardless his/her decision to apply state or private university; 1.2. Funding by social programs, both at state or private universities, in case they meet all certain criteria regarding socially unprotected eligibility citizens; 2. Private financing so called co-financing. State universities also offer students free faculty and/or program funding.Due to the difficult social conditions in Georgia, tuition fees at universities have been declining for the last several years and nowadays are quite low, meanwhile national currency is continuously devaluating and commodity prices are going up. The maximum annual tuition fee for public universities is GEL 2250 equal to €681 according to current exchange rate. Private universities individually decide tuition fee for each course of study, however even private universities fee are adjusted according to the population’s social welfare. Due to mentioned factors on the one hand, the amount of students is increasing, which can be considered as a positive trend. On the other hand, universities more and more are facing troubles in maintenance of higher standards of teaching.
keywords: Government funding; Social funding program; Private financing; Tuition Fee; Quality of teaching.