COMPETITION AND REGULATION IN HIGHER-EDUCATION - A COMPARISON OF THE NETHERLANDS AND THE UNITED-STATES

This paper compares and contrasts the higher education systems of the Netherlands and the United States in an effort to highlight issues in the competition vs. regulation debate. Based on these illustrative cases, an array of policy options to inject competitive dynamics into a highly regulated system are presented and evaluated. These include both demand-oriented policies such as price changes and enrollment limits as well as supply-oriented policies such as increased institutional autonomy in generating revenues, more flexible input policies, and incentive-based budgetary reforms. © 1991, Kluwer Academic Publishers. All rights reserved.