Intercollegiate athletics are a prominent feature of American higher education. They have been characterized as the “front door” to the university due to their unique ability to draw alumni and other supporters to campus. It is often supposed that the exposure from high-profile athletics produces a number of indirect benefits including greater institutional prestige. Such exposure comes at a cost, however, as most Division I athletics programs are not financially self-sufficient and receive institutional subsidies to balance their budgets. At present, it is unclear how institutions budget for athletics subsidies or whether the recent increases in subsidies have impacted the overall financial picture of colleges and universities. Prior research has shown that athletics subsidies and student tuition and fees are not significantly correlated for public Division I institutions, which suggests the possibility that institutions have reallocated funds from other core areas to athletics. In this dissertation, the relationship between athletics subsidies and one of the most important core areas of the university – education and related activities – was examined. This relationship was investigated using fixed-effects structural equation models to analyze a panel dataset of public Division I institutions. It was found that total athletics subsidies (school funds and student fees) per student and education and related spending per student were positively correlated. This suggests that rather than decrease educational spending, institutions that increase total athletics subsidies have simultaneously increased their educational expenditures. However, in the analyses involving the more restrictive definition of athletics subsidies, it was shown that athletics subsidies from school funds was not correlated with educational spending. The results also provided some evidence that differences in the relationship between athletics subsidies and educational spending exist according to Carnegie classification and level of athletics competition. The findings from this study have a number of implications for higher education policy and future research. The absence of a negative relationship between athletics subsidies and educational spending suggests that athletics subsidies are not associated with decreases in educational spending that could ultimately harm the quality of education provided by colleges and universities. Furthermore, the existence of a positive correlation between athletics subsidies and educational spending and the fact that core revenues were controlled for in the models suggest the possibility that institutions have redirected funds from other areas to support education and athletics.

The most significant tax overhaul bill in over thirty years was enacted in 2017 and expected to have wide-ranging effects. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes numerous policies that directly and indirectly impact the higher education sector and the effect to endowments was not addressed in the public debate leading up to enactment. Unlike expendable gifts, a reduction in endowment contributions has a cumulative effect because a gift to an endowment can benefit all subsequent years. Each year following a contribution, investment income earned on the original gift is available for spending and benefits escalate over time in amount, assuming the value of the original gift continues to grow. The purpose of this study is to analyze precisely the direct and indirect impact of personal income tax regulations on the charitable sector. It will do so by disaggregating data to delineate clearly the differential consequences that distinguish higher education from other components of the broad charitable sector umbrella. A model is developed to predict the erosion of endowment wealth following a decrease in contributions due to tax policy using panel data from a previous ten-year period assuming the tax policy was first effective beginning in year one. The erosion of overall endowment wealth is gradual, and subsectors of higher education are predicted to experience varying rates of attrition. Regression analysis is then used on giving by source data to institutional and endowment characteristics indicative of greater reliance on contributions from individuals to the endowment; the results are suggestive but inconclusive.

The problem of this study is the economic status of college teachers in Texas, with emphasis on actual support afforded that profession in the past and in the present; and objective statistical analysis of the ability of the state to more adequately support the profession now and in the future, and the theoretical and actual importance which that economic status presages for out state and society. Actual support of higher education will be measured by salaries and expenditures; ability to support will be measured by the relative wealth of each state in per capita income.

This thesis addresses UK students’ university choice using discrete choice methods and micro-data obtained from Higher Education Statistical Agency for graduates between 2006 and 2010. The thesis consists of three chapters with each addressing a different aspect of students’ choice. The studies are intended to provide policy-makers and other decision-makers with valuable information that will help them to implement strategies and policies for better higher education. Some work in the literature has been dedicated to students’ university choice. This thesis explores this body of work and builds on it, extends it and improves what is previously known in the literature. The aim of the first chapter is to investigate what affects students’ university choice. It contributes to the literature by establishing the best method to do so. Two models are used: the standard conditional logit and conditional logit with, what is called in this paper, alternative specific constants. Conditional logit with alternative specific constants improves on conditional logit twofold: it deals with unobserved university characteristics and improves the model fit. The results show that the probability of attending a university decreases with an increase in tuition fees and distance between students’ home and the university, and decreases in students’ socio-economic status. The second chapter further investigates the importance of distance on students’ university choice and it contributes to the literature by calculating the willingness to pay of students for distance to university. The chosen models are estimated for different socio-economic group of students separately. This methodology allows for meaningful comparison between socio-economic groups and produces more reliable estimates due to the fact that it accommodates for different unobserved characteristics of universities for different groups of students. The results show that students with the highest socio-economic status are not affected or have a positive utility of distance. The willingness to pay of other socio-economic groups are mixed and depend on the university characteristics used in the model. The third chapter focuses on students’ attitudes towards costs and benefits of university degree by calculating the discount rate of future income using marginal utility of graduate income and tuition fees. In addition, the chapter shows how use of consideration sets of universities for each student improves the model fit. The results show that students have a normal discount rate around 1% without consideration sets. The discount rate becomes negative in all models apart from one, when consideration sets are used.