Governments across the world are grappling with the question about the funding of subsidized higher education (HE). Critics of free or subsidized HE have argued that higher rate of return of graduates serves as enough extrinsic motivation, adding, to the argument that the free or subsidized HE results in lack of intrinsic motivation. Further, critics support their assertion by citing lagging academic performance in countries where HE is free or heavily subsidized. Proponents of the state funding have cited the role of externalities and equal opportunities as the reason for subsidized HE. This study has used sunk cost theory to understand whether making students pay for their own education would impact on their performance and retention by enhancing intrinsic motivation in addition to analyzing the role of parents and the culture. Results indicate that students are impacted by sunk cost fallacy, as opposed to the earlier findings by Ketel et al. (2016), and that making them shoulder part of the tuition fees in form of contribution or student loans would result in “selection effects” where some sort of positive fee (after scholarships and grants) is paid by the students.

中文翻译：

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让学生为他们的高等教育买单：基于沉没成本理论的免费和补贴教育辩论

世界各国政府都在努力解决资助高等教育 (HE) 的资金问题。免费或补贴高等教育的批评者认为，更高的毕业生回报率是足够的外在动机，并补充说免费或补贴高等教育导致缺乏内在动机的论点。此外，批评者通过引用免费或大量补贴高等教育的国家的学习成绩落后来支持他们的断言。国家资助的支持者将外部性和机会均等的作用作为资助高等教育的原因。本研究使用沉没成本理论来了解让学生为自己的教育付费是否会通过增强内在动机以及分析父母和文化的作用来影响他们的表现和保留率。结果表明，与 Ketel 等人的早期发现相反，学生受到沉没成本谬误的影响。（2016），并且让他们以捐款或学生贷款的形式承担部分学费将导致“选择效应”，即学生支付某种正费用（在奖学金和助学金之后）。