Cost-effectiveness Analysis on Life Long Education Policies

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The purpose of this research is to evaluate life-long education policies from the view point of their cost-effectiveness. The University of the Air project is one of the policies of offering higher education on a nationwide scale. The cost per student of the University of the Air is rather low when compared with costs of conventional universities, while the cost per graduate and that per credit are higher. The simulation indicates that the cost per credit can be decreased by expanding the operation of the University of the Air to a nationwide scale, employing a satellite system or in other ways ; however, the cost per credit will be higher than that of conventional private universities in any case. In order to decrease the cost per credit, improvement of credit registration ratio and credit earning ratio appears to be highly effective. Also securing the cooperation with the conventional institutions is one of the surest ways of making distance teaching cost-effective. Not only arrangements with other institutions of higher education, but also with enterprises will become important.Formal education cannot immediately respond to the changes in social demand. Technological innovation is taking place rapidly, and skills and knowledge acquired at school will soon be outdated. Various knowledge and skills needed in the work place are obtained after the formal education at vocational schools or through work itself. Human resource development at the work place is becoming more important. Each company has to enhance its system of education and training to develop workers necessary for their business. In-company education has a public aspect. Public measures to support human resource development should be taken.