An Empirical Study on the Demand and Price of Higher Education in Japan

我们对四年制大学、专科学校和研究生院进行了需求和价格分析。研究结果如下：1.研究结果。我们明确了区域变量对大学教育需求有稳定的影响。就办学特色而言，大型大学并不一定带来稳定的需求；有一些中小型大学已经很健全。在18岁人口的增长期间，在1992年左右达到高峰，申请新大学和新学院的大学有所增加。到2001年，也就是分析的最后一年，这一趋势有所下降。从那时起，更多的学生申请了传统的大学和院系。我们对民办高校和专科院校学费的决定因素进行了比较分析。在四年制大学中，大型大学的学费往往较低。一般而言，大学通过经济上符合其学校特点或所在地区的特点来确定学费。相比之下，专科学校可能正在经历财务困难；小规模专科学校的学费往往较低。无论研究生教育的价格如何，研究生教育，特别是硕士学位课程的需求，都是由学生的家庭收入和研究生教育供给的增长支撑的。这一发现表明，如果未来继续扩大研究生定额，现有的教育条件恶化、生源质量下降、毕业后就业稀缺等问题将进一步恶化。

We conducted a demand-and-price analysis of four year universities, junior colleges and graduate schools. The results are as follows.1. We clarified that regional variables have a steady influence on the demand for college education. As for school traits, large-sized universities do not necessarily bring about stability in demand ; there are a number of small-and medium-sized universities that have been sound. During the growing period of the 18-year old population with its peak around 1992, an increase in college application for new universities and new faculties was observed. By the year 2001, the final year of the analysis, that trend had declined. Since then, more students have applied for traditional universities and faculties.2. We conducted a comparative analysis on the determinants of tuition of private universities and junior colleges. Among four-year universities, tuition tends to be lower at large-sized universities. In general, universities set their tuition by economically conforming to their school traits or characteristics of their location. In contrast, junior colleges are possibly undergoing financial difficulty ; tuition tends to be low at small-scale junior colleges.3. Regardless of the price of postgraduate education, the demand for postgraduate education, especially master's degree programs, is supported by students' household income and the supply growth of postgraduate education. This finding suggests that, if the expansion of the fixed number of graduate school students continues in the future, existing problems such as the deterioration of educational conditions, decline in the quality of students, and job scarcity after graduation, will worsen.