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• Key Findings
• Introduction
• Trends in tuition fees
• Data
• Method
• Results
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendix
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Key Findings

This study examined the historical association between the level of tuition fees at the bachelors level and the relative quality of research as assessed in the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) Quality Evaluation. The analysis showed that:

• There was a positive association between the relative domestic tuition fees of a bachelors-level course and the relative quality of research at that university, but it was very weak. Therefore, if students inferred quality from the relative price of a course they may have incorrectly assumed higher price means higher quality.
• The weak association was likely a result of different price strategies at the universities during the 1990s, with some universities setting fees with the objective of maintaining affordability for students.
• If price is a poor indicator of institutional quality, the public availability of a wider set of performance measures may help the decision-making-process of students.