Comparing university tuition fees with PBRF performance

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.