1 Basis for financing higher education 2 Departures from European benchmarks

1. International Conference on Higher Education: Towards Joint Regional Roadmap in Higher Educational Structural Reform 23 - 26 May, 2012 Petrovac, Montenegro "Affirmative Actions for Financing Higher Education" by Sigurd Höllinger

2. 1 Basis for financing higher education 2 Departures from European benchmarks 3 Budget path in legislation 4 Public – private linkages

3. The dominant orientation on European benchmarks is misleading. As long as the proportion of the GDP spent on higher education remains around the same as the figure found in developed European states, underfinancing will continue and will not enable the higher education systems to approach European conditions or, at best, only very slowly.

4. Budget path for higher education • “University Financing Act” • 10 Years 3. The state allocations for the universities • teaching • teaching-related research • the infrastructure for teaching and teaching-related research • a reserve for unforeseen eventualities

5. 4. allocations for the first year • the mean value of the allocations of the last three years prior to the new financing, plus • a contribution that matches the inflation rate of the previous year, plus • the "reorganization surcharge" of at least 5%.

6. 5. The allocations for the following four years are each made up of • an allocation at the level of the respective preceding year, plus • a contribution that reflects the inflation rate of the respective preceding year, plus the "reorganization surcharge" of at least 5%

7. 6. 2nd period: for the years 6 to 10 the allocations should be calculated as in the 1st period, but the "reorganization surcharge" should be at least 3 % 7. In the 1st period the funds for teaching-related research and for the infrastructure be increased annually to a greater extent than in the 2nd period.

8. 8. the allocations and their impact should be monitored and evaluated

9. private-public partnership does not function in the way the models suggest and does not in the long-term serve the interests of the partners replace the concept of "public-private-partnership" by "public-private-linkages"

10. Private foundations that are profit-oriented and not-for-profit foundations: (1) Capital placed in the foundation is free from input tax if the proceeds from the foundation are tied to higher education / research. (2) Disbursements from the foundation that benefit higher education/research are freed from the income tax due. • Corporations, individual entrepreneurs, employees: donations for higher education/research are 100% tax-deductible. • Private wealth: donations for higher education/research are 100% tax deductible from taxes liable on the yield produced by such wealth.

11. ambitious goals of higher education policy and a corresponding level of achievement of the universities involvement of experts from the Western Balkan countries and of international experts Dr. Sigurd Höllinger A 1210 Vienna / Austria Peter Kaiser Gasse 8/DG M +43 664 126 59 70 sigurd.hoellinger@chello.at