Harvard is,perhaps, the richest university in the US with over $50 bn in endowment funds. It is a private university. And yet it gets $ 9bn in federal funds, according to this report in the FT! This includes $256 mn in contracts and $8.7 bn in grants.
That is certainly news to me. I was aware of government funding for projects and funding through agencies such as the National Science Foundation. I was not aware of outright grants. I read also that Columbia gets $400 mn in grants and $5 bn in other forms.
The Trump administration is asking universities to review their policies on anti-semitism, DEI (diversity8, equity and inclusion), etc. in order to qualify for funding. Columbia university announced its willingness to fall in line with the government's demands. It appears there was a severe backlash from faculty and students which resulted in the president of the University announcing her decision to step down.
My concern here is not with the problems American universities are having with the government. It is about the financing of higher education. The combination of endowments and government funding allows America's private universities to massively subsidise their courses. The fee charged does not cover costs. At the undergrad level, there are tuition and other waivers- Harvard has said that for 2025-26, undergrad education would be free for all students whose family income is below $100,000. 'Free' means the university would cover tuition, food, housing, health insurance, and travel costs.
In India, courses at government universities are subsidised but not those at private universities. The IIMs have relatively small or no endowments and the leading IIMs do not get government funding, so they recover costs plus margins through enormous fees. The same goes for engineering and medical courses at non-government colleges.
The failure to subsidise higher education in India across a wide swathe of colleges has implications for inclusion, the financial well-being of students who pay for courses and the cost of services such as health for the average person. Much of Europe offers free or subsidised education for its citizens. So does Canada. Our model is seriously flawed and needs to be revisited.
