Ageing population and higher education: is there any correlation?

The ageing of the population across the globe poses unique challenges to higher education. It is especially so in those countries where student contribution is an important share of the institution’s budget. Obviously, fewer students mean fewer fees.

On the other end, fewer graduates imply a shortage of qualified workers.

As highlighted by World Atlas, an increasing number of countries now have a 20+ percentage of the population which is over 65 years old, and namely:

 

Japan 27%

Italy 23%

Portugal 22%

Germany 21%

Finland 21%

Bulgaria 21%

Greece 20%

Sweden 20%

Latvia 20%

Croatia 20%

 

What’s worse, the overall trend is even gloomier. Ageing population in higher education may in fat bear negative effect on increased government spending on health care and pensions.

Those in retirement tend to pay lower income taxes because they are not working. This combination of higher spending commitments and lower tax revenue is a source of concern for Western governments – especially those with existing debt issues and unfunded pension schemes.

And how’s Italy doing? In a recent survey published by QS, we discover that “Italian schools will suffer from 70,000 fewer enrollments this year.

”This coupled with the migration from the Country: on average, more than 100.000 Italians emigrate per year, 30% of which with a university degree”, QS reports.

It looks, therefore, kind of urgent to develop a national recruitment plan in order to fill these gaps with qualified international students.

QS also reports on the matter.