Student Perceptions of the Financial Returns to Higher Education in the Czech Republic and England: Evidence from Business Schools

In this paper, the short-cut method is used to estimate perceived rates of financial returns to
higher education in the Czech Republic and a modified version of the method is used to suit
the current English system of deferred tuition fees. First year university students were asked
to estimate their earnings with and without a university degree at two points in time. The
findings show that students perceive higher education to be a profitable investment and that
rates of return vary by gender as well as by country and a place of study. We conclude that
perceptions are a useful proxy indicator for the demand for higher education at any particular
point in time, at least in vocationally oriented subjects such as economics or business studies.
Therefore policy makers would be well advised to track changes in such perceptions of not
only university students, but also of high school leavers.