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“EXCELLENCE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE” P A G E 35 Exploring Higher Education Financing Options Higher education can be financed privately, financed by governments, or shared. Given that the benefits of education accrue to the individual and the state, many governments opt for shared financing. This article examines the underpinnings of different options for financing higher education and develops a model to compare conditions to choices and outcomes. As an illustration, it then uses the Jamaican experience of the past four decades to demonstrate outcomes. This demonstrates that, for political reasons, there were adverse outcomes, including infrastructural neglect, enrolment decline, threats to programme quality and financial difficulties but also that many of these outcomes should have been foreseen. Given the recent global financial crisis and substantial increases in government borrowing, many states have announced reductions in funding for higher education (HE). In parallel, some governments are also reassessing the balance of HE funding that is paid by the state and that from students. There are three broad options for financing higher education: private financing, state financing, and shared financing. This article examines the nature of these options and explores their economic contexts and consequences. As anexample, it thenexamines the fundingof JamaicanHE from1963onwards. Thearticle is structured as follows. First, it examines the options for higher education funding. It then derives a model of choice and the conditions that need to exist for each option to work successfully. This allows the development of a decision tree for financing options. Armed with these frameworks, the article then examines, as an example, the funding experience in Jamaica. The article then reflects on the outcomes via use of the frameworks and it discusses the implications. The first stage of this research is to develop a model of financing options. Private funding of HE, typically based on charging students for courses, is argued to be appropriate predicated on notions of personal liberty, through the operation of markets (Barr 2004b), and involves economic efficiency, quality and equity (Sanyal 1998). Private financing delivers equity through acquired private benefits by way of higher income and social status, greater efficiency in consumption, better health, increased political efficacy and greater access to, and understanding of, culture, science and technology (Eicher and Chevaillier 2002). Kofi K. Nkrumah-Young 1 and Philip Powell 2 1 University of Technology, Jamaica 2 University of London KofiK. Nkrumah-Young