The financing of education in European Union in the era of economic crisis. The case study of Greek Higher Education

High quality education and training is the cornerstone to economic growth. Teaching citizens valuable skills in all sectors will spur innovation and ultimately can help improve corporate competitiveness. The European Union concurs, and overtime has instituted a series of education policies for development, notably in the field of higher education. A good example would be the Bologna Process. Yet the economic crisis has put tremendous pressure on all Member States. While governments are implementing policies to reduce their budget deficits and to manage their public debt, they remain committed to establishing a sustainable economy. Despite good intentions to boost national competitiveness, in practice education funding has been negatively affected by austerity measures, especially in Southern Europe. Given that research demonstrates correlation between the level of funding for education and students' learning outcomes, the urgency to review education funding policies becomes a priority. In this article, we will try to outline the trends in expenditure in higher education in Greece in the period 2008-2012 compared with those of the European Union Member States in the same time frame. We will present the effects of the economic and financial crises in education expenditure and how these affect the quality of education. The comparative analysis is set in five parts. The first, describes the financial environment in European Union and Greece during the reporting period. The second and the third review the financing of education in Europe and in Greece. The fourth analyses the allocation of costs and the fifth estimates the per student cost of education in academic departments of Greek universities.