Family Expenditure on Higher Engineering Education in India and its Determinants

Research on family expenditures on education in India is not abundant; and research on the determinants of family expenditure on higher engineering education is very scanty. As a result, systematic knowledge of the nature and type of family expenditure is extremely limited and why do households invest in education? Of late while the significance of studies on family expenditures on higher education is increasingly understood in general and in the context of declining pubic budgets and when alternative methods of funding of education are being explored and cost recovery methods are being introduced. Using the data collected from about 7,000 students studying in forty-eight engineering institutions in four states in India, it is attempted in the present paper to examine the extent of family expenditure on engineering education and its determinants. The robust OLS estimates suggest that family’s economic, educational, and social factors exercise considerable influence on levels of family expenditures on engineering education in India. The paper is a modest but an important addition to the limited literature on the subject and helps in making informed public policy making