The main sources of funds for public institutions are:
(1) state government tax allocation;
(2) Federal funds for libraries and other facilities, specialized academic research projects and student assistance;
(3) Most of the funds allocated by local government departments are used for two-year community colleges and municipal colleges;
(4) Tuition fees charged for financial expenses are usually much lower than those charged by private institutions;
(five) funds obtained by signing contracts to provide services for government departments, foundations and enterprises to carry out research;
(6) Funding from alumni, business circles, foundations, etc. As well as the endowment fund income accumulated from these funds.
The main sources of funds for private colleges are:
(1) The tuition fees charged to students are usually higher than those of institutions, and they also account for a large proportion of the sources of funds;
(2) subsidies provided by local, state and federal governments for specific purposes (missionary schools usually do not get these subsidies);
(3) Funding from alumni, business circles and foundations. As well as the income of endowment funds accumulated from these funds (this source is far more important in private institutions than in public institutions);
(4) Research and service contracts signed with government departments, foundations and enterprises.
However, it is incomplete to distinguish between public and private institutions by different sources of funds. Especially in recent years, many public colleges and universities have raised funds through non-governmental channels with greater fanfare, while private colleges and universities have increasingly relied on government funding. The financial aid for American college students, whether public or private, mostly comes from governments at all levels, and the difference in funding sources between the two types of institutions is gradually narrowing.
The substantive difference between public and private universities lies in whether the government or private groups control the school. Private higher education institutions are usually legal entities operating under the charter of the state government. In some states, this kind of charter is issued by the state education bureau or the university board, and the relevant institutions have also set various standards that a new institution must meet before obtaining the charter. In other states, however, there is no such standard. Any organization is allowed to award various degrees as long as it has sufficient financial resources to establish schools or can lobby the state legislature to promulgate regulations. The proportion of various sources of funds in private colleges and universities varies from school to school and from school to school in different periods. In many colleges and universities, the proportion of government funding has greatly increased, while some schools refuse to accept any government funding.
The history of American private colleges and universities is much longer than that of public colleges and universities, so traditional American famous schools such as the eight eastern Ivy League universities (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Pennsylvania, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Colombia. Among them, Cornell University has the dual nature of public and private, which is unique in the United States. Both of them have private surnames instead of public surnames. It was not until the second half of the19th century that first-class public institutions (such as the University of California and the University of Texas) rose one after another. In the United States, many private colleges and universities enjoy the incomparable reputation of private colleges and universities in other countries, which makes public colleges and universities in various States have to keep up with the quality and plays an important role in maintaining the high level of American higher education.
American public colleges and universities can be further divided into three categories: states, cities and countries. Because the federal government does not directly control and manage educational institutions, except for a few institutions directly under the federal government, such as military academies, other public and private institutions are governed by state laws.
State higher education institutions are usually established by state legislatures and sometimes according to state constitutions. These institutions are usually under the jurisdiction of the state higher education commission, whose members are usually appointed by the governor. The basic financial income of state colleges and universities comes from the state government, and the rest is tuition and fees, donations and federal grants.
Municipal colleges and universities are established according to state laws or articles of association, and are under the jurisdiction of local boards of directors. Board members are usually appointed by the mayor, the municipal education bureau or the city council. Some cities in the United States also hold huge comprehensive universities. City University of new york, for example, has 20 campuses with 6.5438+0.8 million students, ranking third among American universities. The income of such institutions is mainly local taxes and tuition and fees. Private donations and financial support from state governments are also important to some institutions, but endowment funds are insignificant in all these institutions. At present, the federal government's assistance to such institutions is increasing.
National (federal) institutions of higher learning are mainly institutions directly organized by the federal government in the field of national defense. Other departments of the federal government have also set up some higher education institutions.