Australia and the UK: different experiences of private schooling

As part of an international collaboration funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Australian Research Council, researchers at the IFS and the Australian National University have sought to compare the nature of private schooling in both Australia and the UK.

The experience of the two countries has been very different over the recent past. Whilst private school attendance has remained largely flat in the UK at around 6-7% of children, it has risen sharply in Australia with about a third of children currently attending a school outside the government sector. The level of public subsidies is also very different, with large public subsidies on offer in Australia and no direct subsidies in the UK.

Grants to private schools in Australia were introduced as small per capita, flat rate payments to all schools in 1970. They have increased substantially in real terms since then and effectively provide a weighted subsidy (voucher) for all students to attend the school of their choice in the private sector. Since the introduction of these subsidies, the proportion attending an independent school in Australia has risen strongly, though less so at the bottom of the income distribution (especially in elite schools). However, it seems as if these per-capita grants have not generally been used by schools to lower fees, but rather to improve the 'quality' of the education they provide their existing student base by reducing pupil-teacher ratios.

In Australia, the fastest student growth area in private schooling, low-fee private schools, also receive the highest levels of grants, so this growth has led to substantial growth in government expenditure on such subsides. There has been growing concern about the relative funding of public and private schools in Australia, including among senior educators. The Australian government announced a review of funding arrangements for all schools in April 2010.

With no direct government subsidies, the UK provides a very different experience of private schooling than that of Australia. In the UK, private schools seem to occupy a niche market. They have high fees, low pupil-teacher ratios and account for a relatively small percentage of the pupil population (6-7% in recent times). The families who make up this small percentage tend to be high income households, more highly educated and highly likely to have attended a private school themselves.

The proportion attending a private school has been subject to only small changes in recent history. It increased slightly during the 1980s. This was a time of rising income inequalities, which our research suggests could have driven some of the increase in regions with the fastest rises in income inequality. Changes since the early 1990s have been very small. This is despite a large rise in fees relative to both top and average incomes since 2000. This fits with findings from our research, which suggests that increases in fees do reduce private school attendance but at a relatively low rate.