Education is one of the fields that attract particular attention of philanthropic organizations. Worldwide, about of one third of all private grants were given to the educational institutions. Along with the support to infrastructure development and research projects, private donors represented by companies, foundations, families and individuals allocate resources to cover tuition and fees for students.
However, philanthropies that provide scholarships exclusively on a merit basis to the students applying for private colleges and universities are often faced with a moral issue that some of student’s families due to their high income are capable to cover such educational costs. Therefore, grant authorities consider options when financial support for students is granted merely on a needs basis notwithstanding certain qualifications that all the applicants should meet.
In this case, family income, assets and property serve as main criteria to evaluate entitlement of a student for financial aid. Due to the various traditions, economic conditions and national regulations each country has a specific approach to calculate family income. Philanthropies that are willing to start their own need-based grant programmes that are innovative and not bound by certain national rules therefore require coming up with their own criteria for grants calculation. There criteria should be equally applied for students from all countries.
To support these efforts, Attega Consulting undertook a research project to come up with a universal formula to satisfy the needs of philanthropies in developing their own criteria for educational grant calculation.
