This paper examines the lineage of the concept of the public good, from its origin in liberal political theory, through its migration into political economy, economics, and public policy. At some stage in this migration the notion of ‘the’ public good, an outcome of benefit in some indivisible way to the whole of a social group – most commonly the citizenry of a nation-state – emerges in the discourse of public goods: what they are, how they should be regulated (or not), who should be responsible for their production and who is entitled to their benefits – that is to say, the beneficiary class. The paper follows the different trajectory of ideas of a common/public or national good as it has emerged in various different Asian contexts and the interactions between the public/state sector in the modern period and its liberalization under the impress of globalization.

The overall financial structure of US higher education has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, resulting in a significant reduction of public funding. One result of this shift has been the steadily increasing costs of tuition as an increasing portion of the financial structure of higher education is shifted to students. Increased costs to students have resulted in the emergence of complex access issues that stratify student participation across a number of variables, perhaps the most important being the ability to pay. Federal government efforts to assist within this equation have resulted in both the far greater capacity of students to borrow federal funds (or guaranteed funds), but with the result that in the changing job economy of the US students exhibit increased time to graduation, lessened success in gaining post-graduation employment and the prospect of significant debt repayment obligations. Overall, governmental policy may be contradictory within those aspects that seek to continue to provide increased access, including the rise of private sector for-profit education, and the overall ability of students and their families to sustain the associated costs.