Throughout the world, the .financing of education is in a state of crisis, a condition made even more acute by thesimultaneous appearance of a doctrinal crisis with regard to the ends and the utility of education. For Europeanhigher education, the situation calls for the diversification of funding mechanisms. The public authorities, whichup until now have borne most of the burden of higher education financing, must transfer a goodly portion of theburden to users, i.e., students and parents, and to the private sector. Various methods for financial diversificationare explored as well as different formulae for user-financing.