*4.3. Discussion*

The fixed-effect models examining the influences of education finance policies, economy, and educational systems on tertiary vocational education reveal that public spending on tertiary and secondary education and secondary vocational enrollment have a statistically significant influence on short-cycle tertiary vocational education. The positive relationship between government expenditure on tertiary education (academic and vocational) as a percentage of government expenditure on education and short-cycle tertiary vocational enrollment suggests that short-cycle tertiary vocational education relies on public spending. In contrast, US community colleges rely more on government (local and state) appropriations than four-year institutions [98]. This pattern seems also to be true for the nations studied here. On the one hand, the open-access, low-tuition nature of admission into short-cycle tertiary education requires heavy public subsidies. On the other hand, unlike costly four-year bachelor's degree programs, financing short-cycle tertiary training, often of lower quality and cost, involves a lower level of financial commitment from the government. Thus, it is logical that increased public investment in tertiary education benefited short-cycle education rather than bachelor's education.

The negative relationship between public cost per tertiary student as a percentage of GDP per capita and tertiary vocational enrollment is consistent with the findings of Yang and McCall [13]. When countries have adopted a fixed total budget for tertiary education, the more students enrolled in tertiary vocational education, the less government investment per student. Competition for higher education resources under a fixed total budget may lead to an inverse relationship between public expenditure per student and tertiary vocational enrollment. Therefore, the negative relationship yielded in this study provides some evidence that budget allocation levels for tertiary vocational education are relatively fixed or do not increase proportionately with enrollment levels [99,100]. Similar to the findings for gross tertiary enrollment (both academic and vocational) in Yang and McCall's [13] research, this study finds that the negative relation remains the same for short-cycle tertiary education.

The regression results reveal a different story about public investment in short-cycle tertiary education compared with for higher education access in general (both vocational and academic tracks). According to Yang and McCall [11], higher education access to all sectors (vocational and academic) in general has borne statistically significant relationships with public spending on education as a percentage of GDP, GDP per capita, secondary enrollment ratio, and gender parity indices at secondary and tertiary levels. In this study, these relationships are not statistically significant, but the results are highly intuitive and well-aligned with existing literature. Primarily due to its openness in admission criteria and low-tuition nature, access to short-cycle tertiary vocational education is not very sensitive to public spending on education as a percentage of GDP, citizens' average income (represented by GDP per capita), secondary education preparation, or the gender pattern prevailing in secondary and tertiary education.

The positive, significant relationship between secondary vocational enrollment and tertiary vocational education and the significant interaction effect observed in this study are particularly illuminating. It is logical that in less-developed countries, tertiary vocational education mainly provides college access for students who have completed secondary vocational education. In other words, these less-developed countries have established pipelines through which secondary vocational students directly enter tertiary vocational education. It is also likely that secondary and tertiary vocational education in less-developed countries are encouraged by national policies. This parallel development strategy has enabled many developed and less-developed countries, such as Malaysia, Japan, and the Republic of

Korea [56], to expand students' options and meet the increasing demand for technical, managerial, and professional occupations. However, this study finds that a parallel vocational education development strategy has been more applicable for less-developed countries and much weaker across developed countries.
