MCC should work to obtain a better understanding of students’ ability and willingness to pay for higher education. MCC should have a clear picture of what student expectations are for higher education, and, if a partner government is proposing something new/innovative that neither they nor MCC have undertaken in the past, make sure there is a market for it. Both internal factors, like asking students to pay for higher education in STEM fields in a country where tuition for STEM programs was covered mostly by state scholarships, and external factors, such as the devaluation of the Georgian Lari shortly after Entry into Force, made the US$ 7,500 tuition very expensive and led to low enrollment rates. In the future MCC should better understand the demand for such educational programs and perhaps adopt an incremental approach of increasing tuition over time and as Compact-funded activities ramp up.
Lesson Learned