This international study focuses on the funding systems in the area of higher education in the following countries: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Portugal and Slovak Republic. Each individual country study was designed and conducted within an overall common framework by a project partner from the respective country. By using the stakeholder approach, this study addresses and analyses the effects of funding systems on the higher education system and its institutions. In order to present a comprehensive overview, the study explicitly takes into account the stakeholders' diversity and explores the effects of how funding systems are perceived and assessed differently...