Determining the optimal size of study fields in Flemish secondary education

The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimal size of educational organisations. We assume that the global cost consists of two parts: a public cost of supplying education characterised by scale economies and a private transport cost showing diseconomies. Combining both components leads to a cost function that allows the optimal scale to be derived. Using information on the fixed cost of supplying a study field, the student density and the transport cost, it is possible to determine the optimal number of students in each of the study fields. It follows that the actual size is far from optimal. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.