Impact of global government investment on education and research development: A comparative analysis and demystifying the science, technology, innovation, and education conundrum

Abstract

To secure an inclusive and development-oriented society where nations can create, access, and utilize a scalable and sustainable infrastructure and resources, an equitable and effective investment in education and human capital development, including science, technology, and innovation (STI) has proven to be inevitable. There have been speculations on how disproportionate the global government investments and expenditures may be in achieving those goals across the regions. This study conducts a comparative analysis of data about global government investment in relation to education, STI and researchers/human capital development. We applied a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple comparisons (Post Hoc Tukey) tests to determine the association between the different types of regions and the level of Educational and STI investment as per percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and full-time equivalent (FTE) of researchers between 2015 and 2020, respectively. Three categories of data from The UNESCO's Institute for Statistics (UIS) on sustainable development goals (SDGs) were used for the investigations. The analyzed dataset consisted of information about Education as per GDP (n = 190), STI as per GDP (n = 155), and STI as per Researcher FTE (n = 155). The results show that there were differences in the global government investments in the above constructs between the low- and middle-income vs high-income regions. In turn, the study empirically discussed and shed light on the leading factors by considering their implications, and how those can be used to support decision-making and infrastructural investment policies by the various governments, policymakers, financial investors, and educators towards a global/sustainable practice.