Education subsidy policy plays an important role in promoting educational equity and supporting poor students in higher education. However, compared with public universities, private universities have received relatively limited attention in existing research, despite the fact that poor students in private institutions may face higher tuition fees, greater financial pressure, and fewer institutional support resources. This study conducts a systematic literature review on education subsidy policy for poor students in private universities, focusing on policy implementation, poor student identification, educational equity, and development-oriented financial aid. The review finds that existing research mainly focuses on financial aid systems, poor student identification, implementation effectiveness, and the relationship between financial aid and educational equity. However, there remain several gaps, including insufficient attention to private universities, limited case-based qualitative research, inadequate analysis of students lived experiences, and weak evaluation of long-term policy outcomes. This paper argues that future research should pay more attention to private universities and should examine education subsidy policy from the perspectives of implementation process, student experience, dignity protection, and development-oriented support.
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