Dear Colleagues:
I am seeking advice about which countries globally have contracting and de-privatizing higher education systems? I am focusing on Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Estonia – but there may be more. I am looking for systems which used to have large private sectors which are now contracting – or which are moving away from fees in the public sector? Or both.
The aim of this strand of my research is to test the usefulness of the concept of “de-privatization” (Marek Kwiek, “De-privatization in Higher Education: A Conceptual Approach”, Higher Education, 74(2), 259-281) in higher education in the empirical context of Central Europe and elsewhere globally of the last decade. Moreover, it intends to explore how this new concept could be useful in global higher education studies.
Privatization processes as defined here include: (a) private-sector growth (external privatization) and (b) the increasing reliance on cost-sharing mechanisms in the public sector (internal privatization). External and internal privatization are viewed in this research as privatization agendas that include different processes for change that are dominant in various national systems. A privatization agenda refers to higher education provision (provided by public or private institutions) and funding (from public or private sources).
Clearly, there can be privatization without the emergence of private-sector institutions, e.g., privatization in the public sector only. By way of analogy, de-privatization processes in higher education refer to (a) private-sector decline (external de-privatization) and (b) the decreasing reliance on cost-sharing mechanisms in the public sector (internal de-privatization). However, external de-privatization cannot exist without the prior existence of the private sector in a system.
Empirically observed trends of de-privatization (and contraction in enrollments) run contrary to global trends of privatization (and expansion). De-privatization processes mean a decreasing role for the private component in the changing public-private dynamics in higher education funding and provision.
The critical issue defining the uniqueness of these countries is the privatization/de-privatization-demography link: privatization tends to be on the rise in expanding systems (almost everywhere in the world in the 2010s) and to be in reverse in contracting systems with heavily declining demography. However, demography is not the only factor involved; other factors include national academic traditions, social and political priorities, and national spending priorities. The four countries seem to value their public sectors highly and subsidize them accordingly—and they seem unwilling to subsidize their private sectors, demonstrating traditionally pure public and pure private sectors with limited cross-sectoral blurring in provision or funding.
We can imagine countries with decreasing reliance on fees in the public sector – for political and other reasons!
If you find any analogies globally – let me know about the particular countries!
Thank you in advance!
Marek
Prof. Kwiek,
Thank you for raising this question and for your fascinating work in the global education space.
I wish I could offer some useful information, however, in Africa where I live and currently do my work, larger dependence of HE financing has always been on subventions (for public institutions) and tuition (for private institutions). Private financing is not so deeply rooted as it only accounts for around 10% and 20% depending on country. As a result, their is a rather low impact of private institutions and funding to the education system - e.g there are more private HEIs that public in Nigeria, yet it accounts for less than 10% of student enrollment.
Because privatization is only a growing concept in the African education sector, de-privatization is not yet an option.
I am interested in learning more about your work, Marek Kwiek , and the outcome of your ongoing project(s).
~Louis.
In 2017, New York State introduced the Excelsior program. Under this program, middle-class families and individuals making up to $125,000 per year qualify to attend college tuition-free ONLY at all City University of New York (CUNY) and the State University of New York (SUNY) and only if the student is a resident of New York State. The program began in the academic year 2017-2018. As a result, private colleges in New York saw about 5% drop in enrollment. However, this decline did not continue the following year. The program also put private colleges at a competitive disadvantage. The small colleges will suffer the most while it is not expected that elite private universities will feel any difference. Student-debt in the US is a crisis and is the focus of many politicians. Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, for example, promised if elected to make public college free. If this happens then you can safely predict a decline in private college enrollment nationwide.
There are several other states that offer similar programs just not as generous as Excelsior. I came across this article this morning and it has a lot of useful information for your research
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-22/2020-s-free-college-promises-may-be-deadly-to-private-schools
On the other hand, I do not believe that De-privatization is a concern in the Middle East or Africa - at least not yet.
Sorry I have no expertise in HE de-privatization. My work is in learning and teaching: see ‘Inside Teaching: How to Make a Difference for Every Learner and Teacher’ (Routledge, 2017).
Hi Marek hocam,
Turkey presents a highly different picture in terms of de-privatisation in HE sector. TR has two uni types, public and (non-profit) foundation unies, and no legal allowance to establish private/profit-oriented unies. The TR government also provides free HE education in public unies (including associate, undergraduate, master and doctoral education programmes) for a long time, almost last 15 years. Moreover, the government basically funds everything in public unies, including salaries, student credits (for life expenses), R&D budget, etc. Interestingly, the TR government is also the main funding body for most of foundation unies. However, a couple of months ago the government announced the draft of 11th national deveopment until 2023, the centenary year of TR. This draft includes the item on the possible legal arrangement for private unies. As a result, the government is still funding around 90% of HE sector in TR. Now, we are waiting to see what will happen after 11th development plan and the potential private unies in TR.
Given above, I can comment that a high internal de-privatisation generated a sort of privilege for HE sector, while no need for intensive external de-privarisation in the composition of TR HE.
Best,
B.
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