The Global Growth of Private Higher Education (review)

Technological advances in the 21st century compel countries worldwide to cultivate the knowledge required to compete in an increasingly “flat” world. As a result, global demand for higher education has risen. Asia, Latin America, and the United States, for example, are experiencing tremendous growth in their private higher education sectors due to employer demand for a workforce that can readily adapt to a rapidly changing, technology-driven job market.

In The Global Growth of Private Higher Education, the authors—who are affiliated with the Program for Research in Private Higher Education (PROPHE) housed at the University of Albany, comprehensively describe the recent phenomenon of private higher education growth. Using country-specific case studies from Mexico, Chile, Bulgaria, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and the United States, each chapter details the arrival and sustainability of private higher education institutions and draws comparative analyses of higher education sectors in various parts of the world.

The authors acknowledge that no uniform description of private higher education can be applied universally to all the varied forms of regional academic design and purpose. However, themes emerge that characterize similarities across many private higher education institutions. For example, many programs in the private higher education sector provide their students with a professional, technological, or service-sector based curriculum. This orientation may lead to an associate degree or to a certificate verifying the attainment of certain qualifications. Generally, these terminal programs prepare students for immediate placement in the regional workforce.

However, exceptions exist, such as in the United Arab Emirates’ highly evolving city of Dubai where the curricular focus of such programs rests more on conferring bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Private higher education institutions in other countries often reflect religious affiliations. Centuries-old institutions in Thailand, for example, can trace their roots to Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist associations. Globally, other countries host a legacy of institutions founded by private missionary groups.

In addition to colleges and universities founded through specialized religious or cultural affiliations, for-profit private colleges and universities have entered the arena. For-profit providers have been particularly successful in the United States, and the book provides basic coverage of their growth and success.

Daniel Levy posits four characteristics of private higher education growth which recur thematically throughout this book. These characteristics provide the reader with a broad understanding of the growth phenomenon but should be interpreted as themes rather than as definitive conditions that explain the expansion of private higher education globally.

First, rapid growth in private higher education emerges quickly. The authors present Mexico as an example of such explosive growth. Similar rapid emergence and expansion occurred in Dubai (the UAE), following the country’s swift development since its creation in 1971. However in some regions, rapid growth is not a feature of private sector expansion. Kenya’s private colleges and universities, for example, experienced and continue to face government-promoted resistance, rendering their growth comparatively slow.

Second, the growth phenomenon is a relatively recent occurrence. The case of Bulgaria’s entrance into and expansion of private higher education following the collapse of communist rule epitomizes such recent materialization. However, while accelerated growth often accompanies emergent private higher education, such rapid expansion can also arise in countries where private colleges and universities have been long established. For example, private institutions of higher education have maintained a centuries-old presence in countries such as Thailand, even though the expansion and investment in this sector have been more recent for these countries.

Third, Levy points to the ability of the expanding private higher education sector to absorb some of the burgeoning academic demand in certain countries. When the public sector fails to provide adequate academic opportunities, alternative educational resources and institutions emerge. In Mexico, for example...