Towards the Private Funding of Higher Education ― Ideological and Political Struggles

An almost universal driving force for contemporary change in universities is the shifting view of higher education as more of a private than a public good. Towards the Private Funding of Higher Education presents a contemporary global picture of this move towards the privatisation of higher education, and examines how these shifts in ideology and funding priorities have significant policy implications.

The resulting developments, such as the imposition and escalation of student tuition fees and the emergence of online providers of higher education, emerge out of a combination of economic, political and ideological pressures, further enhanced by technological changes. By using multiple international and regional examples to analyse the various pressures for privatisation, this book examines the different forms privatisation has taken, whilst offering an analytical interpretation of why the privatisation drive emerged, why it has been resisted in some instances and what forms it is likely to assume in the future.

Towards the Private Funding of Higher Education illustrates and challenges the emergence of a new relationship between the university, government and society. It is an essential read for higher education professors, university managers and higher education policy makers across the world.

David Palfreyman is Director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS), New College, University of Oxford, UK.

Ted Tapper is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS), New College, University of Oxford, UK.

Scott Thomas is Professor and Dean of the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont, USA.