Public Policy and Private Higher Education in Comparative Perspective

This edited collection takes a structured and systematic approach to exploring the policymaking and policy impacts that shape private higher education (PHE) across the globe. Although the rapid PHE expansion to a third of total global enrollment has owed much to a lack of initial government regulation, continued expansion (along with occasional stagnation or decline) results from complex interplays between private initiatives and public policy. Each affects the other in demonstrable but also subtle and sometimes elusive ways. This volume features six empirical cases rich with historical, political-economic, and socio-cultural context: the United States, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China. Each case is further contextualized by exploring public policy on public higher education—which often shapes PHE as much as public policy does when directly aimed at PHE. They further examine the leading research on comparative and global PHE, employing its cutting-edge concepts to promote meaningful cross-national and cross-regional comparison. The volume sheds considerable light on debates over private versus public, privateness versus publicness, and private-public hybrids and partnerships. The chapters aim to critically engage with comparative discussions on the private and public sectors and elucidate the clashing stakeholder and government visions of the future of PHE. This timely and authoritative text will be of interest to researchers, students, and policymakers interested in global and comparative higher education (HE), PHE, governance, and public policy.