States and Market: Mapping the growth of privatization in Higher Education

Abstract

Presence of private institutions in the field of education is not a new phenomenon and neither is private provision of education. However, privatization of education on a mass scale certainly is. This is particularly true of the countries in the developing world and the erstwhile Soviet bloc where private parties have stepped in to occupy the space ceded by the state when it was no longer able or willing to support the education sector. This implies that space for private players in education is provided by the state itself when the latter is no longer able or willing to support the sector primarily due to lack of funds. If their rate of expansion is anything to go by, then 21^st century will witness an exponential growth of private higher education (HE). Not only are private higher education institutions (HEIs) expanding in terms of infrastructure but they are increasingly serving larger segments of the population across the length and breadth of the globe