Public versus private delivery of higher education

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/154912

Title: Public versus private delivery of higher education
Author(s): Abbott, Malcolm
Abstract: In recent years there has been a strong growth in the provision of higher education via the private sector around the world. This phenomenon brings into question the status of public universities, in that it raises the question of whether governments would be able to provide higher education more effectively through the funding of private sector expansion. This paper analyses the issue of whether there is an economic justification for first of all government support of higher education, and secondly government ownership of universities. The economic justification for public ownership (quite separately from public funding) seems to rest on whether public universities are able to create a form of non-contractible quality that governments and consumers are unable to contract or regulate. The real issue, therefore, is one of whether governments can contract private institutions to deliver the quality that they are publicly funded to provide.
Publication type: Journal article
Source: Journal of International Education and Business, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Feb 2010), pp. 65-88
Publication year: 2010
Keyword(s): Australia; Higher education; Private sector; Public universitiess
Publisher: Centre for Research in International Education (CRIE), AIS St Helens
ISSN: 1172-0085
Publisher URL: http://www.crie.org.nz/journal.htm
Peer reviewed