Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Worldwide Rise of Private Higher Education

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SES - 1130035Francisco Ramirez (PI)Elizabeth Bruckner (co-PI)Stanford UniversityDoctoral Dissertation Research: The Worldwide Rise of Private Higher EducationAbstractPrivate higher education is now the fastest growing segment of higher education. The massive expansion of private higher education institutions (PHEI) is a relatively new, and somewhat unexpected, phenomenon in the history of higher education. This dissertation examines the growth of private higher education worldwide, and asks: What explains the worldwide expansion of private higher education? Specifically, under which conditions do nation-states shift responsibilities for structuring educational opportunities away from the state towards the market? To that end, the project focuses on the role of international governmental organizations (IGOs) in the diffusion of global models for higher education policies. My project relies on a combination of sources: It draws on policy documents produced by various stakeholders to examine dominant models for higher education systems. It also examines the effect of national budgets as well as international pressures on the decisions of nations to promote the expansion of the private higher education sector. Finally, the dissertation includes an explicitly comparative case study of nations that have predominantly public higher education systems with nations relying primarily on private non-profit, and private for-profit institutions. This project will be the first of its kind to apply a combination of qualitative and quantitative, longitudinal analysis to investigate the factors that have furthered the privatization of higher education around the world. Broader ImpactsFindings from this research may advance our understanding of how complex globalization dynamics affect social policies pursued by nation states. In addition, this research project will produce original dataset to be disseminated not only in the academic community, but also among national and international policy makers. By collecting never-before-compiled data on the year of privatization, the dataset will be the first step towards conducting causal analysis of the effects of privatization on outcomes such as access and equity. As such, findings from this research will provide insights for international and national policies that may ultimately contribute to improve access and equity in systems of higher education worldwide.