ABSTRACT
There has been rapid growth in private higher education in most countries including in Asia during the last two to three decades. The growth of private higher education in Asian countries is more in response to the ‘excess demand’ phenomenon than to the phenomenon of ‘differentiated demand’. Increasing scarcity of public resources on the one hand, and the neo-liberal environment that is gaining strength over the years, on the other hand, are the two most important factors that have enabled the rapid growth of private higher education. Public policies are formulated in favour of private higher education either out of compulsion, or, rarely, out of conviction. Whereas some countries have adopted policies that are strongly supportive of public sector and are anti-private, some intend to regulate the growth of private sector, and policies in many countries can be described as laissez-faire policies, which in effect work as pro-private.
Some of the striking aspects of the growth of private education are (i) decline in philanthropy in higher education, (ii) acceptance of the phenomenon of profit in private higher education, (iii) rapid – even unbridled – growth of private higher education, (iv) corresponding rapid diminution of the public sector in higher education, and (v) exclusive reliance of private institutions on students’ tuition, etc.
The rapid growth of private higher education has its effects on education and development in general. The growth of the kind being experienced in many Asian developing countries results in loss of equity – social and economic; increase in regional disparities; erosion in quality; loss of important academic disciplines (in favour of marketable disciplines) of study; change in attitudes; erosion in national, social and educational values; public pauperisation and private enrichment; crowding-out of the public sector; loss of public good nature of higher education; and loss of balanced development of higher education in terms of various disciplines of study and research.
Without losing sight of the fact that there are wide differences between several countries in the Asian region, not only with respect to the levels of development, socio-economic development policies and their effects, but also specifically with respect to the growth of private higher education, the chapter examines some of these recent trends in the growth of private higher education in the Asian region, the socio-economic and educational effects, and the public policies in this regard, and outlines some implications for the future.
