ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to place in different national/regional settings the apparently almost universal shift from the public to the private funding of higher education systems. It analysis the impact of the extension of private funding of higher education as it evolves in three different contexts. The first two different contexts are: where there is already an established pattern of mixing private and public funding; and where there is policy shift that dramatically increases private funding in order to move to a mass system of higher education. The last context is: where the increase in private funding is aimed at restructuring radically the existing model of higher education. Higher education needs to move beyond its current widespread entrapment in politics of funding and focus on securing key policy goals regardless of its funding base. The chapter concludes with an interpretation of what light the developments throw upon the future of higher education as a policy arena worthy of political attention.
