ABSTRACT
Private higher education encompasses institutions of postsecondary study not owned and controlled by government. In some national systems the preferred designation is "free" or "independent," but all such terms are relative. Nongovernmental institutions that grant officially recognized credentials (degrees) are everywhere constrained by laws and regulations, and thus are held publicly accountable. The residue of discretionary behavior that remains with them by virtue of not being an organ of the state may be great or small, but it is in this ability to pursue their own chosen goals that these institutions are private.
