International Higher Education # 39

International Higher Education, Spring 2005

Analyzing a Private Revolution: The Work of PROPHE

Daniel C. Levy
Daniel C. Levy is director for the Program of Research on Private Higher Education (PROPHE) and Distinguished Professor, at SUNY (University at Albany). Address: School of Education, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA. E-mail: dlevy@uamail.albany.edu.

Readers of IHE have seen a major flow of entries on private higher education in recent years. This flow reflects what can reasonably be characterized as a “private revolution.” Around the world, private higher education has greatly expanded or otherwise gained prominence, often quite suddenly or surprisingly, though usually linked to wider political-economic tendencies of privatization. Complementing and often interacting with the surge in private higher education is the multifaceted privatization of public higher education.

Yet private higher education remains largely a niche field for scholarship. Mainstream higher education literature has shown academia’s common sluggishness in identifying and analyzing fast-changing phenomena. On the other hand, news pieces and reports proliferate, showing little or no awareness of private higher education elsewhere or of concepts and data from the still small scholarly literature. Ad hoc impressions and heated and poorly informed polemics usually predominate while vital and multiple policy issues are at stake in country after country.

PROPHE
Against that background, PROPHE (Program for Research on Private Higher Education) was created, 2000, at the University at Albany, SUNY. It is financed mostly by the Ford Foundation. PROPHE is dedicated to building knowledge about private higher education worldwide. Neither pro- nor anti-private, PROPHE does, however, engage major policy issues and dissemination for decision makers and the general public.

PROPHE is a network of scholars in some 20 countries. It additionally includes partner centers and emerging regional centers as well as a network of students working on dissertations on the subject of private higher education. By design, PROPHE is mostly composed of junior scholars.

To see output and activities, see http://www.albany.edu/eaps/~prophe/. Output includes working papers, edited books, other publications, and conferences. It also includes compilations and analyses of data, relevant laws, and news features from around the world. A large bibliography (2004)—produced in partnership with Boston College’s CIHE—provides a guide for scholars and policymakers. CIHE also cooperates by allocating to PROPHE a regular column in IHE.

Enrollments
PROPHE’s developing database covers institutions, faculty, field of study, diploma or degree levels, geographical concentrations, and the like. Culling just system enrollments from the total picture, we get a quick feel of the breadth and intensity of the private revolution.

No region is unaffected. Postcommunist Eastern and Central Europe has moved from virtually 0 to as high as 20 and 30 percent in some countries. China is now about 10 percent private, and Mongolia and Southeast Asia have private sectors. Major developments likewise characterize South Asia and the Middle East as well. Several Asian countries with longstanding private higher education show large majority enrollments (Japan, Philippines, and South Korea). Latin America’s roughly 40 percent average also includes countries with private majorities (Chile, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic). Africa has come recently from near 0 to figures as high as 20 percent in countries like Kenya.

Analysis shows that the private revolution is much clearer and dramatic in developing than developed regions. Western Europe remains the region with least private higher education, though interesting changes are emerging there, too, and private higher education now has a notable place in New Zealand and Australia. Furthermore, the nature as well as the size of enrollments is changing. U.S. private higher education holds rather steady, around 21 percent, but dramatic is the rise of for-profits as well as a more general commercialization of nonprofit (and even public) institutions. Japan has just begun to experiment with for-profits.

Issues for Analysis
So the private higher education revolution is not about numbers alone. It is also about profound changes within the sector. A related subject for study is how private higher education fits into broader higher education reform trends internationally, from finance to governance, accountability, autonomy, accreditation, and much more. Beyond “fit” is even the question of leadership: how, how much, and where does private higher education lead major higher education changes?

At the same time, analysis shows that private higher education is far from just one phenomenon. It varies greatly across regions, across countries, and even within countries. Subsectoral variation is huge, as the for-profit versus nonprofit matter shows and as differences among religious/cultural, academic, and commercial subsectors further show. Without doubt, the most extensive and profound revolution has been occurring on the commercial side.

Analysis must be intersectoral as well. PROPHE looks at changing degrees and at the distinctiveness and similarities between the private and public sector. Comparisons include private subsectors versus public subsectors. Additional issues, often crucial for policy analysis as well, concern intersectoral cooperation and conflict. Cooperation has in many countries gone as far as formal private institution partnerships with public institutions.

PROPHE thus has an active and expanding research agenda. Yet it is a daunting challenge to try to document and analyze the private higher education revolution that is sweeping so much of the world.