Restructuring Higher Education: Public-Private Partnerships

1. MOLLY N.N. LEE, UNESCO BANGKOK, email: m.lee@unescobkk.org Restructuring Higher Education: Public-Private Partnerships

2. OUTLINE • Restructuring of HE • Public-Private Debate • Public-Private Partnership • Implications on Role of the State

3. Neoliberal Ideology • Shrinking of the welfare state • Cutbacks in social expenditure • Privatization of public services • Restructuring higher education

4. Higher Education Context • Diversity in Asia-Pacific • Face common problems in HE • Increasing social demand for HE • Budgetary constraints • Let the buyer Pay • To do more with less

5. Restructuring Higher Education • Privatization of higher education • Corporatization of public universities

6. Restructuring HE • Liberalization of HE sector • Deregulation in traditional PHE systems • Regulation in new PHE systems

7. Restructuring HE • Diversified funding sources • Increased institutional autonomy • Increased accountability

8. Public-Private Debate Arguments based on: • Efficiency • Equity • Diversity and Choice

9. Higher Education as a Public Good • Definition: non-rival and non-excludable • The publicness and privateness of higher education: • Mission or purpose • Ownership • Source of revenue • Expenditure control • Regulations or control over other aspects • Norms of management

10. Higher Education as a Private Commodity • HE as private investment • HE credentials as competition for scarce social position • HEIs selling their services • HE as an industry • HE as a tradeable service

11. Higher Education as a Market • “education for the market” and “markets for education”. • An educated person or an accredited person • Vocationalization of the HE curricula • Turn students to consumers and educators into service providers • “what do I need?” replace “what ought I do?” • Shift from production of social knowledge to marketable products.

12. Public-Private Nexus • H.E. is both a public and private good with both public and private interest

13. Public-Private Mix FINANCE State II Public U. I Japanese Private U. CONTROL External Internal Semipublic U. III Corporatized U. People founded U. IV Private U. Public Corp. U. Market

14. Public-Private partnerships • P-P as a derivative of privatization • P-P as management reform • P-P as problem conversion • P-P as risk shifting • P-P as restructuring public services

15. P-P Mixes in HE • State govt and private companies (state/provincial universities, deemed universities) • Public universities and private companies (affiliated colleges, foreign branch campuses) • Public universities and private colleges (franchised progs) • Consortia of public univs (OUM, Universitas 21) • Non-profit private universities (political parties, people founded univs in Vietnam and China)

16. P-P Mixes in HE • Public subsidies to private institutions (Japan, India) • Faculties from public universities teaching in private institutions (Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam) • Students on govt loans studying in private institutions • Outsourcing of student services in public university campuses • P-P in research with industry • P-P in offering professional services (professors in medical faculties)

17. Expanding Role of the State • Provider, regulator, protector • Supervisory and steering role