Director: Daniel C. Levy

Government Involvement and Private Expansion in Asian Higher Education

PROPHE Summary (by Yingying Xu):
The private sector plays a significant role in Asian higher education, though the extent varies. In some countries, the private sector plays a small but increasing role, whereas in others private involvement is heavy. One also sees different forms and degrees of government involvement across Asian countries. Whereas some governments are wary of accepting privatization in higher education, others greatly encourage private expansion and sometimes also push privatization in public universities. A degree of cooperation between the public and private sector is a trend in most Asian systems. Another point of interest emerges where governments focus on some levels of education and allow the private sector to focus on others.

For the full story (shown with permission) see EdInvest News, October 2003. "Facilitating Investment in the Global Education Market," by Michael Latham.
http://www.worldbank.org/edinvest

PROPHE Observation (by Daniel C. Levy):
Like other regions, Asia shows variation in private growth across countries but even more than in some other regions, the general trend is toward private expansion. A more marked Asian tendency is governments' encouragement of, and active cooperation with, private growth. This partly reflects the authoritarian reality, mixed with marketization, in countries such as China, but even in democratic settings, such as India, the government's posture on marketization (and expanded access without expanded public expenditure) supports private growth.