High fees plus the prohibition of any part-time working by international students at private colleges have ensured the dramatic contraction of the industry, says Geoffrey Alderman
Greece is facing the prospect of legal action by the European Union unless it satisfies Brussels that it will lift a series of restrictions on private colleges.
As private higher education makes inroads in Britain, lawmakers should look to the United States for lessons on shaping how the industry will grow and evolve, a new report says.
One of Britain's best-known public intellectuals took higher-education observers by surprise on Sunday with the announcement that he is spearheading the establishment of what would be an unprecedented kind of institution in Britain—a private, for-profit liberal-arts college that would rival elite institutions such as the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
But today they are facing two imminent threats to their near-monopoly of higher education. The first is the expansion of educational providers that exist solely on private support. The second comes from the small but growing efforts of for-profit universities, heavily influenced by commercial education ventures in the United States.
AC Grayling argued that students' comments on Facebook and Twitter - and how their degrees were accepted in the workplace - would help regulate private colleges such as the New College of the Humanities, which he set up.
Buckingham is the UK's only officially independent university, which sets its own fees, and there are calls for more like it. The rise in the university tuition fee cap across England has led to huge protests, and yet some top universities want it to be even higher.
Singapore and the United Kingdom will work together to raise standards in private education in both countries. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to do so was signed on Friday by the Council for Private Education (CPE) Singapore and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) United Kingdom.
Higher Education Authority Chairman John Hennessy said the continuing growing demand for Higher Education in Ireland could no longer be fully met by the publicly funded institutions. He said that at a time of cutbacks, and because of close links to industry, private colleges were often in a better position to deliver better programmes.
The Chairman of the Higher Education Authority, John Hennessy, has criticised the “very restrictive” public service working practices across the third-level sector. In an address yesterday he also envisaged a greater role for private colleges in the provision of higher education courses in Ireland.
The government is being urged to prevent universities being bought by private equity firms after the College of Law, a charity that provides teaches law courses in London and six other cities across England, was sold to a private equity firm for £200m.
Figures show that leading Russell Group universities spent £382 million (US$613 million) on the highest paid academics and managers last year – twice as much as in 2003-04. It also emerged that the proportion of university spending on top staff – those paid at least £100,000 a year – increased from just 1.8% to 3.8%, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.
This (unnamed) college demonstrates the 'dark side' of the private sector in higher education. Things can go wrong, and when they do this can be very bad - particularly for the students. This is not to say that the private sector in higher education is all like this. It can be done well, and a private alternative to publicly funded universities and colleges adds a great deal to the sector. As in the US and many other countries, private colleges can enrich the student and academic experience for all, giving diversity and real alternatives.
The dust seems to be settling on many of the reforms announced in last year's HE white paper but one topic still seems to get backs up: the perceived privatisation of HE and the growing number of private institutions.
Ministers have introduced a system of "due diligence checks" for private higher education providers, it has emerged, as new figures show that the number of their students accessing state-funded loans has nearly doubled in a year.
A scheme to fund more student places at private universities is under fire after the Universities minister, David Willetts, admitted that no checks are made on whether undergraduates complete their course.