THERE used to be three near-certainties about higher education. It was supplied on a national basis, mostly to local students. It was government-regulated. And competition and profit were almost unknown concepts. As most education was publicly funded, the state had a big say in what was taught, to how many and for how long. Insofar as it existed at all, competition was a gentlemanly business; few educators thought much about customers, fewer about profit.
A physician plans to open what will become Britain's first privately financed medical school since the 19th century, promising to train doctors in about half the time it takes at one of the nation'...
Since 1989, Mongolian higher education has undergone a phenomenal privatization. Part of this involves private finance and governance for the public institutions. The other part involves an extraordinary proliferation of private institutions, to over 200 in just a decade. Prior to 1989 higher education consisted of only a handful of institutions, all public. Much of the impetus for the private proliferation comes from the overall marketization of the economy as well as the increased proportion of secondary-school graduates who head to higher education. Typical private institutions are small and poorly funded.
India's Supreme Court quashed a provision of a state law this month that allowed the establishment of private universities in the State of Chhattisgarh, in central India. The court called the three-year-old provision "unconstitutional" and canceled the registrations of all 108 private universities in the state, Some 20,000 students are enrolled in the institutions.
Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan announced not to force private universities and colleges to change names after opposition lawmakers threatened to freeze a huge portion of the ministry's budget. The ministry had sent a letter to all universities and colleges with the words "China," "Chinese" or "Chunghwa" (Chinese) in their names and asked them to change their names to underscore Taiwan's identity and avoid confusion with mainland China following Taiwan's executive cabinet plan of changing the names of all of the nation's overseas missions and state-owned enterprises before the Dec. 11 legislative elections, which raised sharp criticisms from legislators of the opposition party.
Three Shanghai private colleges will be allowed to admit students without national college entrance exam score requirements this year, marking a major change in the city's decades-old higher education admission system.
India's Supreme Court on Thursday quashed a provision of a state law that allowed the establishment of private universities in the State of Chhattisgarh, in central India.