Public-private mix? The debate rumbles on

WIll privatisation in higher education mean compromise to corporate demands, or is it time state institutions got some competition?

While some of the UK's banks have been put in public hands, how quickly are the country's universities heading the other way — towards the private sector? Higher education institutions worry that quality could suffer in the pursuit of profit. Private higher education providers counter that a little competition would be a good thing.

Of Britain's 325 institutions offering further and higher education, only one, the University of Buckingham, is private. This contrasts with the US, where approximately 25% of its higher education institutions are out of state control. Buckingham, which has topped student satisfaction surveys for the past three years, gives students the chance to do a three-year degree in two intensive years and with flexible start dates. It is also the only UK university that receives no direct subsidy from the government, thereby remaining academically independent.

But one area of education that is raising concerns about privatisation in Britain is the recruitment of international students, that lucrative source of funding that covers, on average, 8% of universities' budgets.

The private company Into University Partnerships has already set up centres catering for international students within five British universities. The Into Centres at the University of East Anglia, Newcastle University, the University of Manchester, the University of Exeter and Glasgow Caledonian University recruit international students and teach them English to the standard required for undergraduate study.

But their presence has raised alarm at the University and College Union (UCU), the UK's largest trade union and professional association for academics and other university staff. The UCU is worried about how quickly universities are moving into public/private partnerships. "Our strategic focus is on making sure that the in-house alternative is always being considered in this dash for international students," says a UCU spokesman.

Dr Thomas Kealey, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, believes private universities have a lot to offer: "Every other university in this country works solely to government targets. The government gives them money, and therefore they do whatever the government wants. We exist primarily to provide a good experience for our students. As Karl Marx once said, we live in a world of economic determinism, and our economic success is determined by our students' satisfaction. The other universities' success is determined by how much they please the government."

In France, the public education system was shaken up by a profound policy change in 2007. For the first time, President Nicolas Sarkozy allowed its publicly funded universities to set up foundations enablerto attract funding from private and corporate sources. Last June, the University of Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand became the first institution to set up a private foundation, helped by the presence in the city of the Michelin tyre manufacturer.

Meanwhile, the rapid growth of online learning has already given for-profit companies a route into higher education. In 2007, BPP Professional Education, a private education provider that specialises in accountancy and law courses, became Britain's first for-profit company to be given degree-awarding powers.

"BPP is looking to expand its online provision, and why wouldn't you?" says the UCU spokesman. "It's the most fantastic and cost-effective education. The more closely private companies get entangled with universities, the more closely they will develop online learning at the expense of other forms of learning."

BPP is following the example led by Kaplan, the education subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. As well as giving a million students worldwide campus-based and online study, it owns Dublin Business School (DBS), Ireland's largest private higher education institution. DBS already runs degree programmes that are sponsored by business, notably the Lidl discount supermarket chain. In a twist to conventional funding, its "Lidl degree" in retail management pays the student a wage during the three years, from €16,000 to €20,000, with the proviso that he or she works for the company later.

DBS chief executive Gerry Muldowney told the Irish Times: "I thought it was a great opportunity. It was reaching out to a target group of potential students who would not have gone to college otherwise because they probably wouldn't have been able to afford it." In these tough economic times, it could be a sign of things to come.

Mary Novakovich