De-privatization in higher education: A conceptual approach

Abstract

This paper seeks to conceptualize the processes of deprivatization in higher education. Trends of deprivatization (and contraction in enrolments) are highly interesting because they go against global trends of privatization (and educational expansion). Deprivatization means a decreasing role for the private component in the changing public-private dynamics. The paper studies its two dimensions (funding and provision) and distinguishes between seven potential empirical organizational/ geographical levels of analysis, stressing the continuing usefulness of a clear-cut distinction between the public and the private in some empirical contexts. The paper draws from data from Central Europe (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Estonia). The traditional dichotomous pairing of the public and the private is shown to still be useful in specific empirical contexts, despite it becoming blurred globally.