A new institution that aspires to be the largest and most ambitious private research university in continental Europe is being established in the German city of Bremen.
The company, which owns the University of Phoenix, and the Carlyle Group plan to invest up to $1-billion in education institutions and services abroad.
A specter of corruption is haunting the global campaign toward higher education internationalization. An overseas degree is increasingly valuable, so it is not surprising that commercial ventures have found opportunities on the internationalization landscape. New private actors have entered the sector, with the sole goal of making money. Some of them are less than honorable. Some universities look at internationalization as a contribution to the bottom line in an era of financial cutbacks. The rapidly expanding private higher education sector globally is largely for-profit. In a few cases, such as Australia and increasingly Britain, national policies concerning higher education internationalization tilt toward earning income for the system.
Although private non-profit colleges and universities have a long and distinguished history throughout the world, what has come to be known as ‘for-profit higher education’ is a relative newcomer.
Laureate Education Inc, a for-profit higher education provider that boasts former U.S. President Bill Clinton as honorary chancellor, is planning to launch an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
With college enrollments mushrooming in many nations but public support generally unable to keep up, the world is seeing a historic swing from public to private financing of higher education...
With college enrollments mushrooming in many nations but public support generally unable to keep up, the world is seeing a historic swing from public to private financing of higher education, the report says.
Educators need to think beyond traditional models to expand access to higher education worldwide, said speakers at a conference sponsored by a private lending arm of the World Bank.
According to the most recent report of Accredibase, the UK-based background screening company Verifile Limited, there was a staggering 48% increase in the number of known degree or diploma mills operating worldwide last year. It identified more than 2,500 bogus institutions across all regions, but primarily in North America and Europe.
Most of the post-secondary academic community-industry appears to ignore fundamental economic realities. Except for the elite institutions at the top of the league tables, the vast majority must compete in the market for students. Each institution's student enrolment, directly or in varying indirect degrees, provides the requisite revenue to cover current and projected costs.
Greek riot police officers fired tear gas into a crowd of several thousand protesters in Athens this month, injuring about 15 people. While the protesters were primarily university students who oppose government proposals to restructure higher education in Greece, news reports suggested that the targets of the crackdown were "anarchists" who had infiltrated the demonstration to use it as a cover for vandalism.
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.
There are strong indications that demand for higher education is outstripping supply. In January, Gloria Sekwena died and at least 20 other people were seriously injured when about 5,000 people stampeded in a desperate attempt to register at the last minute with the University of Johannesburg. The university received more than 85,000 applications for fewer than 12,000 places last year.
La red de universidades privadas Laureate International Universities presentó ayer al Govern el proyecto de crear la Universidad Europea de Mallorca en los terrenos de la urbanización Maioris de Llucmajor. Una iniciativa con una inversión de 25 millones de euros y que impartirá estudios de carácter internacional. Laureate International Universities cuenta con más de 60 centros universitarios en el mundo y en Mallorca está asociada con la empresa inmobiliaria Maioris. El Govern acogió con los brazos abiertos la iniciativa. No es un proyectos nuevo, ya que a finales de los año 90 ya se presentó en sociedad con los mismos accionistas. El campus universitario se ubicará en la urbanización de Maioris, situada en la costa de Llucmajor, muy cerca de Palma.
The privatisation of higher education has been advocated by governments as well as regional and international organisations as a way to fill the supply-demand gap left by the public sector, transfer the finance burden to higher education consumers – for example, students and industry – and increase the efficiency and relevance of higher education and the private returns to consumers.