Restructuring higher education: public–private partnership

The notion that education is a public good or education is a private commodity has been much debated with the increasing marketization of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. Although private higher education has been a long tradition in countries such as Japan, RO Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines, it is relatively a new phenomenon in countries such as China, Vietnam, and Malaysia. It will be argued that there may be tensions between the notions of higher education as a public good and higher education as a marketable and saleable commodity, in practical terms the privatization of higher education has brought about many innovative practices and public–private partnerships in the higher education sector. Referring to the development of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, the paper will show how neo-liberal ideology in the 1990s has resulted in the privatization of higher education and the corporatization of public universities to meet excess demand and the redistribution of higher educational opportunities along ethnic lines in the country. It will be argued that there is a blurring in the distinction between public and private when these two concepts are analysed along the axes of finance and control. The liberalization of the higher education sector has resulted in many innovative public–private partnerships as well as innovative practices especially in the realm of cross-border higher education and open distance learning. The paper will then examine the implications of higher education as a private commodity to the role of the university, the role of the state, and the role of UNESCO.