Governmental Policies and their Impact on Private Higher Education Development in Post-Communist Countries: Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Georgia, 1990–2005

Abstract

The focus of the article is to identify salient tendencies in governmental approaches towards private higher education and examine their impact on private sector growth patterns across several post-communist countries. Notwithstanding the common legacy both at the higher education and the broad political–economic levels, countries exhibit significant differences regarding private higher education growth and governmental policies accommodating newly emerged institutions. But there are also considerable cross-country similarities, notably on funding and tax policies. Our close look into the four geographically close post-communist country cases reveals that differences in governmental approach have led to markedly distinct paths of private higher education development. The examination of the factors that are thought to shape governmental policies towards privately provided education, on the other hand, shows that, besides political–economic factors, ethnic–religious composition of the population and interest group influence are among the most powerful public policy determinants in the post-communist setting.