Private Higher Education Providers Research Articles

Staff Perception on Job Characteristics, Motivation, Organizational Commitment and Productivity

Job characteristics, motivation, organizational commitment, and productivity are the mediating factors for an employee’s performance and a successful organization. Hence, the present study aims to observe employees’ perception pertaining to their job characteristics, motivation commitment and productivity, while working at a private higher education provider in the East Coast of Malaysia. The study employs a quantitative approach via survey questionnaire on 160 respondents. The results reveal that most of the respondents understood about their characteristics, motivation, organizational commitment, and productivity. Their perception on the factors provides valuable insight to employers in providing appropriate organizational supports and better working environment. They are substantial in elevating better performance and promote business profitability.

The private higher education provider landscape in the UK

ABSTRACT The private higher education (HE) sector in the UK is subject to little oversight or regulation. Consequently, it remains a largely unknown quantity. Yet, the UK government is keen to foster the growth of private providers as a means of stimulating competition across the entire HE sector that will purportedly lead to ‘a greater choice of more innovative and better quality products and services at lower cost’ (DBIS 2016a, 8). We document the landscape of private higher education provision in the UK to assess whether private providers are likely to be able to perform the role envisaged for them by government. We analyse data for 802 private providers in the UK collected from provider's websites and other publicly available sources in 2017. A latent class analysis indicates that the sector can be broken down into four distinctive types of providers: (1) for-profit providers principally offering business/IT courses at sub-degree level (c.50%) (2) or at bachelors or masters level (c.10%), (3) not-for-profit providers offering other kinds of specialist provision at bachelors and masters level (c.27%), and (4) longer-standing for-profit providers including those with their own degree-awarding powers delivering courses mainly at masters level (c.13%). Three of the four provider types offer little in the way of traditional bachelor degree provision, and the most common provider type is subject to virtually no regulatory oversight and highly vulnerable to ‘market exit’. These findings cast doubt on the capacity of private HE providers to replace or enhance publicly funded HE provision.

Teacher Views on Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education Institutes in Australia

Higher education for sustainable development (HESD) plays a key role in achieving the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research study specifically examined HESD in terms of eLearning initiatives in Australian private higher education providers from the perspective of teachers. A qualitative structured interview method was adopted wherein 10 teachers were interviewed in order to gain an understanding of their general knowledge of HESD, their attitudes and experience towards HESD, their teaching practices related to HESD, and their understandings of strategy as well as planning initiatives for their institution. The main findings suggest that (1) teachers in private higher education providers tend to have a limited knowledge of sustainability concepts and limited experience in teaching sustainability; (2) eLearning can be a valuable approach in teaching sustainability, but this approach presents teachers with challenges such as student engagement; and (3) private higher education providers require proper resources and governance frameworks in order for any sustainability initiative to be successful. This research highlights the resourcing aspect of private higher education providers in training staff, developing learning materials, and developing practical guidelines to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

Honoring Student “Voice” in Investigating Student Identity Development in a Narrative Study: A Methodological and Analytical Example

Multiple, interrelated narrative methods were employed in a doctoral study purposed to investigate the student identity development of seven first-year participants. This approach provided them with multiple opportunities to convey their unique first-year experiences and revealed rich understandings of how they constructed their identities at a private higher education provider in Johannesburg, South Africa. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that fostering the trust of participants ensured the formation of rich biographical narrative portraits through multiple narrative-type collection methods and forms of analyses, resulting in rich tapestries of personal experience, which were constitutive of their identity formation. Each participant’s narratives revealed their particularities, complexities, and unique experiences of their first year. Although each participant experienced their first year of study very differently, this article weaves in the first-year experiences of one person into its fabric. The narrations of Kondwani (pseudonym), a Zambian student, are used to illustrate how her voice emerged and was held in a trustful research relationship. Her case is representative of all the participants in that it is an exemplar to illustrate the richness of the individual narratives gleaned from carefully chosen methods and forms of analysis that were employed in the study.

Private providers and market exit in UK higher education

The sudden closure of higher education providers is virtually unknown among publicly funded higher education institutions in the UK, but “market exit” is commonplace among private higher education providers. The UK government is actively championing the expansion of private higher education providers despite a dearth of research on the factors associated with a heightened risk of market exit within this part of the UK higher education sector. We set out to fill this gap in knowledge by utilizing existing data on private higher education providers active in the UK in 2014 supplemented by newly collected data on the status of these providers in 2019. The likelihood of market exit was higher for more recently founded providers, those operating for profit, those specializing in Business or IT or else having no particular specialization, and those located in London—all features that represent areas of greatest competition in the private higher education sector. Further risk factors associated with an increased likelihood of market exit were no external quality assessment, no access to publicly backed tuition fee loans, and the removal of the legal right to recruit international students. This second set of risk factors suggest that it is not just denial of revenue streams that increases the likelihood of market exit but estrangement from an officially regulated higher education system.

A qualitative investigation into the reasons for low academic achievement of international students in a private college

Although several academic studies have explored international students’ academic issues in the host country, most explored either academic achievement or improving learning, teaching and assessment practices in isolation, not in concert. This study triangulates students’ academic issues, learning, teaching and assessment practices used by their lecturers, and the service provision at the host institution in tandem. Specifically, we investigated the factors affecting the academic performance of first-and second-year international students studying at a private higher education provider in London, UK. To establish the extent of Low Academic Achievement (LAA), briefly, where students do not meet the learning outcomes in any summative assessment, examination board data were examined. Two student focus groups were established, and eleven lecturers involved in teaching international students were interviewed. Data were analysed using Nvivo8. The results revealed that international students experience language, socio-cultural and financial difficulties, and they must adapt to a new educational environment and find it difficult to adjust to the teaching style of their host country. Nonetheless, learning approaches of the students can be mobilised, developed and utilised in a constructive environment. Student-centred approached are preferred by the students in the classroom and use of alternative assessments was recommended by the lecturers, especially in the transitionary phase.

Marketised Higher Education: Implications for Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Licence to Operate

The process of global marketisation and deregulation of higher education (HE) raises issues about how this increasingly marketised sector can identify its contribution to public interest goals of the nation-state and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To clarify this issue we examine the evolution of, and synergies between the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Triple Bottom Line (TBL), stakeholder engagement and social licence to operate (SLO) through the lenses of corporate status and business models of HE providers. We leverage Marginson’s conceptualisation of the “state quasi-market” form of delivery as a dominant paradigm and core construct allowing insight into how HE providers deliver a mix of public and private goods, exploring the implications for stakeholder relations. We suggest that this state quasi-market environment can be further understood through Godfrey and Lewis’s model that suggests stakeholders agree an appropriate ethical perspective of social good through pragmatism, incumbent upon their pluralistic engagement. We add that in this state quasi-market mix stakeholder power is both dynamic and synergistic, dependent on political and economic context, the mix co-evolving pragmatically to achieve an SLO. Stakeholder power driving the state quasi-market mix is explored across developed and developing countries to demonstrate themes that influence the SLO of private HE providers. These themes include the synergised approaches of the state and private sector to: meeting demand, access and equity goals; achieving quality standards; and, leveraging appropriate investment. We identify implications for the growth and sustainability of private providers and for shaping community perspectives around HE contribution to social and economic goals at a local, national and global level. We identify perceived skills and mindsets of HE stakeholders that can shape this state-quasi market relationship through mixes of state and private investment to facilitate critical and pragmatic engagement that meets local, national and global HE agendas. This objective reflects the intent of SDG17 that requires effective partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society to achieve SDGs.

The Public-Private Divide in Ethiopian Higher Education: Issues and Policy Implications

This article explores the current issues on the public-private divide in the Ethiopian higher education landscape and their policy implications. It critically examines issues related to legal and regulatory frameworks in order to understand the public-private divide in the Ethiopian higher education context. The article is based on two premises. The first pertains to the idea that public and private higher education providers are commonly required to meet the quality and relevance imperatives of their salient stakeholders as stipulated in the higher education proclamation. The second concerns the argument that an enabling policy and legal framework is crucial for the private higher education sector to play a key role in addressing the social demand for higher education, and thereby contribute for the socio-economic development of a country. This article draws mainly on secondary sources of data from official government documents including policies, proclamations, pertinent national and international research reviews, national and organizational level plans and strategies, statistical abstracts and reports as well as key informant interviews to analyze the issue under study. The findings revealed that the private higher education providers are playing a significant role in addressing the unmet social demand for higher education through increasing access and thereby creating employment opportunities. However, the existing playground/rule of the game is not fairly treating both public and private providers in terms of student admission, quality regulation and other policy incentives. It is argued that the government should create a fair and robust legal and regulatory framework to maximize the benefits of both public and private providers in terms of improving access, relevance, and quality education. Finally, policy implications for improvement of the current status of private providers are suggested based on the findings.

The emergence of private higher education in Australia: the silent provider

For many years, the university sector has been the dominant provider of higher education in Australia. However, recent changes in government policy which have broadened access to publicly-funded subsidised student loans have resulted in the emergence of small and large private higher education providers and consortiums offering English language, vocational and higher education courses. This new entrant into the higher education sector has experienced consistent growth of more than 20% in the years 2007–2009, with predictions of ongoing expansion in coming years. This article is based on the perceptions and experiences in undertaking quality assurance reviews in three diverse private provider institutions offering both vocational and higher education courses in Australia. The reviews focused on the provision of higher education programs and the authors are of the view that private higher education providers have played a key role in diversifying participation in higher education in Australia. Specifically, they have opened up access, opportunity and pathways for many students who previously may not have pursued higher education studies. The authors characterise this new entrant as the ‘silent provider’, because it has largely been ignored by the academy. The jury is still out on whether this oversight will present significant competition and threat to universities, which have traditionally enjoyed a monopoly in higher education. While reviewing the private providers the authors were heartened by the evidence of outstanding learning and teaching taking place within the institutions. While improvements need to be made in terms of developing systematic quality assurance processes and embedding professional development for staff, the reviewers found the private providers to be worthy participants in the sector. They recommend that rather than seeing the private providers as competitors, university leaders need to find ways to collaborate with private providers by initially focusing on the learner and their needs.

The new English quality assurance régime

England is developing a new quality assurance régime that will come into effect in October 2011. A new funding régime will operate from the following year, together with new rules to ease the participation of private higher education providers. This article describes and analyses the new quality and funding régimes. It argues that the greater competitive and resourcing pressures that will flow from these changes will place severe strains on the new quality régime, to the point where further changes may be unavoidable.