1. Inside African Private Higher Education: Contradictions and Challenges
Professor Louise Morley
Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER)
University of Sussex, UK
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2. The Rise of Private Higher Education
Worldwide, more than 1 in 3 university-level students in a private institution
(Bjarnason et al., 2009).
Private higher education (PHE) = response to capacity challenge (World Bank, 2009).
In South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia = 80% students in PHE (Altbach, 2004).
2010 sub-Saharan Africa = 650 universities
200 public
450 private (Morley et al., 2010)
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3. Drivers for Growth Social demand for higher education;
Fiscal constraints;
Needs of specific groups in society (religion);
Influence of market ideology (Brown, 2011; Thaver; 2004);
Profit opportunity for business (Ball, 2007).
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4. Concerns about Private Higher Education
Commodification of knowledge
Changing the ethos, curriculum and values of higher education
Abdication of state responsibility
Compromise of quality and standards –diploma mills
Threat to social diversity and equality of opportunity
Exclusion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds?
Binary between those who enter HE on merit and those who pay?
Education for what - employment, citizenship, criticality, social responsibility?
Dismantling the welfare state/ public services?
(Morley, 2013)
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5. Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania
Measuring:
Gender, age, socio-economic status (SES)
In Relation to:
Access, retention and achievement.
4 Programmes of Study in each university.
2 Public and 2 private universities.
Quantitative Data
100 Equity Scorecards
Qualitative Data
200 interviews/ students
200/ staff and policymakers.
Both private universities = non-profit Christian organisations.
2,809 students in Ghana
2,063 in the Tanzania
(Morley et al. 2010) (
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6. Questioning Quality: Lack and Deficit
The performance is very, very bad. Because we lack resources, we are more into reading actually than ‘practicals’.
(Male student, private university, Ghana).
First of all we have very small library. We have very small computer rooms we have very few computers.
(Female student, private university, Tanzania).
Well the key thing is more quality; it’s the quality and facilities. Quality, comfort and facilities, yes...Private universities…you can see that we tend to focus more on facilities than they do – the reason is simple: the public universities have to depend funding from Government... We have a science laboratory ...
(Male staff, private university, Ghana).
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7. Spatial and Cognitive Injustice?
Assessment 
Reported in the vocabulary of instability and unfairness.
Relay of power/ potential for corruption, sexual harassment (Morley, 2011).
Lacked consumer rights e.g. appeals, grade criteria, service-level agreements.
Surfaced lack of professionalism/ student voice.
Collided with financial considerations e.g. students evicted from exams.
So sometimes we have more than eight hundred students in the class
(Male student, private university, Ghana).
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8. Spoiled Identity
Loss
Opportunity to enter higher status public university universities.
Status, with PHE seen by some as second choice.
Entitlement to state funded provision (buying an education)
(Kenway et al, 1993).  
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9. Equity Scorecard 1: Access to Level 100 on 4 Programmes at Ghanaian Private University According to Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status
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10. Equity Scorecard 2: Access to Level 100 on 4 Programmes at Tanzanian Private University According to Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status
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11. The Symbolic Power of Being a Student/ Somebody
Positional Advantage/ Material Rewards
I grew in a poor family, … in a village where very few people who get opportunity to go to school, … maybe I want to be someone .. . my aim was just to pass and pass and pass until I came to the university (Female student, private university, Tanzania).
I am privileged... Because there are few Tanzanians who get this education (Male student, private university, Tanzania).
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12. New Competitions/ New Distributions
Questions
Values
Value for money
How students are valued.
Does the private sector represent:
Enhanced, demand-led opportunities
Market opportunism
Or a complex combination of opportunity and exploitation?
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13. Follow Up?
Morley, L. (2013): Inside African Private Higher Education. In, D.Araya & P. Marber (eds) Higher Education in the Global Age: Education, policy and emerging societies. London: Routledge.
Morley, L. (2012): Researching Absences and Silences in Higher Education: Data for democratisation. Higher Education Research and Development, 31(3):
Morley, L. (2011). "Sex, Grades and Power in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania". Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(1):
Special Issue: Research in Comparative and International Education (4) African Higher Education: Researching Absences, Equalities and Aspirations.
'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard’ (
28 March, 2017