The Private Higher Education Paradoxes: Reality or Myth?

Higher educational landscape in Malaysia experienced drastic changes as a result of liberalisation measures undertaken by the governments. Private Higher Educational Institutions (PHEI) are normally not directly funded by the government. Not surprisingly, PHEI are driven by financial motives to ensure continued business success. Moreover, higher education is a highly contested field. In recent years, stakeholders such as parents, businesses, government regulators and accreditation bodies are beginning to exert influence on PHEI in areas like programme development and delivery. It has always been the aim of PHEI to satisfy powerful stakeholders. However, this is not an easy task as their expectations can be contradictory. This development has created strategy tensions for PHEI to juggle. This paper argues that higher education issues have to be treated as paradoxes where there is no real solution. It goes on to argue that higher education paradoxes are the manifestation of stakeholder influence. The paper first highlights the interplay of stakeholders’ expectations which has been a catalyst for the creation of paradoxes followed by the discussion of the six paradoxes.