The Phenomenon of Private Higher Education: A Review of the Rationale, the Merits and Demerits

Expansion of enrolment has been the central higher education reality for the past half-century all over the world. Literature is rich with reasons that ignited the global emergence of private universities. This article reviews the rationale, merits and demerits of the emergence and the expansion of the private universities in a bid to boost the continuity of the private higher education discourse. In this review, it has been noted that growth in private higher education provision was mainly fuelled by the growth in people’s demand for higher education access due to the failure of supply by public universities especially in African countries. Scholars have pointed out the ability to create jobs, extend higher education opportunities to many students left out by public universities’ selections in Africa and providing stable academic calendars as the major merits of the existence of private universities in the countries. Nevertheless, numerous weaknesses were also revealed. According to some studies, due to their focus on profits, they were contributing to the degradation of higher education quality, propagating inequality in the society and were limited and selective in the study programmes they offered. Several studies also revealed the inadequacy of resources in terms of human, physical and infrastructure as another weakness that likely compromised the quality of education provided. From this review, it has been noted that many studies had been done in many African countries related to performances and challenges of private universities. Nevertheless, there is still a need for more studies to be done focusing on quality assurance and control.