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Co-ordinating forces, fields of study and student distribution from the perspective of demand and supply, 1977-2006
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The literature on private higher education has identified striking differences between the public and private sectors in terms of fields of study. For example, unlike their public counterparts, private universities have traditionally specialised in the social sciences and humanities. This paper explores the university market in Argentina to see if...
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Context 1
... what was initially a legal restriction has ended up working in favour of private institutions as they emerge as viable alternatives to public universities. Figure 1 illustrates the interaction between demand and supply in the university market in Argentina between 1977 and2006. Areas of study are flagged according to the main co-ordinating force (the state or the market) which generates the necessary, albeit sometimes insufficient, conditions to stimulate the growth of that field. ...
Context 2
... sum, the narrowing gap between the public and private sectors in terms of field specialisation is largely explained by the effect of demand on the public sector and limited supply in the private sector. Thanks to non-selective and non-restrictive admission policies, demand for public universities has been mainly driven by market forces (as illustrated by the left-to-right arrow in Figure 1). However, supply considerations have had a marked effect on the private sector: coercive isomorphic policies have limited the relative expansion of the social sciences in private universities and this has permitted the health sub-sector to develop (as illustrated by the upward arrow). ...
Context 3
... sciences Social sciences Applied and health sciences produce both kinds of goods; however, and more importantly, it also demonstrates that the proportion of each type of good can change over time. The longitudinal analysis (Figure 1) shows that public institutions increased the rate of production of private goods (there were more students in the social sciences) to the detriment of public goods (the basic sciences had fewer enrollees). On the other hand, the private sector increased the rate of production of public goods (there were more students in the health sciences, for example), while relative enrolment in social studies decreased. ...
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... La investigación sobre la expansión de la universidad y los procesos de privatización abordaron el papel de las regulaciones y la creación de mercados y cuasi mercados (Torres y Schugurensky, 2001;García de Fanelli, 2001;Barbosa, 2015;Rabossi, 2011;Verger, 2011, Gérard, 2021, todos procesos vinculados a la transformación de las economías globales y nacionales a fines del siglo XX y en el marco de las tensiones instaladas por los procesos privatizadores fomentados desde el Estado, los bancos y agencias internacionales financieras, las regulaciones transnacionales (Verger, 2011), entre otros. En general, se observa que estas investigaciones avanzan en la comprensión de las condiciones y efectos de la privatización, aunque no tanto en relación con los vínculos que las instituciones educativas privadas establecen con su potencial matrícula. ...
... En el nuevo milenio, la competencia por interpelar a jóvenes de distintos sectores sociales llevó a las UU.PP. a instalar modos de enseñanza y de organización pedagógica que ofrecieran una experiencia cualitativamente distinta a la de las grandes universidades públicas, y que respondieran, además, a un perfil generacional, sobre todo a uno que había atravesado la escolarización en el nivel primario y secundario en el sector privado-perfil cada vez más presente dada la permanencia y consolidación de la educación privada en nuestro sistema (Fuentes, 2018;Bottinelli, 2013). También buscaron interpelar a estudiantes de distintas trayectorias escolares y de sectores de clase, para los cuales la universidad pública representaba un espacio marcado por la masividad, la incertidumbre, la politización (Rabossi, 2011) -leída allí como una marca negativa-y la exigencia de la autonomía juvenil. ...
... La creación de numerosas universidades públicas en lo que se denomina el conurbano bonaerense resignifica también el imaginario pluri-clasista de las universidades públicas: su inserción en territorios cercanos a los barrios populares y medios-bajos modificó el lugar de la universidad pública como era concebida hasta entonces-un bien de acceso formal universal, pero lejano en términos espaciales y simbólicos, distante de las posibilidades de apropiación cultural de los sectores sin tradición universitaria. Su expansión en un momento se explicaba más en términos de los campos disciplinares de las carreras que ofrecían, más vinculadas a las ciencias humanas y sociales (Plotkin, 2002;Cosentino de Cohen, 2003;Rabossi, 2011), proceso que según dan cuenta estas investigaciones fue mutando en los últimos años, dada la circulación de profesores entre universidades públicas y privadas, la creación y expansión de carreras de medicina en el sector privado, entre otras modificaciones. En las UU.PP. ...
En el contexto de diversificación de la educación superior, el artículo analiza las estrategias que desarrollan las universidades privadas en Argentina para captar y sostener una matrícula específica y acompañar de modo personalizado las trayectorias de los estudiantes. El trabajo se basa en una etnografía realizada entre estudiantes de sectores medios altos y altos en Buenos Aires, continuada luego entre referentes de universidades privadas en Argentina. La secundarización del nivel superior caracteriza el despliegue de un cierto isomorfismo entre la escuela secundaria y la universidad, por medio de la continuación de condiciones espaciales-estéticas, la agrupación estudiantil y el movimiento etario-gradual en la cursada, el acompañamiento y tutoría de los estudiantes y la configuración de un tipo de autoridad pedagógica atravesada por la cercanía y la personalización-elementos del formato escolar de la escuela secundaria del sector privado adaptados a la educación superior.
... In contrast to the Chinese private universities which play a minor role in the Chinese higher education system, there is no huge difference in the quality of private and public universities in Argentina for the time being. Rabossi (2011) claims that the University of Buenos Aires is the most reputable institution in Argentina and points out that "public universities were perceived as being a mere appendix of the executive power" in the 19th 3 Zhang (2016) has carried out a study on the National College Entrance Exam in China. Generally, Chinese students have to prepare for such a public examination as well as get high scores in order to apply for those universities in first class. ...
... In order to challenge the monopoly of public universities, more and more private institutions have emerged. In comparison with public institutions, Rabossi's (2011) study indicates that "The number of private universities nearly doubled between the late 1980s and the late 1990s, shooting up from 23 to 44 institutions" (p. 5). ...
... 5). Although public universities are treated as social elites, private institutions tend to gain public recognition and reputation by hiring highly qualified professors, to improve facilities by upgrading infrastructure, to attract students by offering available options of demanding fields of study, and so forth (Rabossi, 2011). ...
The study suggests that work and financial support from families are the two major means of financing tuition fees. Students spend a lot of time in transport because almost all universities in Argentina have no students’ halls of residence. The marketisation and commercialisation help some private institutions gain social prestige due to better infrastructure and facilities as well as outstanding quality of professional training. Moreover, participants are likely to anticipate that high prestige will help boost employability and believe that graduates are found in various fields and sectors. It is considered that the small-scale classes provided by some private universities help students interact closely with professors, concentrate on academic activities, and improve their performance effectively. Extracurricular activities help students develop other types of skills, while social commitment activities and services also enrich their experiences. In addition, to do what they like based on their interest as well as to get a good salary and employment opportunities are considered the main reasons for choosing a professional career. Finally, most participants recognise the seminars on the philosophical meaning of life as one of the useful ways to seek for the meaning of life.
... The standards approved by the Ministry of Education ignoring professional graduate programs and the CONEAU's peer reviewers roots in academic rather than professional traditions may have led to indirect sector bias. Private universities in Argentina-and most countries outside the USA-tend to offer programs in less costly fields than do public universities (Rabossi, 2011), usually in SA academic disciplines. As analyzed above, SA programs tend to request categorization in fewer opportunities than do HP programs. ...
... In line with the private higher education literature (Cosentino de Cohen, 2003;Rabossi, 2011), private universities in Argentina tend to offer more SA programs than HP programs. However, recent trends show that public universities are increasingly expanding their SA program offerings, resulting in an overrepresentation of SA programs (which tend to obtain the lowest categories) and an under-representation of HP programs (that tend to receive the highest categories) in the private sector. ...
... Private-public comparisons (e.g.,Levy, 2011;Rabossi, 2011) have systematically shown differences in organizational features (e.g., governance) that may imply differences in the behavior of higher education institutions depending on the sector.Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
Accreditation in higher education has become omnipresent and, on many occasions, has been used as a synonym for quality assurance. The establishment of accreditation agencies as a worldwide phenomenon, however, is relatively recent in the history of higher education. Through a predominantly qualitative approach, this paper aims to analyze how programs from different academic disciplines perform in terms of the accreditation of graduate programs in Argentina and how different programs respond to the same accreditation process. Additionally, it analyzes the performance of private sector programs. As expected, academic disciplines play a vital role in the accreditation process, programmatic performance, and responses to this quality assurance mechanism while sector may not play a vital role. Surprisingly, soft pure programs perform better than both hard and soft applied programs. The results highlight the importance of considering both the paradigm (hard or soft) and level application (pure or applied) when analyzing the role of academic disciplines in higher education studies.
... Meanwhile, public universities have higher quality of education in research and development [52] [53]. Based on the study by [54], what differentiates private and public universities are the supply and demand. Private universities still specialize in basic and applied sciences, and are only prepared to offer highly popular study programs. ...
... Ponadto analiza porównawcza procesu prywatyzacji w tej części Europy wskazuje na podobieństwa do innych regionów, takich jak Azja, Afryka i Ameryka Południowa, w których liczba studentów uległa również dynamicznemu wzrostowi (Jamshidi et al. 2012;Mok 2009;Rabossi 2011;Welch 2007). ...
This article deals with the transformation of the previously non-existent private higher edu-cation in Poland and Central-Eastern Europe from 1990 to 202o. In Poland, moreover, pri-vatization was particularly intense because of the increase in the country's population. The number of students increased fivefold in the first 15 years. The article describes the relation-ship between private and public higher education. From 2010 onwards, the number of stu-dents began to decline and predictions were made about the demise of private education. These predictions were incorrect. Private universities began, for example, to accept students from abroad and teach in English. Part-time students are now more likely to choose private universities than in the past. About io% ofthese universities have become tediary education institutions, whose students earn more after their studies than graduates of state universities.
... Mientras que en 1977 los estudiantes de universidades privadas en Ciencias de la Salud representaban sólo el 1% del total, en el 2015 constituyen casi el 15% de la matrícula privada (Véase Tabla 1). El crecimiento exponencial de la matrícula en Ciencias de la Salud en el sector privado implica un cambio fundamental en un área que históricamente se ha considerado un bastión de las universidades públicas (Rabossi, 2011). A 2015, ambos sectores matriculan al mismo porcentaje de estudiantes de salud en sus universidades. ...
Desde mediados de los años noventa en la Argentina se han puesto en marcha políticas de aseguramiento de la calidad y financiamiento para la mejora. Una de las principales debilidades identificadas es el escaso desarrollo de la función de investigación; problema más acentuado en las universidades privadas que en las estatales. Mediante un marco conceptual basado en la teoría de las organizaciones y metodología mixta, este estudio muestra que las universidades privadas responden a cambios de las políticas públicas por medio de modificaciones isomórficas y en forma estratégica, en base a principios de la teoría de dependencia de los recursos.Desde mediados de los años noventa en la Argentina se han puesto en marcha políticas de aseguramiento de la calidad y financiamiento para la mejora. Una de las principales debilidades identificadas es el escaso desarrollo de la función de investigación; problema más acentuado en las universidades privadas que en las estatales. Mediante un marco conceptual basado en la teoría de las organizaciones y metodología mixta, este estudio muestra que las universidades privadas responden a cambios de las políticas públicas por medio de modificaciones isomórficas y en forma estratégica, en base a principios de la teoría de dependencia de los recursos.
Since the 1990s, Argentina has launched quality assurance and financing for improvement policies. One of the main weaknesses identified is the limited development of the research function; an issue more prominent in private than in public universities. Through a conceptual framework based on organizational theory and mixed methods, this study shows that private universities respond to changes in public policies through isomorphic modifications and in strategic ways, based on the principles delineated by the resource dependence theory.
... Mientras que en 1977 los estudiantes de universidades privadas en Ciencias de la Salud representaban sólo el 1% del total, en el 2015 constituyen casi el 15% de la matrícula privada (Véase Tabla 1). El crecimiento exponencial de la matrícula en Ciencias de la Salud en el sector privado implica un cambio fundamental en un área que históricamente se ha considerado un bastión de las universidades públicas (Rabossi, 2011). A 2015, ambos sectores matriculan al mismo porcentaje de estudiantes de salud en sus universidades. ...
Since the 1990s, Argentina has launched quality assurance and financing for improvement policies. One of the main weaknesses identified is the limited development of the research function; an issue more prominent in private than in public universities. Through a conceptual framework based on organizational theory and mixed methods, this study shows that private universities respond to changes in public policies through isomorphic modifications and in strategic ways, based on the principles delineated by the resource dependence theory.
... It does so by systematically comparing the for-profit sector with the nonprofit and public sectors. Whereas most approaches to the study of private higher education in Latin America and beyond have compared private (usually nonprofit) and public sectors (Levy 1986a;Musial 2012;Praphamontripong 2011;Rabossi 2011;Zumeta 2011), this study analyzes the for-profit sector compared to its nonprofit and public counterparts. ...
... Except for education, enrollment distributions confirm a widely held finding on intersectoral differences. Public institutions tend to enroll more students than the private sector in those fields that require more investment, while the private sector tends to enroll a higher percentage of students in relatively non-expensive fields of study (Levy 1986a;Musial 2012;Rabossi 2011 Differences go beyond the fields of study. As mentioned earlier, the private sector tends to attract students toward more vocational and technical education programs than does the public sector. ...
Brazil has by far the largest higher education system in Latin America, with a sizable share of students enrolled in private-sector institutions. Its recently established and fast-growing for-profit sector is one of the largest worldwide. The for-profit sector already surpasses the public sector in student enrollment, and its role is growing. Public policy has supported for-profit growth, ostensibly for tax revenue reasons, but the federal government has recently launched social initiatives that include tax exemption policies for the for-profit sector in exchange for need-based scholarships. Through exploratory data analysis, this study explores the role, function, and form of the for-profit sector compared with its nonprofit and public counterparts. The findings reveal that the for-profit sector shares some important characteristics with the nonprofit sector but contrasts sharply with the public sector. The study concludes that countries such as Brazil are moving toward public funding for private higher education to meet enrollment targets. These findings may be able to address issues in other countries by considering similar public policies toward private higher education.
... Cultural and Socio economic factors (cross-national policy convergence is not only affected by institutional factors but can also rise as a result of a country's cultural and socio economic characteristics) Heinze and Knill (2008) Globalisation perspective (Highlighting the economic and technical impact of globalisation) Levin (2006); Levin (2001); Stromquist (2007) Customer choice theory (organisations' reaction and adaptability under the influence of market forces) Rabossi (2011) World system theory and dependency theory (Foregrounds the global political economy posits a division of labour among regions and nations ) Rhoades and Sporn (2002) Administrative lattice (administrative costs grow more quickly as faculty move away from their traditional advisory duties and place more emphasis on research) Morphew and Baker (2004) Monopsony ( defines a market in which demand comes from one source) Cooke and Lang (2009) Little attention paid to the role of geographical distance Network theory (the integration process of the multicampus college) ...
Institutional theory has arguably become a popular and powerful explanatory tool for studying various organisational issues, including those in the context of higher education. However, little is known about the efforts of higher education researchers in tracing the development of organisational institutionalism and applying the theory in their research for a better understanding of the nature of universities and colleges. The purpose of this paper is thus to fill the gaps by analysing nine leading higher education journals. The results indicate that the application of institutional theory in higher education research is dominated by the concepts of new institutionalism developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In spite of a growing tendency to utilise the recently developed insights of institutional theory in higher education studies, the full potential of institutional theory has not been fully exploited by higher education researchers. We therefore propose some directions for further institutional analysis in higher education studies.
... While the oldest antecedent of the Argentinian public university sector dates back to the Universidad de Córdoba [Cordoba University], established by the Company of Jesus in 1610, the first private universities were not authorized until 1958. Successive periods of rapid institutional growth followed although restrictions on the creation of private institutions were in effect between 1973and 1989(Del Bello, Barsky and Giménez 2007Rabossi 2011). A key moment in the private university sector was the sanction of the Higher Education Act in 1995, which gave rise to the creation of the first agency for quality assurance, the National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation (CONEAU: Comisión Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación Universitaria). ...
This chapter examines the institutional framework and the incentive structure that developed as a consequence of quality assurance and government research funding policies. It also analyzes the way these policies have influenced the current functioning and configuration of the private university sector in Argentina. It studies whether the policies implemented to assure quality (CONEAU) and research funding (ANPCYT and CONICET) actually promoted the development of organizational strategies to strengthen the research function at private universities. We begin by characterizing the private university sector in Argentina and the theoretical approaches used in order to understand its change. We then present the methodology employed for collecting and analyzing the data. The last two sections focus on the main findings. First, we analyze the 1990s and 2000s regulatory framework (quality assurance) and the incentive structure (research funding policies), showing how they have impacted on private universities. Second, using a case study method, we examine how the institutional assessment (self-assessment and external review) policy, undergraduate program accreditation, and the ANPCYT funding policies have helped research activities at two private universities.
