Public funding of higher education: Seeking private funds to fill the gap?

In December 2024, the Sunday Observer reported that the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Colombo (UoC) had announced plans to reduce the University’s reliance on State funding by increasing foreign student intake and strengthening private sector ties.

- BY SHAMALA KUMAR

With 225 international students, and plans to double that number, the VC claimed the University was on track to meet its goal. His remarks echo national strategies and global trends aimed at decoupling public universities from state-funded education.

Marketised model

The VC's words reflect an ideology that is profoundly reshaping higher education. The shift from viewing universities as pillars of democracy to self-funded “autonomous” entities serving private interests has been gradual. This vision, rooted in a neoliberal framework, backed by institutions like the World Bank, re-orients universities to support a global marketplace of free-flowing capital, unrestrained by national borders and other barriers (Harvey, 2006). People's aspirations for good jobs, strong public services, and a thriving environment, when clashing with market logic, are dismissed as outdated, impractical, ineffective, or inefficient.

In other words, a fully functioning market requires “inefficiencies” like free education to be weakened. Along these lines, a World Bank (2017) report on Sri Lanka’s higher education policy notes, “The private sector in higher education currently operates under heavy restrictions” (p.20). These so-called restrictions are our policies for free education that identify the State as the primary provider of education. The Bank continues, “Attracting the participation of [the private] sector, both for-profit and nonprofit, is crucial to meet the double challenge of improving access and quality, given capacity and resource constraints” (p.20).

In search of alternatives