Public Money and For-Profit Higher Education

By Dr Riaan Steenberg

When public money flows into higher education, the question is not only who receives it. The question is what public purpose is being served, what quality is being delivered, and who carries the risk when education becomes a market instrument.

Public Funding Creates Public Duties

Student aid, subsidies, guarantees, and policy privileges are not neutral. They shape markets and create incentives.

Any institution benefiting from public money should be held to standards of transparency, student protection, educational quality, and long-term value.

For-Profit Does Not Remove Responsibility

Profit is not automatically unethical, and nonprofit status is not automatically virtuous. The real issue is alignment.

Does the model improve learning and opportunity, or does it extract value from aspiration while transferring risk to students and the public?

Accreditation and Trust

Accreditation is a public trust mechanism. If it becomes a commodity to be acquired rather than a standard to be earned, the system weakens.

Regulators must watch incentives, outcomes, debt, completion, and employment value.

Public money in higher education should buy public value. When private providers participate, the standard should be opportunity for learners, quality in provision, and accountability for outcomes.