Private Higher Education in Tunisia: Patterns and Trends

This research examines the evolution of private higher education in Tunisia while focusing on the challenges faced by the higher education institutions along with their role in enhancing the standards of teaching. Accordingly, it attempts to show that though private higher education is profit-led, it has brought about significant changes in the Tunisian higher education system. It also shows that the growth of the private higher education institutions depends not only on the skills of the public institutions’ academic staff but also on the forms of legitimatization and support provided by the Ministry of Higher Education. Unlike other research on private higher education, this research argues that private higher education has been marked by the commodification of knowledge and the dissociation of the private sector from the overall state’s strategy of higher education. It draws on the politically driven incentives in the field of private education while arguing that the state’s direct involvement in promoting privately established institutions has sometimes challenged the highly proclaimed principle of equity in education.