A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W - Public-private partnership in higher education

Oct 15, 2026

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The article examines the origins and development of a public-private partnership in Australian higher education, focused on how Central Queensland University’s relationship with a private entrepreneur began in 1993. It frames the initiative within the broader neoliberal transformation of the sector, where business values and income generation gained influence. While the operational outcome aligned with the decline of universities as primarily public institutions, the piece argues that individual personalities and contingency were crucial to shaping what started more as serendipity than strategy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Neoliberal transformation and business values

Partnership origins

Public regional university and private entrepreneur (1993)

Higher education providers in Australia

Public vs private roles and market changes

Private operating entities within universities

Pathways, foundation studies, and admissions agreements

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Public-private partnership in higher education Central Queensland University meets Campus Management Services Paul Rodan Swinburne University of Technology Massive growth in the numbers of fee-paying international students and an increasing private sector role are two of the most salient features of Australian higher education in the past quarter century. Both these trends were evident in a little known partnership, involving a public regional university and a private entrepreneur, which had its origins in 1993. While hindsight allows us to locate this development in a neoliberal framework, this article explores the origins of the relationship and concludes that while the eventual operation was consistent with the theme of the overall decline of the university as an essentially public enterprise, the role of personalities was crucial in what was initially more serendipity than grand strategy. Keywords: public private partnership, CQU, Central Queensland University Higher education in Australia is conventionally regarded as the preserve of public institutions, with private universities like Bond and Notre Dame seeping into the public consciousness as the only exceptions. In reality, universities make up only a quarter of the players in the field:of 173 higher education providers identified in 2015, 43 were universities with the vast bulk of the rest being private providers (TEQSA, 2015) . Within existing public universities, separate private operating entities have been established to pursue a range of purposes, including executive education, research consultancy and foundation programs (Withers, 2014) . Some universities have opted to pursue the foundation studies/pathways market through formal arrangements with private providers such as Kaplan and Navitas (Shah & vol. 58, no. 1, 2016 Nair,2013).The latter is (since 2004) anAustralian publiclylisted company, while Kaplan is part of the US Graham Holdings Company. In addition to their arrangements with established universities, both entities offer academic programs (including at degree level) in their own right. Many universities have admission agreements, of varying degrees of formality, with private providers. These developments can be appropriately viewed as part of the neoliberal transformation in Australian higher education from the late 1980s. As described by Marginson and Considine, ‘higher education moved from its broad role in public culture and its function in raising the level of participation of its citizens to a new orthodoxy which favours business values and income generation’(Marginson & Considine, 2000, p. 37). Within Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan 5 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W that framework, international fee-paying education played a key role in opening up sources of non-government income, although from the outset, some institutions were better placed than others to enjoy the fruits of this new market. As noted by Thornton, universities were not privatised as such, but have been subject to‘the increasing application of business processes to them as if they were for-profit corporations.’ (Thornton, 2014, p. 2) As universities became more business-like, it can be contended that nowhere was this more obvious than in international education, with its focus on‘selling’ the educational product through state of the art marketing. Indeed, many universities opted to locate the management of their international education activities outside the mainstream institutional structure, with staff terms and conditions based on business models rather than university awards/agreements. Given that such units were, theoretically at least, generating income which paid the salaries, this might be viewed as privatisation of a sort. However, it was not profit-making in the accepted commercial sense: good recruiting might result in higher salari

FAQs

What partnership does the article focus on in Australian higher education?

It focuses on a specific public-private partnership involving Central Queensland University (a public regional university) and a private entrepreneur, which began in 1993.

How does the article connect the partnership to neoliberal change?

The piece situates the relationship within the neoliberal transformation of Australian higher education, emphasizing the shift toward business values, income generation, and market-oriented practices.

Why does the article say personalities were crucial to the partnership’s development?

It concludes that, although the eventual operation matched broader patterns in the sector, the initial development relied heavily on personalities and contingent circumstances rather than a single grand strategy.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben