This article examines the relationship between the private share of tertiary enrollments and overall access, measured by the gross tertiary enrollment rate, using a cross-national dataset from 122 countries spanning 1999−2017. In contrast to the dominant assumption in international development that expanding the private sector will necessarily increase access, we find a weak association between the private share of tertiary enrollments and gross tertiary enrollment ratio globally. That said, this association is stronger when there is high demand for higher education, as proxied by secondary gross enrollment ratio and urbanization. We also find regional variation, with private higher education positively associated with access in Central and Eastern Europe and core English-speaking countries and negatively associated with access in sub-Saharan Africa, after accounting for demand factors. We argue that private higher education is only an effective policy solution for expanding access when there is high unmet demand for higher education and a conducive policy context.

本文使用来自1999年至2017年的122个国家的跨国数据集，研究了高等教育的私人入学份额与总体入学率之间的关系（以高等教育的总入学率衡量）。与国际发展中占主导地位的假设（即扩大私营部门必将增加获取机会）相反，我们发现私人高等教育入学份额与全球高等教育总入学率之间存在弱关联。也就是说，当对高等教育的需求很高时，这种联系会更紧密，这是由中等教育总入学率和城市化进程所辅助的。我们还发现了地区差异，在考虑了需求因素之后，私立高等教育与中欧和东欧以及英语国家核心国家的入学率呈正相关，而与撒哈拉以南非洲国家的入学率呈负相关。我们认为，在对高等教育的需求未得到充分满足和有利的政策环境下，私立高等教育只是扩大入学率的有效政策解决方案。