Toward a Typology of Privatizing Postsecondary Institutions: A Latent Class Analysis

• In Event: 66.026 - Who Holds the Reins? Analysis of the Effects of Policy Influencers and State Contexts on Higher Education

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which there is a typology of privatizing higher education institutions using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS, 2014) and Class Central (2014). Unlike other privatization studies, the present one investigates institutional behaviors simultaneously across public and private institutions and incorporates multiple measures of privatization. Using latent class analysis (LCA) with a population study of US four-year institutions (n =1,384), I find six significantly different typologies of privatizing institutions: (1) Low privatizers: Lack of resources; (2) Moderate privatizers: Tech-heavy mechanisms, (3) Strong privatizers: Tech-heavy and traditional mechanisms; (4) Moderate privatizers: Traditional mechanisms, (5) Low privatizers: Absence of financial strain or research; and, (6) Moderate privatizers: Traditional mechanisms plus new technology.

Author

• Lara Pheatt, Teachers College, Columbia University