Expansion and Innovation in Europe’s Private Higher Education Sector
Abstract
European private higher education remains relatively small but has expanded rapidly over the last
decade, dominated by demand-absorbing, product-oriented institutions. This paper argues that
innovative private universities—especially digitally driven, distance-education, and alternative-
model institutions—act as laboratories for new forms of provision, widening access for
nontraditional and international students and reshaping expectations about delivery, governance,
and employability-oriented curricula
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