Universities Turn To More Public-Private Partnerships To Meet Student Needs

Universities are expected to do a lot these days.

From delivering mental health options for students to growing their online programs, they have their fingers in a lot of pies.

And they need to: Experts say that the number of services that students expect from a university has grown considerably in recent years, especially in the context of increasing technological change.

Some of these needs were intensified by the pandemic. For example: the pandemic sped up the transition from in-person to online and hybrid education, something experts don’t think is going away.

“I think, fundamentally, colleges are just faced with new challenges to serve today's students,” says Shalin Jyotishi, a senior policy analyst for the think tank New America.

Colleges may not have the expertise or the financial resources to offer those services on their own, Jyotishi says.

To meet this demand, public universities are showing an increased interest in public-private partnership agreements that bring profit motives into the public sector.

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