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Responses to Resource Scarcity in African Higher Education

The Case of Kenyan and South African Public Universities

  • Chapter
Public Vices, Private Virtues?

Part of the book series: Issues in Higher Education ((CHER,volume 2))

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Abstract

Public universities share several characteristics with business, for profit firms. They produce and sell (educational) services to “customers” for a price, and buy inputs with which to make products. Also not unlike business firms, costs and revenues discipline decisions and determine the long run viability of universities. Long run survival for public universities, like business firms, requires that current costs not exceed current revenues (Winston, 1996; 1999). Although, as Massy (2004) points out, “universities exist to produce value […] they must also wheel and deal in the marketplace” (p. 17). Disruptive resource instabilities, a condition generally experienced by many public universities globally, require adaptive strategies, often not dissimilar to the strategies employed by for profit firms. As explained by Winston (1996; 1999).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Western Cape, Western Cape, South Africa

    Gerald Wagenge-Ouma

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  1. Gerald Wagenge-Ouma
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Pedro N. Teixeira

  2. UNC, Chapel Hill, USA

    David D. Dill

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Wagenge-Ouma, G. (2011). Responses to Resource Scarcity in African Higher Education. In: Teixeira, P.N., Dill, D.D. (eds) Public Vices, Private Virtues?. Issues in Higher Education, vol 2. SensePublishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-466-9_15

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