ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION UK

Our study examined some aspects of entrepreneurship in private higher education in the UK. The growing value of the private higher education sector in the UK represents an opportunity for entrepreneurial investment. For this purpose, we analysed the available data from the 2015/16 to 2017/18 academic years as well as data published online in HESA’s Statistical Bulletin Higher Education Student Statistics: Alternative Providers. The data show that the total number of students grew in the observed period and the largest increase was recorded in postgraduate students. Among the students enrolled with private providers, 38% were 30 years and over in 2017/18. However, the number of younger undergraduate students is growing year on year. One of the most significant features of the private sector is low enrolment rates for students with governmentsupported tuition fee loans. The majority of privately-funded higher education providers operate as for-profit organisations, and one of the key factors in developing and strengthening this sector is to attract foreign capital investment and new domestic and foreign students, whilst maintaining a high quality and diverse range of study programs.

increasing competition, shifting industry requirements and the unknown impact of Brexit (Deloitte, 2020). For the purposes of this paper, we will consider shrinking profitability margins and shifting industry requirements. On the one hand, the higher education sector faces government restrictions on tuition fees, squeezing educational institutions' profit margins. At the same time, fixed costs related to investments in competitive and well-equipped campuses are rising. The result is a reduction in variable costs and rising numbers of part-time academic staff.
Since the labour market is focused on lifelong learning, employees are a potential source of investment for employers. The benefits of lifelong learning are myriad for employees (e.g. wage growth and job security), employers (e.g. increased profitability) and society at large (e.g. increased tax revenues) (UK Government, 2017).
According to the UNESCO's Institute of Statistics data on international students (UNESCO, 2021), the United Kingdom is the second most popular education destination globally after the United States, with the number of international students increasing year on year (Qureshi & Khawaja, 2021). The growth rate in the period 2015-2018 was 4.9 percent, amounting to 21,245 more international student enrolments (UNESCO, 2021).
This positive trend continued during the Covid-19 pandemic: the number of international students in the UK in 2020 was 551,495 -an increase of 5,2% compared to 2019 when the total number of international students in the UK amounted to 524,250 (Project Atlas, 2020 ii ). It is also important to note that, despite concerns about the impact of Brexit, the number of international students has in fact increased in recent years.
At the same time, the USA continues to be the most desirable destination for foreign students. In the 2019/20 academic year, there were more than one million international student enrolments in the US (1,075,496), which represented an increase of 7% compared to the previous two years (Open Doors, 2020 iii ).
Recent data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA statistics, 2021) reported an increase of 60,310 foreign student enrolments in the UK between 2018/19 and 2019/20. Most of these students came from outside the European Union. China is among the top 10 sending countries to the UK. In 2019/20, 35% of all non-EU students were from China, which represented an increase of 51,140 (or 56%) over the five-year period between 2015/16 and 2019/20. In second place were students coming to study in the UK from India, which represented 14% of all non-EU enrolments in the year 2019/20, while students coming from the USA were in third place. For comparison, in 2018/19, the number of HE students from India was 26,685 and the number from the USA was 20,120.
The number of first year students from other European Union countries increased between 2017/18 and 2018/19. In the 2019/20 academy year, most EU students come from Italy, followed by France , while Romania replaced Germany in third position. In the period 2014/15 to 2018/19, the number of students from Spain and Poland increased, while in the same period, the number of students from Germany and Greece saw a slight decline.
In line with this trend, the UK government has recently updated its 2019 International Education Strategy with the aim of increasing the value of UK education exports to £35 billion by hosting at least 600,000 foreign students a year by 2030 (UK Government, 2021).

Literature Review
Funding for higher education in the 21st century is characterised by an increasing reliance on the private sector as a source of funding from entrepreneurs, businesses, foundations, philanthropists, banks, etc. Levels of public funding in many countries with developed market economies are not sufficient to finance higher education, especially when it comes to creating a differentiated system of vocational education. Therefore, the success of higher education is largely dependent on private sector investment. According to data from the OECD, the United Kingdom had the second highest ratio of private to public expenditure on higher education among all European countries (IHEP iv , 2007).
Research by The Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) conducted during the second half of 2017 (a web-based survey) confirmed that there were 813 private higher education providers in the UK at the time. It is important to note here that half of the private HE providers that existed in 2014 had ceased operations three years later (a total of 363 institutions).
It was recorded that 45% of those provides that were established in 2014 and had ceased operations in 2017 were deleted from the Companies House register, almost twenty percent of them disappeared without a trace, and a third still operate but no longer provide services in higher education (CGHE, 2019). These data are a significant indicator of the instability of the private higher education sector in the UK, which raises concerns about why so many private education providers went out of business.
The demographic characteristics of students attending private higher education institutions highlight certain differences compared to students in the public sector.
The results of the research (CGHE, 2019; Shury et al. 2016) showed that students in the private sector are on average older (60% are under 30) than those in the public sector (80% are under 30). Furthermore, half of the student population in the private sector are from ethnic minorities, while in the public sector, a fifth are students come from ethnic minorities. Gender representation in both sectors is equal and balanced. iv Institute for Higher Education Policy The highest concentration of private providers in the UK is in England (88%), followed by Scotland (3%) and Wales (2.4%).
According to 2019 data, almost fifty per cent of private providers were in London, which is consistent with previous data (Hughes, et al. 2013) according to which almost half of all private higher education institutions were in the capital, London.
More than a quarter of all private providers were registered as limited companies (Ltd.), 21% used the title 'college', while only nine providers had the legally protected organisational title 'university' (five)) or 'university college' (four) (CGHE, 2019).
According to the Companies House/Charities register, 70% of private providers in higher education are for-profit organisations, of which 2% have held charitable status, while 28% were registered as non-profit enterprises, of which 22% had charitable status.
Between 2011 and 2014, the number of private higher education providers in the UK increased significantly from 674 to 732 (an increase of 20%) (Shury et al., 2016). According to the available data (Fielden & Middlehurst, 2011), the majority were small providers: only 35 of them had more than 1000 students and only five had more than 5,000 (Hughes, Porter, Jones, & Sheen, 2013).
According to CGHE (2019), almost two-thirds (68%) of the UK's private higher education providers are for-profit companies without charitable status, and about onefifth (22%) are not-for-profit with charitable status. This study shows that only 10% of for-profit providers without charitable status are 36 years or older, while 54% of for-profit providers with charitable status are of the same age. Just under half of the for-profit providers without charitable status (39%) are no more than eleven years old, and 28% of them are between 12 and 19 years old.
In efforts to assess the impact of universities on economic growth, Valero & Reenen (2019) developed a new dataset of universities using the World Higher Education Database (WHED), which includes 1,500 regions in 78 countries in the period of university expansion since 1950. The results of our regression analyses showed a positive relationship between university presence and economic growth: a 10% increase in the number of universities was associated with a 0.4% increase in GDP per capita in a region. Based on the actual number of universities in the UK regions in 2010 (171 universities in 10 regions), the authors calculated that the total GDP growth per capita would be around 0.7% if the number of universities increased by 6%. Additionally, this study showed that the economic benefits of expanding higher education institutions would outweigh the costs.
Studies conducted in the UK have shown that university research has a direct, positive effect on corporate patenting in smaller, local firms but that corporate patenting in large firms is not associated with research activities in nearby universities (Helmers & Rogers, 2015). Abramovsky & Simpson (2011) examined whether companies locate their research and development (R&D) departments near university research departments and whether research and development companies located closer to universities are more likely to collaborate with them (either formally or informally). Their analysis was based on 117 postcode areas in the UK. The results of the study showed that the impact of university research is greater on small firms located within a 10 km radius of research departments, while the authors found no statistically significant correlation between university research and large-firm patenting. Therefore, location itself does not play a critical role in connecting businesses with university research departments (Abramovsky & Simpson, 2011).
As part of the International Education Strategy 2021 (IES), the Department of International Trade (DIT) has committed to supporting independent institutions in accessing international opportunities, connecting providers to investors. Revenue generated from exports from UK independent schools has increased year on year since 2010. These exports were worth £630 million in 2010 and had reached £1.0 billion by 2018 (UK Government, 2021). One of the main goals of the IES is to develop investment opportunities in the UK education sector, and to this end, the Department of International Trade will develop investment offers and identify opportunities for the education sector. In contrast to publicly-funded higher education institutions, private higher institutions are small and specialised. Therefore, they are still not an alternative to the public sector (CFE Report, 2013). One of the key factors in the development and strengthening of the private education sector is foreign capital investment (Hunt & Boliver, 2019).
The UK government has recognised the potential of private higher education because it assumes that private higher education will lead to a "greater choice of more innovative and quality products and services at lower cost" (CFE Report, 2013, p. 8). Data suggested that the majority of privately-funded HE providers operate as for-profit organisations (Crossick, 2010;Middlehurst, & Fielden, 2011).

Research Design and Methods
Our research uses data collected between the 2015/16 and 2017/18 academic years, published online in the HESA's Statistical Bulletin Higher Education Student Statistics: Alternative Providers, 2017/18 on 14 February 2019 (HESA v , 2019a). The data provided in this bulletin are the result of cooperation between the Department for Education, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, and the Department for Economy Northern Ireland with support from the Office for Students. According to HESA's definition, "alternative providers are higher education providers who do not receive recurrent funding from the Office for Students or other public body and who are not further education colleges." Regarding private providers, data are available on the number of students and their socio-demographic characteristics, subjects studied and qualifications achieved. We hope that, in the future, this database will be supplemented by other relevant data similar to those collected on public higher education providers.
v The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the expert in UK higher education data. HESA collect data about higher education in the UK therefore it has a key role in supporting and strengthening the higher education sector. HESA has been collecting and statistically processing available data on private higher education providers in the UK for several years.

Results
In Table 1, we show descriptive statistics on the number of students enrolled with private providers by level of study in the 2015/16 to 2017/18 academic years.
The data show that there were 71,050 students enrolled on higher education courses with private providers in the 2017/18 academic year and that the total number of students grew over the observed period (Figure 1). Source: HESA data 2017/18. Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/14-02-2019/sb254-higher-education-student-statistics-APs/numbers The largest increase can be observed in the number of postgraduate (master's) students, while the increase in undergraduate students is much lower. In 2017/18, private higher education institutions also saw enrolments from small numbers of doctoral and other postgraduate research students for the first time (a total of 30). However, some increases in student enrolments are due to an increase in the amount of data collected, rather than a true reflection of the total number of students. Therefore, care should be taken when comparing data over time (HESA, 2019b). As we can see in Figure 2, UK students made up the largest proportion of enrolments in 2017/18. Among first-year students, 4% were from other European Union (EU) countries and 9% from non-EU countries. In 2017/18, there were 580 students from Italy and 575 students from China. Source: HESA data 2017/18. Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/14-02-2019/sb254-higher-education-student-statistics-APs/location As Table 2 shows, students enrolled with private providers are equally balanced in terms of gender, with the number of female students growing at a faster rate compared to males over the years. The number of female students compared to males has increased over the years, which is in line with data for the public higher education sector. 50% of first-year degree students and 61% of postgraduate taught students were female. 38% of students enroled with private providers were 30 years and over in 2017/18, similar to previous academic years. However, the number of younger undergraduate students grew year on year. In all three academic years, the vast majority of students (86 and 87 percent, respectively) were UK-domiciled students. Just under half were White, about 20% were Black and 12% were Asian.  Table 3 shows data on participation characteristics. The data show that a higher proportion of undergraduate students were from low participation neighbourhoods in 2017/18 than students at all other undergraduate levels of study. Relatively fewer students enrolled with private providers were from low participation neighbourhoods in 2017/18 compared to students enroled at publicly-funded higher education institutions.  Table 4 shows courses by subject area across the private higher education sector from 2015/16 to 2017/18. As we can see, law and economics are the most highly represented, followed by creative arts & design , while only 9% of students were studying any kind of science subject.  Figure 3 indicates that undergraduate courses are the most popular type of course provided by alternative providers, with enrolments increasing year on year.

Implications and Contribution to Knowledge
The paper outlined the structure and characteristics of the private higher educational sector in the UK and presented data relating to subject area and recent trends. Due to a lack of reliable data from the private higher education sector, we used data from HESA, which has systematically produced relevant data since the 2015/16 academic year.
To stimulate the growth of the private higher education sector, institutions have been given degree-awarding powers. Despite these government efforts, the problem remains that data on the private higher education sector are not systematised. This means that there are several unknowns regarding capital structure, funding sources, costs, investment and profitability.
As noted above and in line with our results, there is growing interest in private higher education and the number of countries sending students to the UK is growing. Despite the pandemic and Brexit, the United Kingdom is still ranked as the most desirable European educational destination for international students. The UK government has recognised the competitive potential of the private higher education sector and in May 2016 published a strategic paper that sought to boost competition within the higher education sector and create a more flexible way of providing services to students (UK government, 2016).
One of the most significant causes of instability in the private sector is attributed to low enrolment rates of students relying on government-funded tuition fee loans (Hunt & Boliver, 2021).
It is reasonable to question the relationship between high drop-out rates among undergraduate students (Baker, 2017;HESA, 2018b) and ceased to operate private providers of higher education in the UK. Demographic parameters on students are likely to affect dropout rates in the private sector. It is reasonable to assume that many students over the age of 30 combine study-related commitments with full-or part-time work, which often requires a great deal of effort and self-motivation.
The results of some recent studies (Kruss et al., 2015;McGrath, Thondhlana, & Garwe, 2021;Tang, 2020) show that investing in the higher education system has a direct positive impact on socio-economic development across a wide range of countries. Many countries provide financial incentives to encourage cooperation between business and higher education institutions. The UK Government has recognised the importance of the link between higher education and research institutions and businesses, such that science and innovation form part of the Government's long-term economic plan (HM Treasury, 2014). Furthermore, recent research provides evidence of the transfer of knowledge and innovation from higher education institutions to the local economy in the UK regions, which could help to strengthen linkages between higher education institutions and local businesses.
Despite the challenges faced by the private higher education sector, private service providers meet labour market needs but are still not an alternative to the public higher education sector. To improve the competitiveness of this sector, foreign capital investments are necessary in order to attract traditional students.