This method of funding higher education is being tried in Australia and several other countries. Germany, whose rapidly growing higher education system is facing severe fiscal constraints, is also beginning to consider alternative methods of funding higher education. Most observers agree that standards have fallen in Germany's higher education system, and that an infusion of money is necessary to improve conditions. In all of these cases, the student will pay more for the privilege of studying. Private higher education has expanded in many countries to provide access to large numbers without a rise in public funding.
Privatization shifts the burden of paying for higher education to the student.
Much of the expansion in Russia and in Central and Eastern Europe has been in the private sector. Latin America has also seen a dramatic growth in private institutions. The new institutions tend to be vocationally oriented and specialize in fields where the cost of offering instruction is fairly low and the demand is high, such as management studies or computer technology. The quality of many of these universities is, at best, untested, and at worst highly questionable. New private colleges and universities are absorbing the demand for higher education, with few questions asked.