Title: Risk management in private higher education: an asymmetric information approach

Authors: Abdelhafid K. Belarbi; Ghaleb A. El-Refae

Addresses: College of Business Administration, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 112612, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' College of Business Administration, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 64141, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: Given government's budget cuts and the spread of free market economy mechanisms, some Arab countries opened the field of higher education, which was a state monopoly, to the private sector. Many private universities and colleges have been established in these countries. It has been more than a decade for the existing universities to assess their performance. The main problem which affects higher education sector in these countries resides in risk management of the sector. The paper aims at highlighting the aspects of risk management in higher education in some Arab countries.

Keywords: private higher education; internationalisation; quality discrimination; moral hazards; principle-agent problem; adverse selection; risk management; family businesses; families; asymmetric information; budgetary cuts; government budgets; free markets; free market economies; state monopolies; private sector; private universities; private colleges; United Arab Emirates; Qatar; Jordan; Saudi Arabia; Egypt; Bahrain; Kuwait; Oman; UAE; Abu Dhabi; Dubai; economics; business research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2013.051900

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.226 - 238

Published online: 30 Dec 2013 *

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