One of the most irritating, head-bangingly simplistic slogans in Canadian politics is “no to for-profit healthcare”.  It’s one thing to suggest that there should be no financial barriers to accessing healthcare; it’s another to suggest getting rid of “profit”.  I mean, the entire system is based on profit.  You think the companies who build hospitals and clinics don’t make profit?  That the companies that sell heath software or medical equipment, or you know, actual medicines, aren’t in it for profit?  That doctors who band together in clinics and bill the government for services aren’t making profits?  There is profit oozing from literally every orifice of the healthcare system – all we’ve done is found a way to disguise this while at the same time ensuring that finances are never a barrier to accessing urgent care.  Pretending that we don’t have profit in the system is just a way of diverting attention from genuine issues about cost-control and quality of service provision.

The situation is similar in higher education.  There’s all this sniffing about the profit-motive in education, but the fact that our institutions can act as (mostly) little non-profit islands is entirely dependent on the existence of the large for-profit ocean in which they sit.  Libraries?  Whether it’s humble low-volume monographs or big scientific journals, the entire enterprise of scientific communication is for-profit.  Ditto scientific equipment, pretty much anything related to IT (including software) and, usually, managing food on campus. But that’s just scratching the surface.  If you really want to see how many for-profit businesses exist along the margins of the higher ed economy, go to a National Association of Foreign Student Administrators (NAFSA) expo sometime.

First off, there are enormous numbers of people who want to sell you insurance.  Health insurance is a bigger deal in the US than chez nous, obviously, but even up our way we need insurance for all sorts of university activities, not least of which is to cover study abroad.  The foreign study business also has all sorts of room for travel agents, people who can arrange custom-built short-term programs in exotic locales, and provide students with foreign internship and work opportunities, or even with semesters at sea.

But all that is nothing compared to the businesses that strive on helping institutions bring students to their campuses.  Agents are the least of it.  Want international students to have a place to live near campuses?  There are companies which specialize in identifying and recruiting students through social media campaigns (my favourite NASFA exhibitor this year was one such company which provided Oculus tours of various campuses, mostly because it was the first time I got to use Oculus and see with my own eyes how inexplicable the $2 billion valuation really is).  There are businesses that specialize in the building and operating of private student residences, and others which specialize specifically in kitting out rooms with student bedding and furnishings.  Does your immigration system sometimes require students to get background checks?  There are companies that specialize in that.  Does your international faculty need to negotiate international tax preparation?  Again, there are specialists in this. 

Is this all stuff universities could do on their own?  Maybe.  But few could do all of them well without the assistance of for-profit companies.  That’s why universities turn to such companies: to be more efficient and provide higher-quality services at a reduced price.

And that’s the point here: the line between where non-profit universities end and for-profit businesses begin is a hazy one.  It’s a moving target, constantly changing based on the relative competencies of universities and the private sector.  Sometimes universities need to use more such services, sometimes they need to use fewer. 

To quote Deng Xiaoping: “it does not matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice”.  This is a matter which should be dealt with purely pragmatically.  Caution and skepticism about private vendors?  Sure.  But recognize the great potential they bring as well.