Dorys Yaneth Rodríguez-Castro, Jon Mikel Zabala Iturriagagoitia (Universidad de Deusto) and Juan Aparicio (Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche)
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to characterize the institutional diversity of the private side of a higher education system. The classification techniques used in the literature have a propensity to compare private higher education institutions with their public counterparts and run the risk of underestimating the impact of the market as a source of institutional differentiation. In this paper we propose an alternative classification that allows this limitation to be overcome. We obtain a multidimensional classification of private higher education institutions and analyze the relationship between their institutional characteristics and the sources of differentiation. The study has been conducted in the Colombian higher education system, as it constitutes one of the systems with the highest rates of privatization worldwide. Our results identify five strategic groups of private higher education institutions. Distance learning, the offer of technical and technological programs, and postgraduate training are key factors determining the differences across Colombian private higher education institutions. The approach followed in this paper could be used to identify potential paths for the development and expansion of private higher education institutions, further contributing to the sustainability and competitiveness of higher education systems.