This article presents a report released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a nonprofit group promoting access and quality in postsecondary education around the world. With college enrollments mushrooming in many nations but public support generally unable to keep up, the world is seeing a historic swing from public to private financing of higher education, the report says. That shift has become evident in a number of ways. First and foremost, more students and their families are paying their own way as countries impose tuition. And institutions themselves are looking for private cash in new ways, collaborating with businesses and starting up fund-raising departments. More private financing has allowed a great expansion of enrollment in many countries. But the trend is also raising concerns, such as whether wealth will become a more important factor in access to college, and whether universities will continue promoting the public good, even when it is not profitable. The report found wide differences among countries. But in the 53 countries for which the institute found compatible data, private financing had become an important junior partner to the public purse by 2002, accounting on average for 37 percent of all expenditures on higher education.