Higher education systems worldwide are currently facing a trio of competing challenges: increasing access and absorbing demand; promoting and safeguarding quality; and reducing and minimising costs to students, taxpayers and other investors. The growth of private (profit and not-for-profit) educational provision worldwide, in addition to other forms of private investment in higher education (HE), can help to address some or all of these challenges. It has been reported that private sectors are already heavily engaged in the provision of higher education in the UK. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) reports that around 250 private providers awarded at least one full degree on behalf of the 157 registered bodies allowed to award degrees in 2010. This paper uses evidence from research commissioned by Universities UK (UUK)'s Longer Term Strategy Group in 2009 to examine in more detail the extent and nature of educational partnerships between publicly funded higher education institutions (HEIs) and private providers, and the institutional management and policy issues arising from such linkages. The authors present a summary of the research and its key findings. (Contains 3 tables.)