University housing development: A PPP approach

Growth and financial constraint continue to hinder development in a multitude of areas in the public sector. Higher education has joined the growing list of public sector organizations turning toward the private sector for innovative solutions to the negative externalities of growth. On April 14, 2014, the University System of Georgia posted a request for qualified contractors for a first of its kind public–private partnership. Wishing to move away from its current long-term asset financing plan that utilized public–private ventures, and to move much of the bonded debt, the university system issued a call for contractors for the construction of campus housing on nine system-member institutions across the state of Georgia. In an effort to evaluate the importance of this contractual arrangement, a thematic analysis of publicly available contract documents is analyzed. We find that the university system’s values associated with the project are best described as risk-averse behavior.