The Ethics of Private Funding for Graduate Students in the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities

This article offers a review of the strategic opportunities and ethical risks involved in the institutional pursuit of private funding for graduate students in the social sciences, arts, and humanities (SSAH) fields. There is little existing research about private funding for SSAH research, and this article seeks to address this gap. In addition to reviewing relevant literature about trends in the privatization of higher education, shifting funding priorities, and the ethics of private funding, we offer a set of guiding principles for developing a private funding policy in SSAH fields. We also illustrate relevant considerations and concerns using the example of a private finding policy for graduate student within a faculty of education in a public university in Canada. The discussions in this paper are relevant to public higher education institutions questioning how they can ensure the integrity and sustainability of their research activities in a changing funding environment.