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The UK did not permit for-profit schools (independent schools are mostly non-profit making trusts) for a long time. There are no for-profit primary or secondary schools (ages 4-16 ), but there are many for-profit institutions in higher education.

Regarding primary and secondary schools, in 2013, Michael Gove (then Secretary of State for Education) was said to have drawn up plans to allow free schools and academies to become for-profit businesses. However, the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 General Election committed the party not to introduce for-profit schools, and after the Conservative victory, Nicky Morgan dismissed the proposal of for-profit education in the UK.

In higher education, by contrast, there are a large number of for-profit schools. A study by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills identified 674 privately funded institutions and estimated that the majority were for-profit businesses (based on survey returns from 249 providers, of which 136 identified as for-profit). Most of the 136 for-profit colleges that returned the survey were either non-specialist (56) or specialized in business, management and accountancy (49). There are three for-profit universities in the UK: the University of Law, BPP University and Arden University, which are the only for-profit institutions with degree-awarding powers. The first of these was the University of Law which became non-profit in 2012. It was originally the College of Law, but was rebranded after it was bought for €200 Million. This buyer was Montagu Private Equity.

With thousands of students enrolled in each, these 674 for-profit universities together make about $400 million per year. Non-profit universities are paid for by the government, but with for-profit schools, students take out student loans from the government to attend. Some say this gives the students a better education and an initiative to try harder because it costs money. Some worry about the ethics of making a profit off of students. In 2017, a film came out exposing some for-profit colleges of having fake students enrolled to collect their tuition money.

Some profit is still made off of non-profit schools in the United Kingdom. Many schools pay businesses to provide services such as payroll and standardized tests. One of these businesses is called Edison County Learning Services. This business originally profited off of schools in the United States, but is now in the United Kingdom as well. The United Kingdom created a list of approved businesses for schools to order services from. Many for-profit businesses in the American education world are the same businesses in the United Kingdom