The higher education sectors of European countries have been subjected to an unprecedented amount of reforms over the past decade. Much of these changes are the consequence of the Bologna Process, which introduces a common Bachelor-Master-Doctorate system in the participating countries, with a view to increasing the employability of the European citizen and the international competitiveness of Europe as a whole. Apart from the Bologna Process, the important EU policy project called the Lisbon Strategy clearly affects higher education policy, as its goal is to establish the world’s most competitive knowledge economy. This momentum seems to regard education almost exclusively as an economic commodity, and it could therefore be argued that both policy projects contribute to a commercialisation of higher education. [1].
The term internationalisation has been deployed for over fifteen years now to describe some aspects of the global outreach of Western universities. It has been defined by U. Teichler as “the totality of sustainable changes in (…) higher education relative to an increasing frequency of border-crossing activities” [2] Examples of this activity might include physical mobility, knowledge exchange and university co-operation, in relation to teaching and research activities.
While the process of internationalisation affords many benefits to higher education, it is also clear that there are serious risks associated with this complex and growing phenomenon. According to the results of the 2005 International Association of Universities (IAU) Survey, 70 percent of responding institutions from 95 countries believe there are substantial risks associated with the international dimension of higher education: [3]
- commercialisation and commodification of education programs,
- the increase in the number of foreign "degree mills" and low-quality providers,
- brain drain,
- the loss of cultural or national identity,
- jeopardy of the quality of higher education,
- the homogenization of curriculum
“In this brave new academic world, in which a sort of commercialised newspeak has been created, every individual is called a revenue center, every group of people is a stakeholder, every student is a customer, every professor is an entrepreneur, and every institution is seen as a seeker of profit – whether in the form of money or in the form of human capital” – says David L. Kirp. At the same time, he notes that what is referred to enrolment is nothing more than marketing strategy. With the aim of gaining new students (customers?), universities spend millions of dollars on promotion, and the university itself needs to become a brand [4].
One of the examples is the “disease” of the rankings. The higher the position that the university occupies, the more its brand is recognisable. The author makes a parallel with a store: “when we enter a record store, we also see rankings of the most frequently bought CD’s, computer games, etc. Therefore the ranking of universities has a dimension of pure consumerism. It is supposed to say to the potential customer: “buy me, because other people did.” The task of institutions of higher learning, in the opinion of many researchers, is not only to attract the customer (student?), but also to make them satisfied. [4]
And what role do the students play in this system then? They are customers because they have a binding contract for goods and services, and also for the possibility of studying in an organisation which, operating like a business, sells the opportunity to study. But one of the authors compares education to a carrot. “When we go to the local market with the aim of buying a carrot, we generally pick the nice-looking ones with no sign of rot. This is because we know (having seen what good-quality carrots look like many times before) that buying a rotten carrot will not bring us any good, and we will only be wasting money, not investing it rationally. Putting it in a very simplified way, you might say that customers at a farmer’s market are experts in high-value carrots, in other words those that are fit to eat”. [4]
As they are not experts in the subject areas of the lectures, seminars and tutorials they attend, while choosing their program of studies (otherwise what on earth would they be choosing it for?), you cannot call them customers. Students would be customers if they were capable of evaluating what the university has to offer. Students become customers when they evaluate a university in terms of its facilities: comfortable chairs, a sufficient number parking spaces, the nice lady in the admissions office, good access to the required publications, etc. However, they are not customers when they attend classes.
Several researches consider students as producers (as they are involved in the construction of knowledge), or products, or even that they are treated like cash cows. [4]
Commercialisation could have a negative impact on research. Howard Gardner, an American developmental psychologist, a professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard University: “The introduction of the world of business to universities caused the conflicts of interest. Companies which support scientific studies do not want their results to leak out to the competition for obvious reasons. They forbid universities to discuss how research is progressing at scientific conferences, for instance. Some professors, in accordance with the contracts signed with their sponsors, have had to limit their colleagues’ and students’ access to laboratories. This slows down the flow of information and ideas, which guarantee the development of research work”. [4]
The factor that intensifies the process of commercialisation, can be the shortage in financing of the higher education sector by state, which requires universities to "commercialise" their services to raise additional income.
In year 2010 Western Europe was racked by student demonstrations. In Britain Parliament tripled university tuition to $15,000 (in U.S. dollars). In Germany, were the most colleges are state-funded, five of the 16 states of Germany charged tuition fees at state-funded colleges, while in 11 states tuition was provided free of charge.
However, the aim of policy-makers seems to be a rational, constituent to the tendency of attractivity in the world market.
Several commentators believe that the students are hit from two directions under the state capitalist model [5]. First, by government interventions that inflate the amount of the “education” commodity they’re forced to consume in order to make a decent living. While the education was subsidized by the state, college-educated administrative and technical labor became artificially cheap and plentiful to employers. This caused upward tendency of legally mandated credentialing. As a result the credentialing primarily serves a signaling function for the employer, and is inflated far beyond the functional requirements of the actual job.
And second, government interventions inflated the cost of procuring this commodity. So students were placed in a double bind. A commentator Joe Bageant explains the creation of artificial necessity of “education” commodity possession [5]: the Empire needs about a quarter of its population in administrative-technical positions that require a college education. Educating a larger portion of the population only results in credential inflation for other jobs. And the more people with managerial-technical educations are competing for jobs, the more corporate bureaucracies are characterized by opportunism, shameless climbing and back-stabbing.
In developing countries the crisis with state financing of the higher education can lead to closing the access to higher education among majority of citizens, growing disparities and make them the most illiterate countries rather than meet the goals of universalisation of education that the government claims to promote.
Internationalisation also can lead to changed situation in employment. International experiences constitute a comparative advantage for students as they later seek employment.
Global market realities are that “the reach and the spread of transnational corporations is world wide. In the past, they moved goods, services, technology, capital and finance across national boundaries. Increasingly, however, they have also become transnational employers of people. They place expatriate managers in industrialised and developing host countries. They recruit professionals not only from industrialised countries but also from developing countries for placement in corporate headquarters or affiliates elsewhere. They engage local staff in developing countries who acquire skills and experience that make them employable abroad after a time. They move immigrant professionals of foreign origin, permanently settled in the industrialised world, to run subsidiaries or affiliates in their countries of origin. They engage professionals from low income countries, particularly in software but also in engineering or healthcare, to work on a perspective contract basis on special non-immigrant status visas, which has come to be known as “body-shopping”. [6]
There is a modern tendency in the internationalization, collaboration of state universities with private educational organizations. Private education providers like Kaplan International Colleges build a public-private partnership (a joint venture) with the state-financed universities in Europe. The new faculties will provide a staging post for students from outside the UK who need to raise their English language proficiency and hone their study skills before embarking on degree-level studies. Students who successfully complete their International College programme will be guaranteed entry to the course of their choice. Universities were initially hesitant to enter such partnerships, worried that their respected brands could be diluted if they jumped into bed with a for-profit. [7] But the number of cooperation is growing and the stakeholders see their benefits.
The aims of universities are in the connection with gaining a high number of students from the international market. The benefit for the privately run companies is generating of revenue. For students it is much increased chance to enter the prestigious institution. Percentage of admitted students reaches 90 %. Whereas the underlying commercial reasons of this enterprise, it is also a significant opportunity to the students: the chance to build their own human capital in ways that aren’t always possible at home.
There is also another tendency - reverse direction of knowledge- and students-flow between Western and Asian Universities. Just recently, long known primarily as the world's largest exporter of students, China had done much more to build its human capital at home: in addition to expanding the quantity and quality of its own universities, it was forging partnerships with Western universities that operated programmes in China.
But now China and other Eastern countries oppose to the intervention of the Western Universities to their markets. It is seems like global educational institutions found in China, other Asian and Arabic countries a source of demand, and converted this initiative to a profitable business, declining in quality, while the Eastern Universities, by leaps and bounds, became very competitive in their education and research. Eastern students say, they would only pay a premium price for the international education if it came with the opportunity to travel abroad. Most students want the cultural, Language, and social experiences of attending a Western university in the West. [8]
As a consequence we can say that this commodity attitude to the higher education can cause serious problems with its quality, problems with independence and academic freedom, make it an absolute elite’s asset, what demolishes the principles of equality and equity. This attitude can be a consequence of people’s perception of the process of internationalisation, but not of the one itself.
Although the globalisation of education brings very positive and essential postulates, such an attitude needs to be corrected. It is getting more and more difficult to tell a university apart from a business or state, hence the former is losing its raison d’être. The most important thing is clear, defined and specified goals. Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard University, notes the following in his publication “Universities in the marketplace”: “if the goals are unclear, then the university may focus solely on earning money, while forgetting about the fundamental purpose of the university.” [4] And internationalization itself cannot be a former goal of the university, it is also a misconception: “If internationalization is regarded as a specific goal, then it remains ad hoc and marginal”, Prof. Hans de Wit says. [9]
For this reason, universities must take a long hard look at their educational mission.
References
1. Garben S. The Bologna process and the Lisbon strategy: commercialisation of higher education through the back door? // Croatian yearbook of european law and policy.- 2010.- №6.- pp. 167-208.- Режим доступа: http://www.enqa.net
2. Munck R., Barrett E., Mc.Evoy P., Nakabugo G. Higher Education, Internationalisation and Global Development: An Irish Case Study // Internationalisation of European Higher Education Hand-book.- 2010, Berlin. - Режим доступа: http://www.irishafricanpartnership.ie/sites/irishafricanpartnership.ie/files/Higher%20Education,%20Internationalisation%20and%20Global.pdf
3. Knight J. Internationalisation brings important benefits as well as risks.- 2007, Boston.- Режим доступа: http://www.unesco.org/iau/internationalization/pdf/article_IHE.pdf
4. Hejwosz D. Students as consumers: the commercialisation of higher education in the United States of America // Liberte! World edition.- Published on 31.05.2010.- Режим доступа: http://liberteworld.com/2010/05/31/students-as-consumers-the-commercialisation-of-higher-education-in-the-united-states-of-america/
5. Carson K. A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste // Forum “Center for a Stateless Society”.- Pub-lished on 13.12.2010.- Режим доступа: http://c4ss.org/content/5377
6. Weber, Luc E. The Globalization of Higher Education / L. E. Weber, J. J. Duderstadt. - London: Economica, 2008. - 290 p.
7. Wildavsky B. A Profitable Pathway for Foreign Students in Britain // The Chronical of Higher Education.- Published on 26.10.2010.- Режим доступа: http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/a-profitable-pathway-for-foreign-students/27521
8. Wildavsky B. Let's wave the flag for a globalised academy that will benefit all // The Times Higher Education.- Published on 1.04.2010.- Режим доступа: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=411030
9. De Wit H. Internationalization of Higher Education Nine Misconceptions // International Higher Education .- The Boston College Center for International Higher Education, № 64, Summer 2011.- Режим доступа: http://www.bc.edu/research/cihe/ihe/issues/2011.html |
