Commodification of education, from theory to practice

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Commodification of education, from theory to
practice

• James Cemmell ESIB-The Committee on the
  Commodification on Education

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Introduction

• Please ask questions
• I am not the holder of objective truth!
• Think critically
• Identify and challenge what you know to be
  true-multiple realities of students

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Topics of Discussion

• From liberalism to Neoliberalism- market
  discipline as the preferred allocative mechanism
  and deterministic end of history, Parato
  optimality
• Education markets functioning and failure
• History of the WTO- from ITO to GATT and beyond
• GATS- articles, political economy and
  implications
• Finding and acting in political space- spaces of
  action globalisation, FTAs, realism, autarky,
  internationalisation, transnationalism

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Liberalism

• Concept of atomised individual as unit of
  identity
• In need for security, shared benefits cede
  coercive capacity to state
• Coercion is value laden as undesirable
• Individual is in the pursuit of welfare
  maximisation and is rational
• Public goods need to be provided by the state

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Public goods

• Vertical demand and horizontal supply schedule
• Non-rejectable
• Non-rival
• Not degradable
• Education is sometimes called a public good

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Education markets

• Is education a public good in the formal,
  economic sense?
• Education markets function by enticing students
  into the market through price mechanisms
• Markets imply a discipline on organisations to
  increase their attractiveness and efficiency

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• Student exclusion as evidenced by demand schedule
• Different markets for different education types
• Market failures due to imperfections in
  information, cultural understandings

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How do HEIs become competitive in a market
environment?

• sexy/popular image evidenced through marketing
• Importance of commercial activities eg end
  product research, consultancy, fee paying
  students (MBAs, TNE, international students UK)
• Financial responsibility to board of governors
• If not market fees, can be simulated by voucher
  mechanisms

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• Implications for student feedback- tensions
  between shareholders and students eg Apollo
• Curriculum design-students as customers seeking
  personalised product
• Management structures- TQM
• Corporate universities-what are they? Does
  McDonalds have its own university?

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Issues

• Imperfect information of market entrants
• Are the above responses desirable?
• Do these subjugate educational norms?
• Do they promote desirable efficiency
• Do these effects impact on institutions as sites
  of social capital formation?

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HE in developing countries

• Perceived by some countries eg UK as a luxury
• Implications are in lack of LDC domestic
  provision and associated benefits
• TNE and GATS
• Levelling up to loans and down from developed
  countries

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History of the WTO

• ITO in Havana charter
• GATT formed
• GATT renegotiated through trade rounds
• Uruguay round formed WTO
• Included TRIPS and GATS, DSP
• Doha Development Agenda

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GATS

• Principles similar to GATT, ITO
• MA, NT, MFN, Domestic regulation
• Regulation principles-least restrictive, market
  should do most of the job
• Definitions of commercial services broad and may
  cover HEIs

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Political economy and WTO

• Consensus decision making
• Asymmetric commitments
• USCSI and corporate lobbying
• Limited NGO interaction
• GATS not a totally free trade agreement-
  safeguards, LDC concessions
• Provides site for multilateral preferential LDC
  treatment

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Political space

• Is commodification/GATS national/international/reg
  ional/ global issues?
• What are current spaces?
• What spaces can be identified in light of space
  analysis?

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• How can we promote core academic values, such as
  cooperation and respect for cultural and
  scientific diversity as important driving forces
  behind internationalisation/globalisation/transnat
  ionalisation of HE?
• How can we make sure that the necessary changes
  in the regulation as well as financing of higher
  education do not lead to a sell-out of education
  and the transformation of education into a mere
  market commodity which is bought and sold
  according to demand and supply? What would the
  consequences of such a development be? How can
  the public interest character of HE be protected
  in the light of the increasing international
  competition, budgetary constraints and market
  approaches in HE?

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• How can we ensure that an autonomy of the
  university and the commitment to the public
  interest go hand in hand with a bigger
  accountability of institutions to the
  governments, societies and private interests who
  are financing them? How can the necessary
  diversification of funding sources be combined
  with protecting academic freedom, public
  regulation, university autonomy, expansion of the
  knowledge base?
• How can the issues and questions around the GATS
  negotiations be adressed, both within the WTO
  framework as well as in other for a for example
  in the national context? How can we develop
  alternatives within the academic world that also
  respect the multiple realities of higher
  education institutions in this day and age?

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• How can we solve questions of quality assurance
  and recognition on an international/global/transna
  tional level, respecting the right of states and
  governments to retain the right to set up
  national standards and regulations? How can these
  national standards be made internationally
  compatible and vice versa?
• How can education contribute to regional
  development and promote sustainability on the
  global level
• How does globalisation of HE reflect our view on
  knowledge, especially when knowledge becomes a
  means for short term goals, and is globalisation
  fostering a new conception of what we regard as
  critical thinking

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• When applying a market oriented/ economical
  approach to HE, what are the immediate and most
  important impacts on research and what effect
  does that have on the HE institution.
• How can complex discussions at the international
  level be made understandable/relevant to local
  institutions and national decision makers?
• It is possible for students to put forward
  credible frameworks for student emancipation
  without crassly restricting other, legitimate
  interests?