European Conference of Educational Research: ECER 2003 Hamburg, 17-20 September 2003
Symposium Thursday, Sept 18
Trading in Education Services - Examining GATSNico Hirtt, Appel pour une école democratique, Belgium (presentation)
Ulf Fredriksson, Education International, Brussels (presentation)
Dr. Susan Robertson, University of Bristol, UK (presentation)
Prof. Dr. Martin Lawn, University of Edinburgh, UK (discussant)
Prof. Dr. Ingrid Lohmann, University of Hamburg (chair)Education is still largely a national affair, even though the level of private sector penetration may vary from country to country, but it is fast becoming a worldwide service industry too, even for publicly-funded systems. Traded educational services are already a major business in some countries (for example, in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, they are respectively the third, fourth and fifth largest service export).
This area has grown because of the increasing number of students travelling to study abroad. There are reputedly over a million students studying outside their country of origin, usually paying substantial annual fees to foreign institutions. The economy of this trade is being affected by the growth of information technology [ICT] which is being used by educational institutions [public universities] and private education companies to develop competitive advantage in international markets and delivery over rivals. Higher education institutions, operating in consortia, sometimes with major media corporations, appear to be competing within global markets for new income opportunities (for example, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension school in the U.S. offers around 50 courses over the Web to students in 44 U.S. states and in 8 countries).
Both the OECD and the EU have tended to view this marketization process as ‘natural’ and as a trade question. In this way, apart from recording the growth of this sector, they focused upon the difficulties of the non-recognition of the varied diplomas/degrees granted by foreign providers (which will affect market development and the expected gains). A new global educational market may emerge that will challenge current national quality assurance and accreditation systems.
A the same time, convergent European policies, opening out the Community as a dynamic economic area, and recognizing the growth of the service sector and the shift to the new knowledge economy, have used or licensed private sector partnerships to manage or even own parts of the education service. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS, WTO), started some years ago, is an attempt to manage the trade in education services between countries. Because of the complex nature of education in public/ private partnerships today, this has implications for the local as well as international market in education.
This Symposium will consider this area of education and ask whether education, a public good, can be treated as tradable, like steel or pharmaceuticals? And whether, in the globalizing corporate economy, regulated national education sectors will be subordinated to intensive profit regimes? The consequences of a commodification of education and the formation of a global education market for education, especially higher education, will be explored.Nico Hirtt
The three axes of school-merchandization
Since the end of the 80’s, the European education systems have been submitted to an unceasing flow of criticism and reforms: decentralisation, growing autonomy of the schools, deregulation of the programs, more attention to skills and less attention to knowledge, diverse partnerships between education and industry, massive introduction of Information and Communication Technology, fast development of private, for profit education.
These mutations mark a new identity between school and business, namely: the transition from the era of "massification" of education to the era of "merchandization" of education. In a context of great economic uncertainty and of growing inequality on the labour market, the education system is summoned to adapt itself, to sustain more efficiently the economic competition, in a threefold process: first, by educating the workforce; second, by educating and stimulating the consumers; and third, by opening itself to the conquest of the markets. As a matter of fact, we have to speak about a threefold "merchandization", that concerns the education system in all its dimensions: curriculae, organization, management and even pedagogic methods.
Nico Hirtt is an independent researcher on education policy. He is a leading member of the belgian movement « Appel pour une école démocratique » and chief editor of it’s quarterly newspaper « L’école démocratique ». Nico Hirtt published several books on the Belgian and European education policy : « L’école sacrifiée » (ed. EPO, Brussels, 1996); « Tableau Noir » (ed. EPO, Brussels, 1998); « Les nouveaux maîtres de l’Ecole » (ed. EPO/VO-edition, Brussels/Paris, 2000), « L’école prostituée » (ed. Labor, 2001).Ulf Fredriksson
GATS, education and teacher union policies
There is a growing connection between educational matters and trade. This was first realised in the discussions about MAI and has become even more evident in the discussions about GATS. Main risks for the future are:
• that governments will use GATS as an excuse for deregulation and privatisation within the education sector;
• that the protection said to be provided in GATS for services provided under government authority is ambiguous at best and open to interpretation by Trade Dispute Panels;
• education will become part of general negotiation game where governments may have to open up the education market in their own countries in order to get access to other markets; and
• education policies will increasingly be decided by trade ministers instead of education ministers.
Even if the EU now, on behalf of all member states, has declared that they do not intend to negotiate on further liberalisation in trade on education, this does not mean that the issue will not come back and it does not prevent governments from taking other measures to privatise education. There is a growing concern among teacher unions about GATS. Many national teacher unions have taken different initiatives:
• produced information material;
• established a dialogue with governments;
• built broader coalitions with other trade unions, student organisations, etc.
Dr.Ulf Fredriksson is Research Coordinator at Education International, Brussels, a world-wide trade union organisation of education personnel, with 26 million members represent all sectors of education from pre-school to university. ulf.fredriksson@ei-ie.org
Susan Robertson
The WTO/GATS: The ‘Knowledge Economy’ and economies of knowledge
This paper is concerned with examining ‘from the perspective of the developed and developing countries’ the growing importance of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in promoting the liberalization of trade in education globally through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In particular I focus upon the new politics of trade around knowledge and education services. Under GATS, education is reconceptualised as a private commodity exchanged in the global marketplace. These exchanges are characterized by considerable asymmetries, raising questions about who accesses what kind of education and under what conditions.
Dr. Susan L. Robertson is a Reader at the Graduate School of Education., University of Bristol. She is coordinator of the Centre for Studies of Globalisation, Education & Societies and Editor of Globalisation, Societies and Education. Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UKMartin Lawn
Discussant; Prof., Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh and Editor, European Educational Research Journal, EERJ.
website IL June 6, 2003