Impact of globalization on higher studies

7/28/2019 Impact of globalization on higher studies

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Chapter I

Theoretical Introduction

Business is playing a greater role in shaping societal values, norms and defining publicpolicy and practice. This is likely to continue, the 'public sector' in future will comprise a

diverse range of institutional forms of delivering public interest services funded from a

bewildering mixture of sources. Over the last decade, the increased role and influence of

business has been matched by the growing power and influence of other organizations

which operate on a global scale, notably non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and

inter-governmental organizations. If globalization is to maximize opportunities for all, a

global partnership between governments, business and civil society is seen as essential.

The impact of business on society is an important and contentious public policy issue. As

privatization and deregulation have increased, corporations have been expected to assume

responsibilities and roles that used to be regarded as the sole province of the public

sector. The extent of this role varies, but it is a trend not only in industrialized countries

but also in non-industrialized ones.

Globalization trends and innovations in the instructional technologies are widely believed

to be creating new markets and forcing a revolution in higher education. Much of the

rhetoric of globalists has presented a simplistic analysis of a paradigm shift in higher

education markets and the way nations and institutions deliver educational services.

Globalization does offer substantial and potentially sweeping changes to national systems

of higher education, but there is no uniform influence on nation-states or institutions. All

globalization is in fact subject to local (or national and regional) influences. A growing

body of case studies point to the complexity of globalization in influencing the future of

higher education. The objective of this analysis is to provide a framework for a more

encouraging, and a more nuanced, understanding of this phenomenon and the true

influence of globalization and the future path for higher education.

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Higher education has become a huge enterprise. World-wide tens of millions of students

are enrolled in more than 15,000 public institutions, and a growing number of private

institutions. Governing and managing higher education systems at all relevant levels

(especially system level, central institutional level, faculty and department level, program

level) has become a profession on its own. However, the possibilities for higher

education leaders and managers at all relevant levels inside and outside the higher

education institutions to prepare and train themselves with respect to the governance and

management side of their job are limited, especially concerning the threats and challenges

of its global dimensions.

In 1999, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, challenged business

leaders to help build the social and environmental pillars required to sustain the new

global economy and make globalization work for the entire world's people. The solving

of social and environmental problems is not only essential for future growth, but

sustainable development is increasingly being seen by leading industrialists as good for

business. Philanthropy has given way to enlightened self-interest. The combined effect of

the changing dynamic between business, the state, and civil society has been the

emergence of voluntary codes of business ethics, social and environmental commitments

and a wide range of social and environmental non-statutory standards which companies

are using. The position of the education sector in relation to these initiatives is explored,

raising issues in respect of the next steps the higher education sector might take in terms

of articulating ethical principles in globalization and higher education.

Global initiatives promoting greater corporate social responsibility has made specific

references to education as a sector or as an issue for inclusion in any cultural or social

impact reporting, and in respect of the education and training of employees. Education is

central to the pursuit of sustainable development and access to education is recognized

world over as a basic human right. For business, the case for engagement in education is

generally connected to the needs and aspirations of all its stakeholders employees,

customers, suppliers and shareholders. Countries and companies need more highly

educated, informed and skilled populations to compete and thrive in the world today.

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The new sensation is virtual university, and the rationale for on-line developments is

based on benefits of a global student body, enhanced access, and flexibilities which are

believed to overcome various structural rigidities of traditional universities: constraints

on what constitutes the academic year, on where credits can be accumulated, and on how

courses can be modularised. However, the visionaries and marketers of on-line education

often gloss over major complexities, including barriers of technological capacity and

literacy, as well as culture, language, and learning style. Further, the implications for

global inequalities have received only scant attention. While the great potential of

communications technology in higher education deserves to be fully recognised, there are

reasons to further reflect on the headlong expansion of globalised education on the

information superhighway.

Within the education sector, the response to corporate citizenship has perhaps been

greatest in research activities and in management and business schools which are

responding quickly to the challenges of training future business leaders for a different

corporate environment. This activity has been gaining ground for the last few years and

leading business schools have also shown a commitment to include social, environmental

and ethical issues in the curriculum and to changing traditional teaching methods to better

prepare their students. There are a number of organizations working in the field of

business education and leadership actively engaging corporate sponsors and partners in

their work. Students have had a part to play in this process. Some of the topic areas that

needs to be addressed are:

Elite and mass-access and equity: How academic institutions can provide both the

access that is required by modern societies and also support academic quality?

The future of research: In what ways the higher education systems can support basic

and applied research function in the context that mass education requires national and

international commitment?

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Chapter II

Design of the Study

a. Statement of the ProblemTo find out the Impact of Globlization on Higher Education

b. Objective of the Research

The major purpose and objectives of this study are:

A. Is todays higher education concentrating on:

1. the expansion of globalize education on the information superhighway due to

reducing barriers of technological capacity, literacy and language;

2. the application of global know-how and knowledge to local contexts and

problems; and

3. the contribution towards global economic development.

B. Are todays higher education institutions focusing on:

1. developing a globalize, knowledge based economy;

2. creating a market niche for a variety of educational products;

3. marketability of Brand University higher education overseas; and

4. being more responsive to social needs and global trends.

c. Scope of Study

The scope is limited to the students present in University of Michigan, Flint, USA, who

agreed to participate in the study and fill the questionnaires.

d. Research Methodology

i. Type of Research

This is an Exploratory Research and survey method was used to collect the

data.

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ii. Sources of Data

Primary Data is collected by getting the Questionnaire filled from the

respondents who were International students present at the University of

Michigan, Flint, USA. Secondary Data is collected from various websites

and books related to International studies.

iii. Sampling Plan

a) Type of sampling:Non Probability Convenient Sampling

b) Sample size: 100 International Student

c) Sampling unit: Michigan University, Flint, USA

iv. Research Instrument: Structured Questionnaire

v. Methodology of Data Collection: Meeting people in-person and getting

questionnaires filled. Collected data was then analyzed using SPSS Software.

vi. Plan of Analysis: This study tries to understand and analyze the economic

impact of globalization on the higher education system. It tries to understand the

views of international students and their spending behavior.

e. Limitation of the study: The study is limited to the data collected from the 100

international students present at the University of Michigan, Flint, USA. The

results obtained may vary when viewed on a larger scale. Further, there might be

differences due to human error.

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institutions are by their nature international and links among academic institutions

worldwide are essential.

Globalization portends acute and sweeping changes for higher education. But what

exactly is globalization?

In the context of higher education and one of its main functions, teaching students, the

phenomenon is often described as a process of opening closed or semi closed as well as

expanding markets for educational services. However, market forces alone can not do

further globalization; there are also influences of technological advents, including the

Internet. Higher education institutions are undergoing organizational and behavioural

changes as they seek new financial resources, face new competition, and seek greater

prestige domestically and internationally. Globalization is affected increasingly by

government policies, including relatively new international political bodies and potential

changes in international treaties on trade. The changes to which higher education all over

the globe increasingly is exposed, are complex and varied, even contradictory, and the

comprehensive concept of globalization are far from clear and well defined. These

changes can be due to:

the rise of the network society, driven by technological innovation and the increasing

strategic importance of information, and symbolised by the expansion of the Internet;

the restructuring of the economic world system, with the transformation to a post-industrial knowledge economy in the core, the emergence of newly industrialised

nations, and the growth of new forms of dependency in the developing world; the

rapid integration of the world economy with increasingly liberalised trade and

commerce, resulting in new opportunities but also in relocation of production;

the political reshaping of the post-Cold War world order, with strategic shifts in

power balances and the emergence of new regions challenging the hegemony of the

20th-C superpowers, but also with increasing global insecurity and an endless list of

regional and local conflicts;

thegrowing real but also virtual mobility of people, capital and knowledge, possible

because of new transport facilities, the development of the Internet and an increasingly

integrated world community, but also provoked by the will among the hopeless to

escape poverty, new mass migrations and refugees escaping war and insecurity;

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the erosion of the nation-state and its capacity to master the economic and political

transformations, together with the weakness of the international community and its

organizations, widening the gap between economic activity and socio-political

regulation, and leading to unbound global capitalism but also to new international

forms of crime;

the very complex cultural developments, with on the one hand aspects of

homogenisation such as an increasing cultural exchange and multicultural reality, but

also the worldwide hegemony of the English language and the spread of commercial

culture, and on the other hand elements of cultural differentiation and segregation such

as fundamentalisms of various kinds (including new nationalisms), regressive

tendencies, intolerance and a general feeling of loss of identity.

These forces and tendencies are not the only ones which define the social environment in

which higher education has to operate at the start of the 21st century; reference has to be

made as well to the demographic challenges, the spread of aids, endemic poverty or

religious conflicts, just to name a few. Globalization also means that institutions and even

states no longer can give their own answers to all these challenges, but that they also have

become interdependent in their policy-making processes.

A variety of trends demonstrate the influence of the globalization process on higher

education. Most tug and pull at our more traditional notion of national boundaries as thecritical political and economic environment for higher education. The global networks

and marketplace for academic researchers has also grown significantly. Efforts are being

made internationally to converge and standardize undergraduate and graduate degree

programs. International collaborations with other academic institutions and businesses are

now commonplace. Universities seek new avenues to fund and promote the

commoditization of their knowledge production capabilities. Many higher education

institutions are recruiting relatively new pools of students outside national borders. In this

quest, most are seeking to apply new instructional technologies to expand enrolment

and to enhance the viability and profitability of international ventures. Facilitated by

these technologies, there is the spectre of a competitive environment between existing

and new higher education providers, including the rise of new non-traditional and for-

profit competitors. With this more competitive global framework has come talk of a need

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for international accreditation processes and new efforts at quality review. Is this a

gathering storm? According to a number of globalists focused on mega-trends, a realistic

projection is that higher education is approaching a paradigm change. Some ten years

ago, Peter Drucker famously warned that the old universities will soon be relics of the

past. Others boldly make similar predictions, and have made projection that online

providers from throughout the world will replace many traditional brick-and-mortar

universities built to serve national clients. Hence, one monopoly will be replaced another.

Furthermore, the opening markets will bring convergence in academic practices and a

wholly new competitive environment dictated by the wants of clients. In this climate

driven by economics and technology, a few large-scale providers may have a significant

market advantage.

In assessing the impact of globalization, it is important to highlight a number of realities.

One, the market for higher education continues to expand rapidly, thus making room for a

greater variety of providers and niche players. Two, globalization will have differing

effects on differing regions and markets. To a large extent, our modern concept of

globalization focuses on changing markets and providers linked to new methods of

delivering higher education products. The process of globalization as a force more

powerful than industrialization, urbanization, and secularization combined. It is the

inexorable integration of markets, nation-states and technologies to a degree never

witnessed beforein a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to

reach round the world farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before.

Globalization is a deliberate ideological project of economic liberalization that subjects

states and individuals to more intense market forces. The opening of what were

previously closed markets dominated by state-subsidized providers has forced a

reconfiguration of the higher education sector, thus opening opportunities for new

providers. Also new providers have a competitive advantage, in large part because of

their ability to quickly adopt more efficient Instructional Technologies (IT). In this

futurist vision, a once ubiquitous mode of delivery (the classroom) is replaced by another

(online courses). All together, these developments underpin the assertion that higher

education will become one of the booming markets in the years to come. This expansion

and massification will not be matched by a proportional rise in public expenditure,

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leading to an increase in private and commercial provision and creating huge problems of

access and equity.

Mega Global Forces

The international market for students has existed for centuries, but it is now a growing

factor driven by demand and by institutions' market desires. On the demand side, some

individual students seek the academic quality and credentials of programs offered by

foreign universities. Others look outside their local and national networks of higher

education providers because those providers do not provide academic programs that fit

their perceived needs. Some students simply desire a different cultural experience, or are

motivated by a combination of these three. A relatively new factor is the desire of

institutions (public, private, and for-profit) and, increasingly, national governments to

increase international student enrolment. The motivations are multiple and related to both

academic and economic concerns. Sometimes the motivation is to increase the quality of

an institution's student pool. Sometimes the purpose is to expand their international

activity on academic grounds (e.g., to foster a greater understanding of other cultures and

economic forces). More and more, the motivation is to seek new revenue streams.

Particularly for the public sector, and in light of rapidly declining public funding of the

national higher education sectors, the vast majority of which also have restrictions on

creating or raising tuition, international students can be charged a relatively high tuition

rate. This shift in the market for students is the prospect of significant changes in the

hiring patterns of faculty from a largely national to an international pool. The norms of

existing universities and colleges, as well as national restrictions focused on protecting

local labour markets for domestic populations, have been powerful forces for limiting the

hiring of non-national faculty.

International Networks: As academic fields have matured, specialization has increased

and the need to interact with colleagues from different institutions has become a widely

recognized phenomenon critical for the advancement of research and knowledge. This

shift has been facilitated greatly by the development of the Internet, which makes

academic interaction with colleagues from throughout the world more practical and

ubiquitous. Another factor bolstering this change is the integration of international

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collaborations. International recognition has become the ultimate standard for assessing

the research and scholarly quality of individual faculty and academic departments.

International Collaborations: Both to facilitate research collaboration and to seek an

expanded market for students, as well as the fees they generate, many institutions are

seeking relatively new associations with other universities and with business. These range

from formal agreements between academic institutions to offer new degree programs,

often in fields like business, to funding by industry to bolster research activity in fields

that may influence their markets and products, directly or indirectly.

Trend towards Organizational Convergence: National systems of higher education

have long been characterized by significant differences in the organization of secondary

schools, in qualifications for university enrolment, in the requirements of various degree

programs and time to completion, and in administrative structures, including the authority

of faculty versus that of academic administrators.

The Bologna agreement marks a significant attempt at convergence, in part to facilitate

cross-border articulation of degree requirements, as well as to help foster a greater

international flow of students and scholarly activity. In this view those institutions and

national systems that do move toward convergence, particularly in degree requirements,

will be significantly more competitive internationally. Also many of the traditional

degree requirements were and are vestiges of distinctly national and often elite systems of

higher education that do not match the training and credential needs of modern

economies. Furthermore, the higher education sector tends to be extremely conservative

and generally unwelcoming of curricular reforms. For these reasons there is both a need,

and a significant trend, among national governments to adopt multinational agreements

on higher education reforms, and to seek and sometimes achieve restructuring of

academic programs.

Instructional and Computer Technologies (ICT) are opening New Markets and

Bringing a Revolution in Traditional University Organizations: Instructional and

computer technologies are perhaps the most significant source of revolution in the higher

education sector. This has fundamentally altered the delivery of higher education courses

and degree programs. This analysis is based on significant economies of scale, a sense of

a much improved pedagogical approach offered by ICTs, and a student demand and

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preference for such educational services. The traditional classroom is a relic of the past

as well as an uneconomical, and perhaps even pedagogically flawed, system.

Rise of Non-Traditional and Alternative Competitors: Closely related to the

speculation of a revolution brought on by ICTs is the assumption of a new Darwinian

environment in which many old and new institutions will learn to adopt ICTs and thrive,

while many others will perish. The rise of these new competitors is being facilitated by

the movement of national governments to deregulate their higher education sectors,

providing new levels of autonomy for institutions, for example to competitively price

their educational services and choose what academic programs might best draw student

enrolment demand. But in doing so, these same governments are slowly opening what

had been largely closed markets to for-profit and international brand name institutions.

Repositioning of Existing Institutions into New Markets and Mergers: There are three

factors that relate to the efforts of institutions to reach into relatively new markets and

sometimes to seek mergers with other institutions. The firstis a reaction to a substantial

decline in many nations of public funding for higher education institutions and the

subsequent desire to generate new programs that in turn generate new revenue streams.

Thesecondis a hope of achieving cost savings by consolidating programs, administrative

structures, and perhaps capital costs. The thirdis a desire to bolster the market position of

one or more institutions in order to recruit students and garner research funds to seek

greater prestige.

International Frameworks Related to Education Services (Bologna/WTO/GATS):

The Bologna Agreement among members of the European Union provides an example of

international frameworks that are both pushing for convergence among the various

degree patterns offered by European universities and encouraging international

exchanges of students. In this case, higher education is elevated and viewed by a larger

polity as one part of a general pattern of European integration. One result is that students

within the EU may enrol at any public university and at tuition rates (if applicable)

reserved for domestic students. Regional or panagreements like Bologna create an

expectation of convergence and the development and marketing of academic programs to

non-domestic students. Education is being categorized as a service commodity subject to

international trade rules. This is the gist of a current proposal under negotiation by the

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World Trade Organization as part of the pending General Agreement on Trade and

Services (GATS). There is considerable speculation on the potential impact of GATS on

national higher education systems. The WTO seeks to establish education as one of

twelve internationally traded services, and to reduce national controls over its regulation

including accreditation. WTO member nations were asked to propose trade rules in

regard to education.

Under current trade negotiations, higher education may be deemed a special service not

subject to normal GATS open market regulations, or it may be deemed a service subject

to free trade rules like any other commodity. State subsidization of public universities

could be ruled an infringement on free markets. Private and for-profit providers, under

one interpretation of GATS, would be economically disadvantaged in a market

subsidizing public institutions. Under GATS, some form of subsidization would need to

be extended to these other non-public providers. This may not be the net effect of GATS,

and how invasive the treaty might be depends not only on the language finally approved,

but also on the way GATS is subsequently interpreted. Whatever is its actual influence,

there is a general sense that GATS reflects a shift in how nation-states may view higher

education.

A recent study by the American Council for Education notes,

The vocabulary of trade applied to higher education suggests that education is but

another service to be traded, not an investment in a nation's social, cultural, and

economic development, and that the market is the dominant force in policy.

But liberalization of trade in education may weaken governments commitment to and

investment in public higher education, promote privatization, and put countries with

weak quality assurance mechanisms at a disadvantage in their countries by foreign

providers. An international regulatory framework is needed to transcend the eroded

national policy contexts and to some extent to steer the global integration of the higher

education systems. Without such a framework the globalization of higher education will

be unrestrained and wild, generating a lot of resistance and protest. The impact of

globalization on higher education generates a number of crucial challenges, which ask for

a new and international regulatory framework.

Some of the challenges are:

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1.The regulation of new providers and the various forms of trans-national higher education;

2.Finding a comprehensive solution for the issue of the international transferability,

recognition of qualifications and credits; and

3.Developing an international approach to quality assurance and accreditation.

Globalization and Its Many Forms: Globalization takes on different forms as myth,

phenomenon, process, or outcome. The ambiguous and relativistic nature of globalization

may take any of these forms depending on context. In todays world globalization is

viewed more as myth because of its questionable validity in global leadership consensus,

its historical existence prior to the current global economy, and the overestimation that

trans-national corporations are beyond being regulated by the nation-state.

Theoretical Sketch of Globalizing Forces Affecting Higher Education

This theoretical construct assumes that the political, economic, and socio-cultural forces

compete against one another in an attempt to legitimize their school of reason for the sake

of education itself. This does not in any way suggest that one force---or form of

reasoning---is better, more dominant, or equivalent to the other forces. Instead, this

construct offers the relativistic position that the internal spheres of influence which drive

how one perceives oneself and the world around him (Ego-centrism) coupled with

external spheres of influence (i.e. political, economic, and socio-cultural forces) comprise

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elements that make-up globalizing forces in higher education. Internationalization,

therefore, is the process that determines the extent to which one acts with---hence,

internationalizes---ones world. Acts, in this context, are defined as both proactive and

reactionary. Further acknowledgement is given to the fact that internationalization is all

but one process in a myriad of proactive and reactionary processes.

The internationalization process applied to universities refers to the massification of

universities in general; the reaching out further a-field to increase an institutions

influence, visibility, and/or market share on the international scene. The formation of

International University organizations has become of increasing interest to governments

(i.e. international, national, and local), to businesses (i.e. trans-national), and to higher

educational institutions themselves, since many benefits have been anticipated by their

formation. The following summarizes the influences government, business, and higher

education have recently had on international university cooperation:

a. Links to Government: The emergence of trans-regional educational exchange schemes

may have some correlation to the development of regionalized free trade agreements

in certain parts of the world. Although the European Community (EC), the North

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the Asia-Pacific Economic

Cooperation (APEC), did not initially recognize the need for education in their

statutes, all began with idealistic notions to develop socio-economic standards and

quality-of-life objectives within their respective regions.

b. Links to Business: Transnational corporations are heavily involved in globalization

issues, since they determine the extent to which they invest in risk management in

terms of resources, staff, and time spent overseas. The more a company invests in its

business transactions overseas, the more it is required to reciprocate by investing its

interests in the host country. This may be done by sponsoring schools in the local

community or providing education to develop certain work competencies for the

business enterprise located overseas. Not only is the development of education and

work competencies advantageous to good business practices in the long run, but it

also offers altruistic dividends in the short term. The cancellation of debt in return for

education and training has also played an increasing role in the re-conceptualization

of international assistance in the developing world. Although the building of

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infrastructure---airports, railroads, roads, harbors, power lines---and the

implementation of quality compliance (i.e. environmental protection) encourage local

economic activity, perhaps the greatest need of all is the transfer of human skills and

competencies to the host culture. Microsoft and Motorola have recently gone to the

extent of forming their own institutions of higher learning in developing countries,

not necessarily because they are conducting business in those areas, but because there

is a strong student demand in the local communities for highly skilled and extremely

versatile workers.

Some institutions of higher learning have also become involved---particularly in

developing countries---and instead of the student traveling from afar to get an

education, entrepreneurial universities are building satellite campuses in host

countries to bring the institution to the student. Distance education, utilizing the latest

technology in telecommunications, provides accredited and non-accredited degree

programs to students who never set foot on the home campus. Although it is

acknowledged that distance education is only peripherally related to international

education, in that distance learning may take place beyond national borders, the fact

is that it is virtual, not actual.

c. Links to Higher Education: The massification of higher education has provided

incentive for higher educational institutions to take charge of their individual destiny

by implementing their own international initiatives. The university at present has

transformed itself into a power-broker with institutional policies and practices which

help maintain a certain mode of control and ownership from student recruitment and

assessment to faculty instruction and degree recognition. In many ways, it has

become a business, and as such, the mentoring bonds between teachers and students

are becoming less consistent. The enforcement of certain guidelines to maintain and

preserve the institutions integrity and, perhaps more importantly, to streamline

procedures to educate as many students as possible are the underlying causes. The

international sale of higher education, including international education, has provided

impetus for the institution to compete for students and staff for some measure of

profitability, and in certain instances, has caused it to shift from civic responsibility to

business opportunity. These significant influences detailed above are clearly forces

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that are helping form and legitimize the existence of international university

organizations.

The links between government, business, and higher education play a major role in the

globalization, and hence, in the internationalization of higher education. Although

conceptual and empirical constructs may attempt to infer causal relationships between

processes (globalization and internationalization) and outcomes (international university

cooperation), the vast array of worldwide educational systems, contexts, and culture-

specific issues make it difficult to confirm any linearity. Hegemonic struggles for power

and autonomy, freedom of access, and the unequal basis on which individuals, groups,

and nations participate in, and make, history may compound---even distort---the pursuit

towards greater international cooperation. As international university operation continues

to be seen as promoting further cooperation, it will inevitably fall on governments,

businesses, and higher education institutions of the world to develop coherent and

coordinated international education strategies for equal opportunity, access, and

collaboration. Sustaining the activities of these organizations will also be crucial, but if it

is left to higher education alone to finance, staff, and provide the resources necessary for

their survival, the following consequences may be expected:

that most institutions may become more fragmented and less focused on a well-

rounded education in their approaches to higher learning; that academic integrity and accountability may be compromised when weighed

against the pros and cons of short-term, financially rewarding programs and

initiatives;

that many institutions may be required by society to be all things to all people

without the necessary resources, or conversely, that they become highly selective

and elitist; and

that academic staff and personnel may become reluctant or unable to adapt to the

changing tide of curricula development, to a cross-fertilization of ideas, concepts,

and theories, as well as to a new student body.

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Internationalization of Higher Education

Internationalization is commonly viewed as the relationship-building process between

two nations or more which are bound by a common purpose. The emphasis on process is

what differentiates between international and internationalization in the contemporary

context, and because of its characteristic two-way or multi-national interaction, it can be

interpreted differently, depending on discipline and culture. In higher education,

however, internationalization can also reflect the self-serving notion of becoming more

internationally aware, more internationally-focused, and more internationally-recognized.

Many higher educational mission statements are strategically designed to promote and

enhance their internationalization efforts by encouraging international student and faculty

exchange, internationalizing curricula, conducting international research, and

streamlining procedures by consolidating and sharing resources and staff.

Internationalization, on an institutional level, may thus be construed as an outward-

seeking, self-fulfilling initiative with incentive-based and competition-induced

tendencies.

International cooperation may be viewed as a spin-off of the internationalization process,

but it is not perceived as the over-riding goal or mission of the institution or institutions

involved. If internationalization is viewed as a relation-building process intended to work

with other international bodies to achieve a common goal or set of goals, then the

combined teamwork, mutual respect, and potential for growth, enrichment, and progress

may boost---even accelerate---globalization processes. Internationalization is a means to

ideologically achieve a globalize end.

The delineation of meaning and context between globalization and internationalization

demonstrates an often indiscernible tension between international cooperation as an

idealistic hope and international competition as an economic rationalistic reality. If

globalization of higher education is perceived as a process of convergence, embracing not

only the economic aspects of a globally integrated economy but also the systemization of

world knowledge, then internationalization may be perceived as its conduit. This

complementary interaction between both processes helps facilitate, maintain, and monitor

the spheres of influence from global to local levels and vice versa. However, this is not its

only role. The internationalization process can sway to and fro, overlapping with

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there were no new establishments. Despite these periods, however, which may be related

to market downturns, increased security issues, or other factors, it appears that

international consortia are proliferating. Considering the present majority, the economic

incentives to be reaped by individual member institutions have arguably taken

precedence over the good-will nature of the cooperative inter-institutional relationships.

Although institutions may legitimize their collective involvement for furthering

international cooperation, it is the economic gains, the consolidation of costs, staff, and

resources, and international recognition and visibility that determine the extent of their

active participation.

Emergence of International Consortia:

International consortia, regardless of their mission or purpose, have arguably

supplemented higher educational institutions as invisible colleges, whereby the physical

infrastructure of institutions has given way to the cooperative relationships established in

order to provide adequate quality and variety of instruction, to keep in touch with

worldwide trends, and to further promote the dissemination and advancement of

knowledge. The compartmentalising of globalization into strands makes it increasingly

cross-disciplinary in focus, emphasising the fact that globalization is as much a way of

thinking as it is a science, however qualitative may be its focus. Globalization requires a

new way of thinking. It cannot be measured by placing a quantitative value on it, because

of its context-dependent and culture-specific nature. Globalization as a collective whole

incorporates the inter-connected web of relationships that configure its composite which

gives it meaning and potentiality; and it cannot be adequately studied or solved at the

nation-state level. Globalization of higher education suggests an ideological sense of

collective consciousness and action, with the underlying pursuit of cooperation on a

worldwide scale to foster, promote, and advocate veritas (truth).

Some of the Primary Challenges for International Consortia in Higher Education are:

1. Participation, Partnerships / Linkages, Management Turnover, Communications,

Standardizing Procedures, Differences in educational systems, Funding / Costs,

Greater flexibility in program delivery and Conflicting priorities.

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2. Improving academic standards, Currency devaluations, Opportunities for student

exchanges, Participation, Student Interest / Demand, Procedures, Unwillingness to

change, Inequity of experience and Technology.

Those universities which take on the task of becoming more internationally aware, more

internationally-focused, and more internationally-recognized will increasingly find that

the inter-institutional relationships cultivated over time will ensure the pivotal role higher

education has in the distribution and advancement of knowledge in the world. Through

these partnerships, it can only be hoped that knowledge will become a fundamental right

for all, that the pursuit and advancement of knowledge be shared, and that the knowledge

be used constructively to ameliorate ills that plague the world as a whole.

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Chapter IV

Trouble for the Traditional Higher Education Sector

The impact of the various trends and challenges related to globalization on highereducation institutions and policies is profound, but also diverse, depending on the specific

location in the global arena. There is a danger of generalisation and oversimplification

when dealing with globalization; diversity has to be recognised but also to a certain

extent promoted. The following shifts in circumstances will force organizational changes

or the demise of some portion of the existing traditional higher education sector:

Growing Imbalance between Available Resources and Market Demands: The age of

significant subsidization of the operating costs of public universities is widely viewed as

coming to an end, particularly in more advanced economies where education is one

among a host of competing services offered by governments. With traditional sources of

funding declining, demand is growing at the same time for virtually all forms of higher

education servicesfrom academic degree programs to part-time courses, as well as for

university-based research, particularly in areas related to the global economy.

The network of public universities will either require raising new revenues, or require a

major shift in how academic programs are staffed and offered in order to lower costs.

One probable shift already in progress is that institutions, with the blessing of

governments, will increasingly shift the financial burden of their operations to students

and their families.

Unpredictability and Pace of the Market: The decline in traditional resources in the

midst of growing public demand will be accompanied by a rise in competition from new

higher education providers (some local, some global), and a shift in the dynamic of

competition for students. Price, convenience, and quality (or perceived quality, perhaps

linked to specialization and structured to meet changing expectations of clients) will

grow as factors determining student enrolment patterns.

Permanence and Stability become Less Important than Flexibility and Creativity: In

this new market environment one of the few certainties is the presence of continual

change and changing expectations. Students have become clients not simply thankful

participants under the tutelage of faculty.

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Contemporary Culture of the Academy is Too Conservative Either to Protect its

Niche, or to Broaden its Services: There is a widespread concern that the contemporary

culture of our universities is simply not up to the task of making the shifts in organization

and in services that the new market age will require. Indeed, many of the values of

traditional academy, threaten to make many if not most traditional institutions obsolete

hence the threat is both external and from within. The current faculty - centered,

monopoly sustained university paradigm is ill suited to the intensely competitive market

of a global knowledge society.

The Global IT Paradigm

The survival-of-the-fittest paradigm plays a prominent role in ideas on how higher

education will be delivered in the coming decades, and specifically in the key role

expected for IT and distance education. Will there be a need for brick and mortar

institutions, or will there be a significant downsizing of physical facilities in favour of

virtual education environments?

With the prospect of a perpetual decline in state subsidization of Public higher education,

the future of higher education will depend on alternative and non-traditional methods of

delivering its product. The logic goes something like this:

The current higher education infrastructure cannot accommodate growing enrolments,

making more distance education programs increasingly necessary.

The institutional landscape of higher education is changing: traditional campuses are

declining, for-profit institutions are growing, and public and private institutions are

merging.

Increasingly, students are shopping for courses that meet their schedules and

circumstances, thus adding to the decline in traditional institutions.

For-profits pick the low hanging fruit by offering marketable and low-cost courses,

e.g., business, computer science, etc., and leaving more costly and less commercial

courses to traditional Higher Education Institutes.

As a result, unless the traditional Higher Education sector more aggressively enters

these markets using IT, its financial troubles will be compounded. With the economy in

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Tier 2-A Institutions consist of mid-range comprehensive universities relatively

secure in their market position, yet also faced with declining public resources and

a need to develop alliances or perhaps merge with other institutions to secure

revenue-generating enrolment and markets. Hence they need moderate

reorganization to reduce costs and reorient academic programs.

Tier 2-B Institutions will be severely challenged by the new global competitive

environment and will be desperate to survive. Here we see a scenario of declining

resources and the need to eliminate some academic programs, to expand into

more profitable degree programs (e.g., eliminate philosophy and expand business

programs), and essentially to reorganize in order to compete with other Tier 2-B

and for-profit institutions.

Tier 3-B Institutions are those that are too conservative in their internal culture

to change and compete, or simply are victims of rapid shifts in the number and

type of providers.

The future of higher education is due to see a significant institutional shakedown and

there will be many losers. Most importantly, the way educational services are generated

and delivered at most institutions will be forever changed. In this model, the internal

world of the academy and its leaders will be the primary determiners of the fate of the

Tier 2 institutions. For those tired of the tendency of academics to seek shelter in the

cloistered halls of the university, and to consistently ignore much of the outside world,

this is a welcome transformation. Mass higher education brings with it a need to ramp up

production and seek greater efficiencies. In a very real sense, the higher education

community has become a victim of its own success.

In the 1970s and in the early stages of basification of British higher education, a

distinguished Cambridge academic noted one aspect of this conundrum:

We who have protested that education is the birthright of a civilized man are surely

caught in a ridiculous posture when we resent the crowds at our gates demanding to be

educated and even daring to hint that they are disappointed with what we have to offer.

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Health and safety

Higher education has reinforced its role of service to society, especially in assisting

eliminating poverty, intolerance, violence, illiteracy, hunger, environmental degradation

and disease. Universities of the 21st century will have to develop many more and

different kinds of links with surrounding society. It is predicted that in the future they will

be ranked in terms of their connectivity to the distributed knowledge production

system.

Sustainable Development

The marketing of higher education can mean either selling goods and services that

simply conform to existing social and environmental practices or ones that involve

original thought, innovation, new perspectives, new approaches to managing change and

new models of social, political, economic, scientific and cultural organization. If higher

education is to be part of social progress, then it cannot avoid having to grapple with

sustainable development; those who are being educated will have to deal with social and

environmental legacies left by the current generation and will, in turn, create social and

environmental legacies for the future. It would be difficult to imagine how capacity could

be created or skills, knowledge and technical know-how be transferred to developing

areas of the world, if the academic community does not play its part in these tasks.Higher education must adapt to the market but not be governed by it. If higher education

allows itself to be dominated by competition and financial interests, it runs the risk of

intellectual isolation. By maintaining a critical independence from the market, research

carried out by higher education institutions preserves not only its value but also its unique

capacity to contribute to the improvement of the human condition. It has reinforced links

with the world of work with efforts devoted to developing students entrepreneurial skills

so that they become job creators as well as job seekers.

The Knowledge Society

Globalization is the term used to signal the re-structuring of capitalism on a global scale

that began in the mid-1970s. The global economy is an economy with the capacity to

work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale. It developed as a result of a convergence

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of a series of factors, of which the most important is the unprecedented development of

information and communication technologies. Not only have these technologies made it

possible to work in real time on a planetary scale, but they have also changed the

organization of production.

Information and communication technologies have put knowledge at the centre of the

new economy. This new emphasis on knowledge as a productive force has led social

scientists to coin the term knowledge society to describe one of the main characteristics

of contemporary society. It is not just any knowledge which gives rise to the knowledge

society, but specifically the application of theoretical, codified knowledge which allows

the actor to generate a product or service or to transform the productive process, and in so

doing, to add to knowledge in such a way that it has direct value-added to the economy. It

is this immediately productive knowledge which has a performative force which has been

commodified by the market and which is the key to winning the competitive edge in the

global economy. Thus is it not only the production of new knowledge, but also the

reproduction, application and contextualisation of the already existing scientific (social

and natural) and technological knowledge, which gives rise to a class of knowledge

workers, or skilled experts who are able to apply knowledge to local contexts and

problems.

Higher education has a particularly important role in providing society with individuals

trained in such a way that they can respond to the demands of knowledge-based

occupations. The demands made by globlization on higher education institutions go

beyond the development of cognitive skills and competences in future knowledge

workers. Higher education is also asked to prepare people for a work environment

characterised by the replacement of hierarchical relations by team work, self-employment

and contract work, which in turn demand greater flexibility, adaptability and risk-taking

on the part of workers.

One of the effects of globlization on higher education is the changing relation between

society and institutions of higher learning. Higher education institutions are expected to

be far more responsive to societal needs at a concrete instrumental level. Whereas

previously, higher education was allowed to impose its own definitions of knowledge on

society, society is now demanding that higher education provides more instrumental

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correlation between political and economic stability and the ability of nations to build and

support quality higher education institutions.

Balance of Existing Institutional Providers and Local Market Demand: There are

large differences in markets and the range of existing higher education providers. In

China, for example, the demand for higher education is rapidly growing, there are not

enough existing higher education institutions of sufficient quality to meet that demand,

and the national government has made it a priority to resolve this problem in part by

welcoming outside providers. China now represents a huge market even as the national

government attempts to build its own system of higher education. In contrast, the market

in the US is profoundly different. No other nation has such a variety of providers, public

and private, as the US; until recently no other country rivaled the US in access rates of its

population to higher education. A mature market characterized by a balance of providers

and local enrolment demand tends to mean that higher education is a ready-made net

export. A natural desire to export services is also created by countries with an imbalance

of mature providers, dropping domestic enrolment demand, and/or rapidly declining state

support.

Nation/State Regulation and Initiatives: In an age that tends to tout the virtues of

market-oriented solutions, the vast majority of higher education reform is coming not

from entrepreneurial efforts of institutions, but from government regulatory initiatives.

To varying degrees, all national governments are becoming more involved in shaping the

character and services of their public higher education systems. Regulatory controls,

often developed under the rubric of creating more market-oriented higher education

systems, are becoming in fact more invasive. For example, government-imposed review

processes focused on assessing the quality of teaching and research are now ubiquitous.

Yet within this general trend, there are remarkable differences in governmental

approaches, rooted in the national political culture and the seeming maturity of state

funded higher education systems.

England provides an example of a country in which the national government is seeking a

larger array of regulatory controls linked to funding, while seemingly ignoring the

Bologna Agreement. Britains third way largely retains its traditional degree patterns.

A major portion of funding for universities is now linked to national assessment

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exercises. England also offers an example in which the market for outside providers

appears extremely limited thus far, and in which government feels compelled to be the

primary mover to shape the higher education sector. Of late it has launched a new

initiative focused on online academic programs and learning: UK eUniversity.

Cultural Pride, Biases, and Needs Not Served Directly by Global Providers (e.g. tax

law): The examples of England and China demonstrate significantly different approaches

to expanding higher education enrolment and shaping the labour market. China welcomes

outside providers in its push to increase the size and scope of higher education access. It

appears to be planning for the day when it can expand its own network of national

universities. England and the UK in general also show strong cultural biases, linked to

long traditions related to class structures and to ideas regarding the importance of

undergraduate university education as a communal experience. Notwithstanding WTO

and GATS agreements, the implications of which are still not entirely clear, outside

providers may find limited opportunities to secure a profitable market. The desire for

homegrown institutions relates to cultural pride, but also to a sense that national higher

education institutions will cater more directly to local labour and economic needs.

Facilitated by the dominance of English as a universal language of business, diplomacy,

and education, courses in fields such as chemistry may be duplicated and scaled for

international consumption, but other fields are linked to local and regional cultures. For

example, accounting and tax law have strong relationships to locality. Social science and

humanities fields also have strong cultural orientations.

Arguably, however, developing economies tend to focus their interests predominantly in

the sciences and engineering (and to a lesser extent business and international trade), and

here curriculum and degree programs are more generic. The complexity of cultural and

political differences between nations will remain a significant factor, and it is not clear

how much the global world of international providers will change or erode the market

position of higher education institutions, which are essentially pillars of national identity.

Internal Academic Cultures and Organizational Behaviour: It is often claim that

traditional universities are inflexible and too conservative to react in a timely manner to

changing markets and public needs. Certainly, there is some truth to this. But there are

also many examples of universities that are adapting and seeking organizational

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responses to help meet public needssometimes on their own, and sometimes in reaction

to government demands. The current and future environments are unprecedented with

important implications for core academic activities. A major shift in the organization and

culture of existing and traditional higher education institutions will be required or, more

accurately, forced by market changes and new technology. But universities might not

need to make wholesale changes. The value of their core services, with marginal changes,

will likely remain relevant to consumers. They might, however, add new units and

services outside of the core academic activities. Thus far, this is exactly what most

universities are doing, with varying success.

Counter-Intuitive Factors IT / Internet as a Force for Globalization / Market

Control of Large Brand Name Providers, or Empowering Local / Regional

Institutions: It is assumed that Information Technologies and the Internet create a

platform for brand name and entrepreneurial providers to enter new markets, essentially

offering courses that are economically scalable and that reap large profits. In this world, a

basic science course in, say, chemistry or biology can be designed and delivered online to

students in China, in Japan, in the UK, and in the US. Yet here is an alternative scenario.

Thus far, the investment required in order to develop a high quality academic course

online, or even a hybrid course (mostly online, with some actual physical meeting of

student and instructor) is relatively high. Why is this, the case? One reason is that the

current state of software for online courses is relatively difficult and primitive. Designing

a course requires a significant amount of programming and a team of professionals not

only to get it up and running, but also to maintain its content. Once designed and

implemented, course content needs to change over time as new knowledge is produced.

Rates of change are correlated to the fieldfor example, physics and biology are rapidly

changing.

When off-the-shelf software and design become more user friendly, and as the computer

skills of faculty increase, one might imagine faculty generating and modifying their

online course content, an evolution like that of mainframes to PCs. The mass scale and

generic framework of corporate providers might give way to smaller scale and more

locally centered curriculum development. This scenario fits more readily into the existing

culture of higher education communities by empowering faculty to shape and modify

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course content, and to maintain quality and control of degree programs, as well as by

providing students with a greater sense of connection with the product of a particular

institution.

International Qualifications Frameworks

In response to the increasing globlization and marketisation of education, some countries

have developed national qualifications frameworks as a means of standardising and

making explicit the products or outcomes of education systems, and of enhancing the

marketability and mobility of their graduates. Formal national qualifications frameworks,

or systems for the national registration of qualifications, have thus been developed (or are

in the process of being developed) in a number of other countries.

A shared characteristic of these developments is the need to make the meaning of

qualifications more transparent and explicit. The expectation is that this will make it

easier for higher education stakeholders (especially employers and students) to identify

the nature and level of qualifications, to compare them and to identify more easily their

articulation possibilities, both within and across national boundaries.

The Issues of Access, Quality, and Sovereignty

Where are we in the learning curve regarding globalization and its influence on higher

education? The list of successful as well as unsuccessful ventures provides indicators

regarding the complexity of the international market for higher education. The market,

though significant and growing, is seemingly more narrow and specialised than

previously thought. At the same time, higher education is expanding in its value to

society. Enrolment demand is growing in virtually all parts of the globe, thus making

room for more types of providers. Political and cultural differences, and the locations of

higher education systems within nations and regions, are extremely important factors

moderating the influence of globalization. The changing nature of higher education is

much more nuanced and cumulative.

The movement toward international markets by existing and often traditional universities

has been motivated largely or solely by the desire for profits. Declining state subsidies

motivates the understandable desire for profits by public institutions andthe arrival of a

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political culture captured by the ideals of the marketplace. As long as higher education is

viewed more as a private than a public benefit, these contextual influences will motivate

universities to seek new markets and revenue streams. In this scenario each university

needs to assess the potential impact of the development of corporate and for-profit

universities according to its own mission and goals. But another question is how these

ventures might be more fully integrated into the more traditional academic enterprise in

order to meet larger societal needs.

On a broader level, one sees a reinvigoration of an old debate regarding the relative

merits of an open market approach to providing higher education in a nation or state

versus a more coordinated approach. GATS, the entrepreneurial drive for profits, and the

largely commercial ventures of a number of notable name-brand universities are all

forces pushing for the development of more open markets. Much of this is good.

Multiple providers and multiple choices for students to gain access to higher education

and to gain knowledge and skills beneficial to the individual, to the economy, and for

democracy, are all in the interest of society. Relatively closed markets are less desirable

and will likely to erode.

Lurking in the shadows, however, are important questions related to access, quality, and

national sovereignty. Open higher education markets hold the promise of a more diverse

set of providers in markets such as the EU. In countries with less developed higher

education institutions and systems they may welcome and even need outside providers.

New foreign providers may broaden access.

In a relatively extreme globalization scenario, nation-states with evolving quality

assurance structures may find that foreign providers operate under different rules related

to quality. Developing countries generally have few mechanisms for quality control.

They represent the markets that sellers from the industrialized world are eager to target.

The cause of concern is the potential negative influence of GATS on higher education

systems. Most developing countries would likely be at the mercy of the multinational

providers. So it is important to ensure that globalization does not turn into the neo-

colonialism of the 21st century.

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Implications on Universities in Developing Countries

Globalization has resulted in higher education being regarded as a commercial product,

governed essentially by market forces, and has brought in the concept of competitiveness.

The results of commercialisation and competitiveness - concepts which until recently

were considered anathemas in the university world - can be the very opposite of those of

internationalization. While no doubt globalization may have some positive effects from

the point of view of increasing access in higher education and reducing the knowledge

gap in developing countries, it equally has negative aspects which can seriously threaten

universities in those countries.

The economic situation in most developing countries is such that the state is unable to

provide the additional funding required to further expand the public tertiary education

sector. The developing countries have generally welcomed the foreign providers, in some

cases even facilitated their entry, as a means of making higher education more accessible

to their population without any increase in public funding. This has given rise to what is

now termed transnational education or the provision of education to learners in a

country different from the provider.

There are broadly speaking two main methods of delivery of higher education by foreign

providers to learners in developing countries. The firstmethod is delivery through their

physical presence in the host country. This is done either by establishing a local branch or

a satellite campus or by using a local partner (a private college or institution but very

rarely a local, public-funded university) for course delivery. In some cases, part of the

course is delivered in the developing country and part of it in the country of the foreign

provider.

The second method of delivery is through cross-border delivery, in which case the

course is delivered by the provider remaining in the foreign country to the students in the

developing country. International distance education and e-learning fall under this

category. An increasing number of students in developing countries are opting for cross-

border delivery of higher education, although in many instances the foreign provider (an

open university or a virtual university) is also located in a developing country.

The globalization of higher education can also have negative effects on developing

countries and their universities. First, globalization can undermine the very purpose for

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which universities in the third world were created, namely to assist in the economic,

social and cultural development of their respective countries. Foreign providers do not

share the same national values and priorities. Their purpose is solely to provide education

in the most cost-effective way.

Second, globalization raises the important issue of national control and planning of higher

education. While universities in developing countries need to have autonomy on their

academic activities and their faculty must enjoy academic freedom, nevertheless, since

they are public-funded institutions, they need to be accountable to their government and

must respond to the overall national education plans. There is the real danger that once

higher education has been liberalized, developing countries will be flooded with foreign

and private providers delivering essentially profitable subjects. In those areas, they will

pose as serious competitors to local universities, leaving the latter to deal with non-

profitable subjects in arts, humanities, science and technology, so vital for a countrys

development. This could lead to the abandonment of some subjects in local universities

for which the market demand is poor. The effect will be especially dramatic for small

developing countries having a single or only a few universities. A McDonaldlisation of

higher education will then ensue.

Third, many of the foreign providers offer courses of dubious quality and function as

diploma mills. Since they are commercially motivated they can often exploit and

mislead local students. In some cases, even courses delivered by well-known universities

have been found to be of substandard quality. In the case of delivery by distance

education, very often there is a lack of adequate learner support locally, with the students

left to fend for themselves as best they can. Most countries in the third world do not have

effective mechanisms in place to control the quality of courses delivered by foreign

providers in the context of liberalised higher education.

Fourth, foreign providers will draw most of their faculty from the host country. They will

be in a position to offer enticing salaries and may attract the best qualified but poorly-

paid faculty away from local universities. As it is, most universities in developing

countries are already facing a serious problem of recruiting or even retaining good

faculty, and the situation will worsen with the arrival of foreign providers, thus affecting

the quality of delivery of their courses.

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Finally, the presence of a large number of foreign providers could further increase the

social divide in developing countries. Affluent students and those from the middle class

will opt for enrolment in private, foreign institutions, leaving the public institutions,

which are already poorly funded and which cannot afford to offer the best academic

environment, to cater for the poorer students. Local employers, especially those in the

private sector, may prefer employing graduates with foreign qualifications, so that the

best jobs will go to the latter, again widening the social gap.

It is essential for governments of developing countries to acknowledge that there is a

public good aspect to universities, that universities play a central role in the

development of a nation, that they benefit the society at large in addition to individual

recipients and that they therefore need to be supported to fulfill their mission.

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Chapter V

What it means for India - Threat or Opportunity

For higher education leaders in India, this new environment of Globalization holds both

threats and opportunities. The threats are obvious: as more and more Indian students

look to Australia, Britain and the U.S. for both undergraduate and post-graduate studies,

the quality of Indian universities will continue to suffer. Lacking computer facilities and

Internet access, many of India's resource-starved institutions - such as mofusil colleges in

remote rural districts - will be on the wrong side of the digital divide. Even India's elite

institutions - the IITs and IIMs - are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain

world class faculty members in the face of attractive offers from foreign universities,

research institutes and multi-national corporations. So, there is a substantial risk that

Indian universities and their students could end up as serious losers in the global higher

education game.

But there are also real opportunities for India to benefit significantly from the global

revolution in higher education. To do so will require major policy reforms in the way

Indian universities are structured, funded and regulated. It will also require closer links

between Indian industry, especially the growing technology-based sector, and Indian

universities. And, it will require a new, globally oriented, entrepreneurial style of

leadership by Indian Vice Chancellors and other top-level administrators. With these

ingredients, India has the potential to capture the up-side benefits of globalization,

emerging with a stronger, better, more globally competitive higher education system, and

greater opportunities for Indian students.

Which path will India take? That is the question to be answered, and there are certain to

be differences of opinion about the mixed blessings of globalization among leading

Indian educators and policymakers. This study might suggest some pathways by whichIndia can achieve tangible gains from current global trends in higher education, without

sacrificing its national goals for higher education development or abandoning its

commitment to Indian cultural values.

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Looking Back - International Influences in Indian Higher Education:

If one scans the horizon of Indian higher education institutions today, the legacy of prior

waves of international, if not global, influence can be seen in virtually every field. The

impact of British higher education is felt not only in the basic structure of Indian higher

education - the system of examinations, structure of post-secondary education, scheme of

universities and affiliating colleges - but also in the range of colonial era institutions that

are still among the most elite in India today. St. Stephens College in Delhi and

Presidency College, Calcutta, are but two examples of prestigious undergraduate

institutions that still bear the distinct imprint of their British heritage.

Similarly, India hosts a wide variety of pre-Independence missionary institutions -

colleges founded in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries by foreign missionaries of

different faiths. St. Joseph's College in Trichy, St. Xavier's in Chennai, and Christian

Medical College, Vellore, are notable examples. Some of these, such as CMC Vellore

(founded in 1900 by a Cornell-trained American woman physician to train women nurses

and doctors) and Isabella Thoburn College (founded by an American social worker to

provide educational opportunities for young women in Lucknow), intertwined social

reform agendas with their religious philosophies.

In the post-Independence era, the Indian Institutes of Technology, consciously patterned

after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., received substantial overseas

help right from the outset. With support from four donor nations, the five IITs benefited

from guest faculty from outside of India, the ability to send Indian faculty for training

abroad, and contributions of modern laboratory equipment and facilities. Similar

international links were established by the Indian Institutes of Management:

IIM/Ahmedabad, for example, still maintains strong connections with the Harvard

Business School. Perhaps the most recent innovation in Indian higher education, the

Indira Gandhi National Open University (together with similar, state-sponsored Open

Universities), drew heavily on the UK experience with distance education and the Open

University concept.

Even the most genuinely Indian of Indian institutions, Santiniketan, kept its windows

wide open to international ideas, influences and experience. Conceived by its founder,

Rabindranath Tagore, as an international center for humanistic and cultural studies,

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Santiniketan captured the ancient Sanskrit notion of a world in one nest. In

inaugurating Visva-Bharati in 1921, Tagore spoke of India's wealth of mind which is for

all. In creating a center where East meets West, Tagore acknowledged both

India's obligation to offer to others the hospitality of her best culture and

India's right to accept from others their best.

Current Realities - India's Position in Today's Global Marketplace:

Would that Tagore's notion of cultural reciprocity characterized patterns of educational

exchange in today's global marketplace? Regrettably, the current realities of

globalization reflect a highly skewed relationship between East and West. Of the

514,000 foreign students currently studying in the United States, more than 54 percent

are from Asia. Seven of the top ten sending countries of international foreign students

in the U.S. are Asian, while not a single Asian country is represented among the top ten

destinations for American students studying abroad. India alone accounts for more than

42,000 students in the U.S., compared to only 707 Americans who studied in India during

the 1998/99 academic year. Worldwide student mobility data, compiled annually by

UNESCO confirm similar imbalances in student exchange between India and other

industrialized countries.

The liberalization of the Indian economy, a process that began in 1991, is certainly a

major factor behind the large and growing numbers of Indian students seeking education

abroad. Prior to the 1990s, only a privileged few Indian families could afford to send

their children to universities outside of India. With the dramatic rise of a new Indian

middle class (and increased wealth of the Indian upper class), the numbers of students

able to pursue foreign education has skyrocketed. For example, the number of Indian

students studying in the U.S. grew by more than 46 percent from 1990 to 1999.

In contrast to many other Asian students, Indian students were not forced to look outside

of their home country to find their desired course of study, at least at the undergraduate

level. Instead, the quality of education and the perceived value of an overseas degree

appear to be the most significant factors influencing student decisions to study outside of

India. It is also noteworthy that, for more than one-third of such students, a major

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motivation was their desire to broaden their experience by living and working in another

country.

While the in-country availability of desired courses at the undergraduate level may not be

a major factor in the student mobility equation, the limited capacity of India's institutions

to meet the demand for post-graduate education in particular fields may be a more serious

problem. More than 70 percent of Indian students studying in the U.S. are pursuing post-

graduate degrees; only 22 percent are undergraduate students. Business / Management,

Engineering, Math and Computer Sciences account for more than 75 percent of all Indian

students in the U.S. It is also well known that the demand for seats at India's apex

institutions for Indian students in highly competitive fields such as engineering and

management vastly exceeds the supply. Reservation policies, designed to ensure

educational opportunities for disadvantaged groups within Indian society, further limit

the in-country slots available for students from forward caste backgrounds. To a certain

extent then, foreign universities provide a safety valve for talented, well-off Indian

students who cannot find seats in their chosen fields within Indian institutions.

A final factor worth noting is the active and growing competition for the best Indian

students among foreign universities. While the UK and (more recently) the USA are

well-established destinations for Indian students, Australia and Canada are rapidly

gaining in market share. In recent years, Australia, the UK and France have all

launched aggressive student outreach/recruitment efforts in Asia. Stung by declining

enrollments from East and Southeast Asian countries affected by the Asian currency

crisis of the late 1990s, American universities have also intensified their marketing

efforts to students in South Asia.

While all of these factors help explain the large number of Indian students studying

outside their home country, what accounts for the small number of foreign students

studying in India? In large measure, the answer lies in some of the same factors

motivating Indian student to study overseas -- i.e., the lower perceived quality and

marketability of qualifications from Indian institutions. But other, more easily

controlled factors also play a role. Significant among these is the relative paucity of

structured and accredited college study abroad programs for foreign students in India.

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The Institute of International Education (IIE) annually publishes a directory of study

abroad programs for U.S. students seeking a semester or academic year of study in

another country. The 2000/2001 edition of IIE's Academic Year Abroad directory lists

just 21 such programs for American students in India. This number compares with 242

programs in France, 214 in Australia, 97 in Japan and 26 in Thailand. Given the wide

availability of English-medium courses in India, the subcontinent's rich cultural,

historical and ecolo

Impact of globalization on higher studies

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