GLOBALIZATION AND ITS

IMPACT ON HIGHER EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION
We have all heard the term Globalization. Globalization is a term which has been used to
describe and explain many worldwide phenomena, from the changing stock prices to the
variation in climate due to developing of technology many things have been attributed to the
effects of globalization. It has been given positive connotations by those who advocate greater
economic integration across national borders, while it has been fiercely criticized by those who
perceive it as a threat to social cohesion and as the advancement of unfettered capitalism, which
undermines the Welfare State.1
The animosity surrounding the debate on globalization requires that a holistic approach be
adopted when analyzing this issue. Globalization is a prismatic phenomenon, which should be
looked at in all its manifestations and from different angles. What is globalization? What
accounts for the unequal distribution of globalization effects around the world? What is the
impact of globalization on the nation-State? How globalization does ultimately affects the
nations policies? These are all crucial questions, which will be addressed in this paper whose
main objective is to explore what factors of globalization affect the state policies of education in
the world economy.
The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the end of the welfare state in some western
countries. During this time under the Thatcher and Regan administrations, the United Kingdom
and the United States2, adopted neoliberal policies. At the forefront of the adopted policies were
a focus on funding cuts for social programs such as education and healthcare and a shift to
markets for economic growth. In this era of globalization, the movement of commodities and
1 This paper draws upon the United Nations World Public Sector Report 2001 on Globalization and theState

2 according to Beerkens (2003)

services was facilitated. This movement of trade led to the appearance of new markets, including
an international higher education market3. Other scholars4 explain that these challenges led to
reforms in higher education systems and pushed education institutions to increase their
effectiveness, competitiveness, quality of graduates, and produce new knowledge.
Different definitions of globalization were used by different scholars. De Wit5 explains that
globalization refers more to competition, pushing the concept of higher education as a tradable
commodity, and challenging the concept of higher education as a public good6defines
globalization based on cultural, geographical, and authority dimensions. For the purpose of this
paper, Altbach and Knight7 Definition is chosen to define globalization of higher education.
According to Altbach and Knight, globalization is defined as the economic, political, and
societal forces pushing twenty-first century higher education toward greater international
involvement8

Purpose and Rationale

The evolution of information technology enhanced the relationship between economic
development and higher education. Highly skilled and educated people became an important
pillar in economic growth. According to Gregor,9 policy makers realized that universities are key
3 Ross & Gibson, 2007
4 Olaniran & Agnello, 2008; Van Vught, 2009
5 (2011)
6 (p. 244). Beerkens (2003)
7 (2006)
8 (as cited by Cantwell & Maldonado- Maldonado, 2009, p. 290).
9 (2002)

contributors to economic prosperity. Gregor adds that inventions, technology, and highly skilled
and trained workers are very important for economic growth. The evolution of technology,
according to Gregor, increased the competition between universities themselves. Universities
realize the existence of competitive programs from national and international academic
institutions. As a result, governments and universities became responsible for improvement in
higher education.10
Over the last few decades, economic well-being became a primary goal of students, academic
institutions, and nations11. This encouraged academic institutions, according to Hutcheson, to
adopt a globalization agenda for economic gains to generate new income. Council for Higher
Education12 confirms that some western nations have the goal of becoming global leaders in
higher education. This new goal requires re-evaluation of curriculum and programs to make them
adequate for the challenges of globalization. Moreover, the shift toward globalization, according
to Gregor13, has encouraged academic institutions, especially US universities, to improve the
skills of their graduates to meet the needs of national and international markets. But Gregor adds
that US universities will spread American economic thought and that will enable the US to
control the global economy. While it can be true that some US universities are going global, it
can be argued that many other nations are also going global, including Canada. Establishing a
branch for the University of Calgary in Qatar is only one example of the movement toward
academic globalization. Other countries like Australia and the United Kingdom took similar
steps toward a global academic system.

10 (Council for Higher Education, 2008).

11 Hutcheson, 2011
12 (2008)
13 2002

Reform of Higher Education: Discussion and Critique

Reforming higher education systems was the first step toward globalization of education.
According to Van Vught14, western governments were not able to fund their academic institutions
adequately. For example, governments cannot support and fund the increase of higher education
enrolments and the demand for training. This challenge was addressed by reforming the
education systems to allow private investments in higher education, and by increasing students
tuition fees15. It can be argued that while the idea of introducing or raising tuition fees may be
rejected by many academic stakeholders, private investments in higher education may open new
doors and improve quality.
Higher education was reformed by some western governments, especially the United States and
the European Union (EU). According to Van Vught, EU reforms created a new vision to improve
higher education and research, and to enhance competitiveness in the international educational
market. The US16, had a similar agenda to improve higher education competitiveness and quality
to overcome academic global challenges. Certainly, different governments have different
incentives to reform and change their education systems.17 EU higher education systems are
challenged by a decline in the European population which will reduce the number of future
graduates. Also, graduates of EU higher education systems are not highly skilled graduates and
may not fulfill the needs of the labour market. Van Vught adds that EU political leaders have
realized that the need of the labour market for highly educated people has increased and will
increase more in the near future. US18 clearly announced its vision that reforms are needed to
maintain a high reputation for American higher education around the world.
14 (2009)
15 Van Vught, 2009
16 According to the Council for Higher Education (2008)
17 According to Van Vught 2009
18 according to Council for Higher Education

Reforms and Autonomy

One can realize how reform policies have enhanced the autonomy of higher education
institutions in some countries. Autonomy of higher education institutions has increased and
institutions used this power to generate new income from other financial sources such as tuition
fees, international students, commercialization the research, and establishing off-sure campuses
around the world19. Mny20 states that autonomy of higher education institutions play an
important role in enhancing their effectiveness. This allows academic institutions to attract smart
students and highly qualified instructors, and attract excellent researchers from around the world.
Many scholars have different views of academic institutions autonomy. Hill21 believes that the
idea of deregulation of higher education means that governments will set them free to charge
fees and decide their own relationships. Western governments22, still offer many financial aid
programs as an investment in higher education. Other scholars see this reform as new academic
imperialism. The need for economic, education, culture, and other reform became an urgent issue
for developed countries to set the agenda for the world as they see it and as they want it23
Higher education systems in developed countries became exporters of the commodity of
education to developing countries. Indeed, both developed and developing countries are
benefiting from each other. Developed countries need new sources of income, and developing
countries are thirsty for new knowledge, technology, and education. According to Olaniran and
Agnello (2008), education systems in developing countries have struggled to interact with
technologies to train their workers. They explain that their education was not adequate to meet
the needs of global labour markets. This made higher education a vital issue for their success.
19 According to Beerkens (2003),
20 (2008),
21 2007(p. 127)
22 according to Ewell (2009),
23 According to Olaniran and Agnello (2008) (p. 69).

It can be argued that these developing countries have a need for new technology and education to
improve their social and economic life. Other scholars have different arguments in this topic.
According to Hill (2007), IMF and the World Bank have forced developing countries to follow
the rules of a neo-liberal system and cut education funding. Hill argues that universities in
developed countries have adopted a market approach and students became clients in a global
education market. Arguably, low income families will have hard times interacting with an
academic system in which their children are considered clients.

GLOBALIZATION AND INDIA

As a result of Globalization the opportunities in India in the field of Higher Education now,
appears to be immense, and areas are diverse. The remarkable development in information
technology has promoted learners' method of learning in both the formal and distance modes.
Globalization is simply putting 'the space - time compression' (Evans, 1995) which brings
together nations, cultures, economies and at the same time increasing Interdependency.
Interaction is expected to improve the quality of education. Changes in Indian education system
that pervasive the core appears to remain the same only the notion of change and the rate at
which it takes place varies virtually and spatially and in field operations.
Distance education and virtual Institutions, that is commonly regarded to be an industrialized
form of education, is now taking place in India, which is proving to be more cost effective.
With one global world, the aspiring students who are left out and failed to secure their seats in
Indias premiere Institutions can now go abroad to fulfill their aspirations. With the fast growing
Information and communication technology the availability and flow of academic resource
materials is providing input to the academicians to compete with their counterparts anywhere in
the world.
It assists in avoiding of duplicity in research and inspires the Indian academicians for research
and publications on issues that are of international importance in order to make their mark in
their respective disciplines. The envisioned policy reform has facilitated in opening up space for
establishment of private universities, easing and eliminating research restrictions, entry of

graduate students, encouragement for "foreign collaboration" in the university sector and joint
ventures in an academic activities as it now exists in private industries.
System-wide higher education reform and incremental approach to liberalization of higher
education may help India to take advantage of opportunities in the new global environment.
Policy makers in India might have to be concerned with increasing adult participation in
continuing education and training, particularly in relation to enhanced employability. It is
expected to facilitate new international orders centering on lifelong learning and the "learning
society".
Globalization, as a process no doubt has given importance to decentralized educational
governance and control. The centre has viewed decentralization as a way to increase efficiency
by giving more responsibility to local level functionaries, which in turn is expected to increase
motivation and accountability. Further it is trying to involve the local community in the very
planning and decision-making process of education and making them responsible for the state
of the art.
It has been realized the role of Internet, is as interactive medium with potential global reach. It
has the capacity to bring knowledge and prosperity to isolated and marginalized individuals and
nations. But Unequal access to the Internet, the digital divide, creates inequity that exacerbates
other inequities. No developing country has benefited more from the digital revolution than
India, and in no country is the digital divide wider or deeper. On the other side of the digital
divide are the 45 percent of the population who cannot read or write (57 percent of the female
population), the 44 percent who survive on less than Rs. 50 per day, and those who live in the
370,000 villages where there is no telephone connections.24
Budgetary restraints in most of the states in India have placed increasing emphasis on improving
cost-efficiency in educational provisions. This has led to widespread interest in new forms of
quality control and performance evaluation at all levels of education which is giving more
avenues to the private education and in turn affecting the equity consideration. The major
concern of globalization has been how to fulfill the national objective of equality?
24 World Bank, World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty. (New York: Oxford University
Press,2001), p. 276 and p. 280. Telephone estimate from Financial Times

As a part of the liberalization policy, it has been suggested that education should be progressively
privatized and that access to it should be made subject to the payment of appropriate prices. The
government, therefore, encourages the establishment of a larger number of private institutions
and even private universities are being encouraged, simultaneously mechanism to cater to the
needs of those who cannot afford payment of high fees in also being evolved.
The process and effects of economic and cultural globalization are becoming evident in our
educational Programs and are expressed by teachers and students with particular reference to the
ways in which the global media (such as television media and internet) are deployed in the
construction of knowledge. - The threat is possibility of erosion of national values by imbibing
the alien culture. The changes that are taking place in the country, even at the bottom level of the
country; there seem to be shift in the power relations and consciousness at various levels of civil
societies. The macro change brought by international capital, technology and mass media has
brought new culture, but to what extent the new cultural assertions of identity will enable the
people of various regions to face the new capitalist order, remains to be seen. - The threat is for
the national cultural values.
In India, during this period of globalization, much of the contemporary thought has gone into the
issues of programmed learning, multimedia teaching, macro-micro-teaching, distance learning
and other problems related to curriculum. No subject has been so much neglected as has been
done to the development of humanistic values, creativity, cultural, moral and spiritual
dimensions in the teaching-learning process. - The threat is for the erosion of rich and old culture
of human values.
The ideologies of the states and of multinational agencies brought the technological revolution.
The process has been promoted by the transport system, communication network, and it has
increased the Economic activity, but Globalization does not necessarily result in
homogenizations; on the contrary, it is leading to the strengthening of the ethnic identities both at
local & regional levels (Edward, 1994). - The threat is to the Nations Integrity.

Apprehensions
As we have seen that globalization is both an opportunities and a threat. The issue still remains
with regard to: (i) the quality of the Indian universities when the cream of students and staff opts

for Global choices; (ii) the choice that universities will make towards the poor who cannot afford
the global choices; (iii) the standards of universities and the capacity to compete with the world
market. Our universities will raise standards and employ all those business tricks to attract
foreign students to our universities. (iv) the political complexities impinging on the higher
education system and the possibilities under given circumstances; (v) the state of the art resource
condition and its impact on the infrastructural, library and laboratory conditions; (vi) the
computer facilities and Internet access etc. are only a few to be mentioned. Under these
circumstances the so-called India's elite institutions and their capacity to attract and retain worldclass faculty and students in the face of attractive offers from foreign universities, research
institutes and multi-national corporations is the main issue. The cream of students hitherto the
prerogative of these elite institutions might have to choose amongst the second and third level.
The apprehension that haunts the Indian mind is that universities and students in India might be
the losers in the game of global higher education. It would be equally interesting to view
globalization as a real opportunity for India and can benefit significantly from the global
revolution in higher education. Obviously, it would require major policy reforms with regard to
university structure; function, structure function relation, funds and the way universities are
regulated. It would require closer links between industries and institutions especially in the
growing technology-based sectors, and an entrepreneurial style of leadership to head the Indian
universities. Given these inputs, India might be able to capture the benefits of globalization. No
doubt, the country has potential and individuals are capable, yet ifs and buts appear to be the
crux of the matter. The matter is how to achieve the concrete gains from existing higher system,
competing with Global trends without sacrificing national goals of higher education and
development and without abandoning its commitment to Indian tradition and cultural values is a
real challenge. With the liberalization of the countrys economy, global market forces have
generated new fears and dilemmas for higher education in India. In order to take advantage of
the low cost of educated labor, multinationals have been locating many of their labor-intensive
operations here, while institutions of higher education are moved to produce fail or mode skilled
manpower to suit their requirements. Nobody is clear about what is its contribution to the
countrys economic growth and to the society at large.
Commercialization of education may in turn penalize the participation of brilliant students
coming from poor background. In nation building an overwhelming emphasis on

commercialization and competition also involves risk of undermining the inculcation of higher
values of sacrifice, service and commitment to the country, a loss that may be difficult to
overcome; It may contribute for materialism and self-centeredness converting students towards
self-centered personality. Already there is a belief amongst villagers that education alienates
persons from their grass roots.
In addition to the above, there are other issues, which need consideration in the context of
globalization of Indian higher education system. The issues can be classified in Socio-Economic,
Political and Academic categories. Much has already been said in the socioeconomic category;
however there are political dimensions to trade in services. The sovereignty of the state to take
decision with regard to free provision of these services, as well as location of these services in
difficult areas even if economically inefficient is the issue. Education being on the concurrent
list, the states acceptance becomes essential this would call for amendments in the Education
Acts of the states and universities. Internationalization of higher education where in mutual
sharing of knowledge, skills and research generally takes place with the objective of mutual
benefit and also aimed at national and global development? In this, globalization process the
issue of relevance of programs is questioned in term of relevance to whom?
What would be the mechanism of mutual recognition, global and national certification?
What are the mechanism for accreditation and quality control? What would be the structure of
accrediting institution and similarly their functions?
All these would obviously bring in the issue of roles of various regulatory bodies in terms of its
already defined functions and needed changes.
No doubt, it is an opportunity for those who are aware of the benefits, who has the information,
who knows from where to get the information, who has the where wit-halts to get this
information and has the inquisitiveness to get more and more and take benefit from that. In India
a very small percentage of population is getting all the benefits and yet demanding for more and
more. It is a threat for those who are ignorant and has no information, and no means to get this
information, and not even know from where to get this information and to the extent not even
known that they do not have the information, and impact of this status on them. This group,

which is large enough to ignore, would remain the sufferers. To convert the threat into an
opportunity it is essential to concentrate on:
I. Urbanization of Rural areas i.e. provide all those facilities to rural mass;
II. Nationalization prior to Globalization;
III. Equalization of access and opportunities;
IV. Decentralization of powers to the stakeholders;
V. Qualification of existing institutions to the international standards.
With these, preparation probably the impact of globalization would be positive.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Globalization of education became an important issue in our life. Many developed and
developing countries have adopted liberalization and globalization of education. Developed
countries have benefited by promoting their education industry and that led to increase their
gross national income. Developing countries have benefited by improving their human capital,
social, and economic life for their populations. Also, individuals in developing countries are
looking at higher education as the best strategy for improving their lives. It can be clear that
more studies are needed to explore the effect of globalization of higher education on individuals
in developing countries. A study can explore if globalized education systems have fulfilled the
specific needs of developing countries. A future study may also address if global education can
affect the demand for democracy in developing countries with totalitarian regimes.