Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

GATS and Higher Education: State of Play of the Liberalization Commitments

  • Article
  • Published:
Higher Education Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Higher education is the education level under the most pressure to be internationally liberalized. Currently, the main global instrument to achieve this liberalization goal is the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization. In this paper, the process of trade liberalization of higher education in the GATS framework is examined. The analysis is divided into two main parts. First, the state of the current situation of higher education liberalization and that of other education sectors are reviewed and compared. Second, the factors that influence the undertaking of liberalization commitments on education, specifically higher education, are analyzed. To make these comparative analyses, EduGATS, a novel index to measure the degree of liberalization of educational services, is introduced.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
€32.70 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Finland)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This paper contains results of the project ‘Más allá de la focalización: Educación, desarrollo y lucha contra la pobreza en el Cono Sur. Análisis de las aplicaciones de la nueva agenda política global en la región’ (I+D 2005–2008). Ref. SEJ-04235. A paper that contains a general assessment of the liberalization on all the education sectors has been published in the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education, 6(1).

  2. The request can be consulted in http://commerce.nic.in/wto_sub/services/Plurilateral_Requests.htm (retrieved: 15 October 2006).

  3. In these calculations we do not include the two newest members of the organization: Vietnam and Tonga. Both formally became members of the WTO in the year 2007. See: http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm (retrieved: 12 September 2007).

  4. In these figures, I include the EU (or European Communities) as a single member — that is, the member countries are not included separately.

References

  • Barrow, C.W., Didou-Aupetit, S. and Mallea, J. (2004) Globalisation, Trade Liberalization, and Higher Education in North America: The Emergence of a New Market under NAFTA? Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnoy, M. (1999) ‘Globalización y reestructuración de la educación’, Revista de Educación 318: 145–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francois, J. and Wooton, I. (2000) ‘Market structure, trade liberalization and the GATS’, Centre for International Economic Studies. Policy Discussion Paper 3.

  • García-Guadilla, C. (2002) ‘General agreement of trade in services, higher education and Latin America’, Paper prepared for the Convention of Universities Members of Columbus, Paris, July 2002.

  • Kachur, J.L. (2003) ‘Whose intellectual property? Whose rights? GATS, TRIPS and education in Canada’, Globalisation, Societies and Education 1 (3): 375–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight, J. (2002) Trade in Higher Education Services: The Implications of GATS, London: The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knight, J. (2003) GATS, Trade and Higher Education Perspective 2003. Where Are We? London: The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, Retrieved from www.obhe.ac.uk/products/reports/publicaccesspdf/May2003.pdf, 24 May 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, K., Martin, J.P. and Morris, R. (2002) ‘Trade in educational services: trends and emerging issues’, The World Economy 25 (6): 849–868.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, K., Momii, K. and Vincent-Lancrin, S. (2004) Cross-Border Higher Education: An Analysis of Current Trends, Policy Strategies and Future Scenarios, London: Observatory on Borderless Higher Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, K. and Vincent-Lancrin, S. (2002) ‘International trade in educational services: good or bad?’ Higher Education and Management Policy 14 (3): 2–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malo, S. (2003) ‘La comercialización de la educación superior’, in C. García-Guadilla (ed.) El difícil equilibrio. La educación superior como bien público y comercio de servicios, Caracas: Editorial Latina, pp. 101–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mundy, K. and Iga, M. (2003) ‘Hegemonic exceptionalism and legitimating bet-hedging: paradoxes and lessons from the US and Japanese approaches to education services under the GATS’, Globalisation, Societies and Education 1 (3): 321–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OBHE. (2002) International Branch Campuses: Scale & Significance, London: The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, Briefing Note 5.

  • OBHE. (2003) Mapping the Educational Industry (1). Public companies — Share Price & Financial Results, London: The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, Briefing Note 9.

  • OECD. (2001) Education at a Glance. Education Indicators 2001, Paris: OECD.

  • OECD. (2002a) Indicators on Internationalization and Trade of Post-Secondary Education, Washington, DC: OECD/US Forum on Trade in Educational Services, May 2002.

  • OECD. (2002b) Current Commitments under the GATS in Educational Services, Washington, DC: OECD/US Forum on Trade in Education Services, May 2002.

  • Robertson, S., Bonal, X. and Dale, R. (2002) ‘GATS and the education services industry: the politics of scale and global reterritorialization’, Comparative Education Review 46 (4): 472–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, S. and Dale, R. (2003a) ‘This is what the fuss is about! The implications of GATS for education systems in The North and The South’, UK Forum for International Education and Training, Commonwealth Secretariat, May 2003.

  • Robertson, S. and Dale, R. (2003b) ‘Changing geographies of power in education: the politics of rescaling and its contradictions’, GENIE — the Globalisation and Europeanization Network in Education, Retrieved from http://www.genie-tn.net/genie019.htm, 12 March 2005.

  • Rodrigues Dias, M.A. (2002) ‘Utopía y comercialización en la educación superior del s. XXI’, in M.A. Rodrigues Dias (ed.) Lecciones de la Conferencia Mundial sobre Educación Superior — Perspectivas de la Educación Superior en el s. XXI, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, pp. 11–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez Gómez, R. (2003) ‘La educación superior en el Mercado: configuraciones emergentes y nuevos proveedores’, in M. Mollis (ed.) Las universidades en América Latina: ¿Reformadas o alteradas? Buenos Aires: CLACSO, pp. 87–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez Gómez, R. (2004) ‘Inversión Extranjera Directa en Educación Superior. El caso de México’, Revista Educación Superior XXXIII (2): 130, Retrieved from http://www.anuies.mx/servicios/p_anuies/publicaciones/revsup/130/02.html#e, 15 February 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saner, R. and Fasel, S. (2003) ‘Negotiating trade in educational services within the WTO/GATS context’, Aussenwirtschaft 59 (2): 257–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shashikant, S. (2005) ‘GATS talks will move only with A “big leap” in mode 4’, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues, 198, Retrieved from www.twnside.org.sg/title2/twninfo198.htm, 17 March 2005.

  • UNCTAD. (2005) ‘Trade in services and development implications’, Retrieved from http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/c1d71_en.pdf, 12 May 2005.

  • UNESCO. (2006) Global Education Digest 2006, Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

  • Van der Wende, M.C. (2003) ‘Globalisation and access to higher education’, Journal of Studies in International Education 7 (2): 193–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verger, A. (2008) ‘Measuring educational liberalization. A global analysis of GATS’, Globalisation, Societies and Education 6 (1): 13–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verger, A. and Bonal, X. (2006) ‘Against GATS: the sense of a global struggle’, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 4 (1), Retrieved from http://www.jceps.com/?pageID=article&articleID=55, 14 November 2006.

  • WTO. (2000) Guide to the GATS. An Overview of Issues for Further Liberalization of Trade in Services, The Hague: Kluwer Law International.

  • WTO. (2005) Initial and Revised Offers. A Factual Assessment of the Sate of Play, Geneva: Council of Trade in Services-WTO.

  • Zhang, C. (2003) Transnational Higher Education in China: Why Has the State Encouraged its Development? School of Education-University of Stanford, Retrieved from www.stanford.edu/dept/SUSE/ICE/monographs/Zhang.pdf, 01 November 2006.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AMIDSt-Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, Amsterdam, 1018 VZ, The Netherlands

    Antoni Verger

Authors
  1. Antoni Verger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Verger, A. GATS and Higher Education: State of Play of the Liberalization Commitments. High Educ Policy 22, 225–244 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2008.28

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2008.28

Keywords

Search

Navigation