Eddy Haryanto, PhD

 The General Agreement on Trade in Services

(GATS) is one of the principal treaties of the
World Trade Organization (WTO).
 The system of rules of the
GATS
pushes for the progressive
liberalization of education all over
the world and for the constitution of a new
international regime on trade in education.
 Since the 1990s, research on ‘globalization’ has
been strongly present in the field of education
sciences.
 Its main ontological assumption is that the
world capitalist economy is the
driving force of globalization and the
first causal source of multiple
transformations manifested in different
policy areas, including education.
 The politics of education refer to the
educational agenda and the
processes and structures through which this
agenda is created (Dale, 1994). In a more
globalized environment, the politics of
education level of analysis entails
understanding education problems and
systems as embedded within a complex
local, national and global political
economy (Novelli and Lopes-Cardozo 2008).
 Global structures contribute, more
and more, to our understanding of a broad
range of education events and changes that
emerge at the national and local levels.
 Imposition is activated when external
actors, such as international
organizations or powerful states, compel
some countries to take on particular
education policies (the classic example
being the conditionality to credit of the World
Bank, the IMF and other aid agencies to
borrower countries);
 Harmonization is realized when a set of
countries mutually agree on the
implementation of common policies in a
certain policy area (e.g., the configuration of
the European Space for Higher Education);
 Dissemination is activated when an
international organization uses persuasion and
its technical knowledge to convince
countries on the implementation of certain
policies (e.g., through annual reports, best
practices data-bases and technical assistance).
 Standardization occurs when the
international community defines and
promotes the adhesion to a set of
policy principles and standards that
frame the countries’ behavior (e.g.,
international performance tests, such as the
PISA, contribute to the standardization of
curricular content at the global level); and
 Installing interdependence occurs
when countries agree to achieve common
objectives to tackle problems that
require international cooperation (e.g.,
climate change, ‘education for all’).
 Foreign universities in malaysia
 Swinburne University (Australia)
 Shanghai Jiantong University (China)
 Heriot watt university (UK)
 Curtin university (Australia)
 Newcastle university of medicine (UK)
 Monash university (Australia)
 University of Nottingham (UK)
 University of Southamton (UK)
 Xiamen University (China)
 Raffles university (Singapore)
 University of Reading (UK)
 “People shouldn’t be
worried that they will steal
students from Thai
universities, because the
courses will be for different
target groups”
 “Thaiuniversities
should not fear more
competition as this
policy will benefit
higher education in the
long run”
 “Thai universities should not think
that overseas institutions will put
them in danger of shutting down;
instead they should consider how to
partner with world-leading
universities to help Thailand’s
academic cycle”
 “It’s
like having football
players like Messi, Ronaldo or
beckham playing in the Thai
Premier League , our local
players will be able to learn
from the best in the world.
 University of London
 Carnegie Mellon University (US,
Ranked 24th) according to Times
Higher Education
 National Taiwan University
(Ranked 198th )
 RMIT (Australia)
 “The opening of foreign-owned public learning
institutions in Vietnam marks a paradigm
shift in the country’s policies towards
education. With the world’s eye on Vietnam as
an emerging economy, it is sure to continue to
attract foreign interests.”
 Law No 12 of 2012 on Higher Education
facilitates foreign universities to operate in
Indonesia.
 Among the specified requirements to be met by
those universities are teaching courses on the
Pancasila state ideology, Constitution of 1945,
religions, and Bahasa Indonesia.
 The regulations also encompass a mandatory
partnership with local private
universities. In addition, the only majors
they are allowed to offer are in the fields of
science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics.
 “Do not consider this as a new colonialism…
the point is about collaboration”