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International trade in educational services has grown substantially over the past decades. Now it is a billion dollar industry including recruitment of international students, establishment of university campuses abroad, franchised provision and on line education. WTO [World Trade Organization] requires each member nation to make its own schedule of commitments in education services, and to explain its limitations on market access and national treatment as well as other limitations. In the schedules of commitments, commitments are split into two sections: First, "horizontal" commitments which stipulate limitations that apply to all of the sectors included in the schedule; these often refer to a particular mode of supply, notably commercial presence and the presence of natural persons. Any evaluation of sector-specific commitments must therefore take the horizontal entries into account. Second, specific commitments which apply to trade in services in a particular sector or subsector are listed. This paper examines China's commitments in education services under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It provides rough pictures about the impact of China's commitments on its education services.

This paper examines the impact of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) on transnational higher education in four countries: New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. The GATS is a multilateral agreement through which WTO members commit to voluntary liberalisation of trade in services, including education. Transnational (or offshore) education refers to education that is delivered by an institution based in one country to students located in a different country. Two of the countries considered, New Zealand and Australia, have made commitments under GATS to allow relatively unrestricted cross-border provision of education in their countries, while the other two countries, Singapore and Malaysia, have made no such commitment. There is currently considerable activity in renegotiating countries' commitments to GATS as part of the Doha round of WTO negotiations, and simultaneously bilateral free trade agreements are being proposed between countries in the region. In this context, this paper examines the practical impact that GATS has had on these two countries that have made commitments regarding education, and the likely impact that similar commitments by Malaysia and Singapore would have on the tertiary education systems in those major importing countries. (Contains 1 note.)

The geography of trade in services is becoming increasingly important for a developing country such as Malaysia. But, present discussion on trade in education services, in particular, higher education and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in Malaysia is rather limited and takes a short-term perspective. This is especially so with respect to the analysis of the impact of the GATS negotiations on the Malaysian higher education system. This article discusses Malaysia's current negotiating position insofar as trade in higher education services is concerned. Malaysia's prospects of gaining from trade in higher education services are analyzed. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

International trade in higher education services is one of the fastest growing tradable service sectors globally. Apart from the positive externalities international students create through knowledge mobility and spill-over, campus diversity, and local community development participation, spending by international students in the host city and immediate surroundings add significantly to local economic growth. The aim of this article is to show, firstly, the relative strong growth of South Africa's higher education exports vis-a-vis other countries. We also find that South Africa has a strong comparative advantage in exporting higher education services. Secondly, we use a pilot questionnaire conducted in 2009 at Stellenbosch University to estimate the economic impact of these students on the local economy. We find that international students contribute between R159 million and R172 million per semester to the local economy, in addition to the positive--but largely unquantifiable--externalities they create. (Contains 12 tables.)

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization has generated an intense and passionate debate about the relationship between free-trade and education and, specifically, about the effects of trade liberalization in national education systems. This article explores in detail this debate from a critical discourse and semiotic approach. Its objective is two-fold. First, it aims at identifying and systematizing the core axes of the debate, as well as at confronting ideas within each of the axes. Second, it aims at explaining how and why the agreement has generated such an intense and polarized discussion in the educational field by, among other analytical strategies, appealing to the broader institutional and ideational contexts in which the debate is inscribed. Arguments are based on observation in public debates on GATS and education and a corpus of 86 texts on the topic coming from different sources including academic journals, conference proceedings, policy reports and newsletters of international and civil society organizations. (Contains 7 notes.)

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. (Contains 5 tables, 8 figures and 4 notes.)

In this article, we examine the process of trade liberalisation of educational services in the framework of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Specifically, we analyse the factors that influence the undertaking of commitments on educational liberalisation by the member countries of the WTO. The text is divided into three parts. In the first, we examine in detail the methodology of GATS negotiation. Second, in order to measure the degree of liberalisation of educational services in the countries we construct an index called "EduGATS." Finally, we review and analyse the commitments on liberalisation consolidated by member countries in terms of educational services. The sources of the primary data are the lists of commitments on services of the members of the WTO, interviews with delegations from member countries, documents on the position of various delegations and documents from the WTO Council for Trade in Services. (Contains 1 table, 8 figures and 32 notes.)

This paper looks at the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as an important part of the international trade law system and explores if and how it affects the steering capacity of a nation state regarding higher education. It offers a new conceptual framework to look on the impact of GATS on higher education within its increasingly complex environment by distinguishing between the "static" dimension (GATS' rules and disciplines) and the "dynamic" dimension (stakeholders' standpoints, views and actions). Furthermore, by comparing two case studies conducted in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, it connects the theoretical framework on GATS and the steering capacity of a nation state with specific national conditions and complements case studies that have been so far carried out in other countries. We concluded that neither through the static dimension nor through the dynamic, was the steering capacity in the two cases affected directly: nation states remain the prime actors regarding higher education. Nevertheless, exercising their power over higher education has become more complex and nation states must take more consequences of their internal policy choices into account, which may be difficult to predict. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

Throughout much of the world higher education has been subject to scrutiny, including for example cost, outcomes, stakeholder value, and change. The intensity of the scrutiny and the possible consequences in terms of change have accelerated as a result of 2009 being the year of financial turbulence and scarce resources being used to prop up failing industries such as the automobile industry, compounded by measures such as quantitative easing and huge amounts being made available to the banking sector. This article looks at the different contexts and legal frameworks regarding change being required as a result of legislation rather than happening through some organic way. The article does not focus on the merits of possible change but on how change may be brought about. The European context is that of the Bologna Process (with a brief reminder of the European Union's competency in this area), the US context is that of change at national, regional or state level but with the primary focus being national level change. (Contains 128 notes.)

The nation state is not helpless if it wishes to respond to the significant increase since the 1980s in the cross-border provision of higher education. In 2003, the General Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) nevertheless commissioned the development of practices and principles to further regulate cross-border provision of higher education. These were published in late 2005. UNESCO argues that any risks to students and others of "poor quality" cross-border provision of higher education must be addressed. Even if it can be shown, however, that certain risks accompany trade in higher education services, this does not, in and of itself, justify the regulatory response suggested by the Guidelines for Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education, or any other response. This article argues that the guidelines have been defined without any consideration of the potential net benefits, which could be negative, associated with their implementation. Several important implications and limitations of the guidelines are also explored.

Through successive rounds of negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) encourages countries to commit their higher education system to the mandates of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The WTO is an organization committed to the aggressive trade liberalization of services like higher education. This ideology, known as neoliberalism (Apple, 2005) is redefining the role of higher education. Through critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003), three genres of documents have been analyzed in search of the ideology and power relations imbedded in the texts. These genres include informational documents, the legal text of GATS, and proposals from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan calling for the reduction of trade barriers in higher education. The relationship between the developed countries who are calling for a reduction in trade barriers and developing countries who are struggling to provide public education could be further strained through an international set of trade rules like GATS. Language and text can create, shift, or maintain ideologies. In the case of GATS, the ideology reflects a new imperialism where more powerful countries retain developing countries as markets in which they continue to rule intellectually.

While there have been numerous discussions of the impact on educational services made by trade liberalization through the World Trade Organization (WTO), this study looks at the emergence of global resistance to the commodification of culture through the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) within the WTO. In line with the Council of Europe Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2000 and the UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2001, a global movement has been fighting for a legally binding global convention on cultural diversity under the auspices of UNESCO. The author examines how "cultural diversity" is defined by various groups and nations. She also discusses the potential implications of such a global convention on cultural diversity for "cognitive justice", that is, for affirming the validity of diverse knowledge systems over against the dominance of neoliberal ideology. Finally, she argues that the leading definition of cultural diversity, contrary to its stated intention, actually serves to re-assert the cultural hegemony of the North rather than benefit subjugated knowledges of the South.

This article focuses on economic analysis of privatisation policies and postprivatisation control devices in India's higher education. As a case study, the experiences of Karnataka State in collegiate education under general higher education are emphasised. A change in public financing, rather than a shift of public ownership and management to private sector, is the most dominant feature of privatisation policies. The impact of privatisation is estimated in terms of fiscal effect, price effect, and effects on quality, equity, and affordability. To overcome the negative effects of privatisation policies, the need for postprivatisation control devices are argued, and a few policy devices are suggested. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development experiences in postprivatisation control devices for manufacturing and infrastructure privatisation are shown to have relevance for both privatisation and globalisation of higher education services, especially in view of bringing education services for negotiations under the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade in Services. (Contains 5 tables and 23 notes.)

The on going debate about the (World Trade Organisation) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) framework brings out conflicting views about cross-border education the world over. Between the enthusiastic views of trade promoters, at one end, and the sceptical reflections of academics with a traditional outlook, at the other, there are many different viewpoints. Academics who support the view that education should not be treated as a tradeable commodity argue that cross-border education should always have a revenue generation approach that would be to the disadvantage of developing countries. There are trade enthusiasts who are convinced that the commercialisation of higher education at the global level is unavoidable in the near future and that it is up to the countries to prepare themselves to benefit from the new opportunities of the global market. Sometimes strong criticism of these academics is based on false understandings. It is also true that the views of trade promoters might be equally wrong in some national contexts, based only on optimistic overestimations rather than on grounded realities. This paper explores these false understandings and overestimations that shape the arguments about cross-border education in the Indian context.

This review essay cum discussion paper outlines areas of concern with the underlying terms and conditions of the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education. The books that instigated this foray ( Barrell, 2001; Cuban, 2001; Maeroff, 2003) are representative of the field and represent inquiry and opinion that reflect uncritical and critical acceptance and implementation of ICT as both a curricular agenda and device. Each book lays tiles in the mosaic of discourse surrounding the inexorable and ubiquitous overlay of ICT in everyday life as germinated in classrooms for a variety of well-intentioned but often misguided and wrong-headed reasons. The hopes, dreams, and drama that form the core issues arise from a deeper "who's steering the boat?" tension. Does ICT serve education, or does education serve ICT? Because education is redefined as a means to social mobility and is connected to status, its commodification challenges the Deweyan notion of "education for the purpose of further education," and transforms it into the pursuit of more adept consumerism only attainable by degree. Promotion and policy development at all levels draw special attention to the increased earning power that further education brings, thus validating its worth. Other writers and thinkers have tweaked this particular aspect of commercialized learning, including Kehl (2004), Kohn (2004), Noble (1998), Nordkvelle and Olson (2005), and Postman (1985, 1993). Combining their perspectives in the context of global movement toward education as a trade in service, a culture of name-branding, competitive accreditation, knowledge ownership, and hegemonic determinism seems inevitable. The likely-to-be postponed signing of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) (due January 2005; see Kehl, 2004) will temporarily defer the commercialism of higher education, but will not draw much attention nor encourage further debate in the to-ing and fro-ing on the meeting grounds of cross-cultural credentialism and the commodification of teaching and learning unless alarm bells are rung.

This article starts by putting the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) into a general context of privatisation. It is noted that the privatisation process is in many cases complex and not only about full-scale privatisation of schools. The growing trade in education must be seen in this context. GATS is not an agreement which deals with educational issues from a political or educational perspective, but from a commercial and trade perspective. The purpose of GATS is to liberalise trade in services, which also includes education. Commitments made in GATS negotiations are difficult to withdraw and the protection of commercial interests which GATS provides is stronger than the protection of human rights, in, for example, the Convention of the Right of the Child. The protection given in GATS to public services, including public education, is ambiguous at best and in many cases open to interpretation by Trade Dispute Panels. It can be assumed that such panels will deal with some educational matters in future. Another risk for the future is that governments will use GATS as an excuse for deregulation and privatisation within the education sector. There is also a risk that education will become part of a general negotiation game where governments may have to open up the education market in their own countries in order to get access to other markets and that education policies will increasingly be decided by trade ministers instead of education ministers. The international trade union movement, including Education International, has been critical of GATS and has raised a number of issues. Also, there is a growing concern about GATS among national teacher unions. Many teacher unions have taken different initiatives: produced information material; established a dialogue with governments; and built broader coalitions with other trade unions, student organisations, etc. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 1 note.)

Addresses the growing demand for access to higher education and the conditions under which this is leading to a worldwide market through transnational education and the export of educational services. Discusses extension of the General Agreement on Trade in Services to higher education, and the adequacy of Europe's Bologna Process as a response to these global developments. (EV)

Describes Australia's role in promoting educational trade liberalization through the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services. The Australian government is pursuing a diversified approach to educational trade promotion, which includes building confidence in international quality assurance mechanisms and demonstrating the benefits of trade-driven internationalization to importing countries. (EV)

The General Agreement on Trade in Services gives priority to international commercial interests, and unless this trend is countered, public policy authority for education will shift to the World Trade Organization. While the Canadian government has stated that public education systems are not negotiable, the exclusion provisions it bases that statement on are weak and undefined. (TD)

Analyzes potential effects of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) on the orientation and control of national education systems. Explains concepts of space, scale, and territorialization in relation to critical shifts in GATS's activity in education. Suggests that rescaling aspects of educational governance to the global level will pose considerable problems for national states, related to diminished state authority and lack of global mechanisms of accountability. (SV)

Analyzes the challenges and opportunities that international trade in educational services represents for higher education systems in industrialized and developing countries and shows the importance of international quality assurance in education. Makes the case that the lifelong learning sector is most likely to be affected by developments related to international trade in educational services. (SLD)

Addresses some of the public policy controversies surrounding the treatment of education services under the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Describes the core features of GATS, highlighting how the four modes of supplying services relate to trade in education services and discusses the limited role GATS may play as a force for change in education. (SLD)

Discusses whether universities need the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization, and concludes that they do not at present. Many questions remain to be answered before GATS should be applied to trade in education services. (SLD)

One of the most dramatic developments within higher education in recent years has been the rapid expansion of the "international trade" in education services. Universities and colleges have, of course, always been international in scope. Students and faculty have for centuries crossed international borders as part of their academic pursuits. What characterizes the current environment, however, is not so much the international movement of students and faculty, though the sheer volume of this has increased. Rather, it is the increasingly market-oriented delivery of higher education and the prominent role played by for-profit providers offering services directly across borders. The aggressive recruitment of full fee-paying international students by universities, the commercial explosion in borderless e-learning, the franchising of offshore schools and campuses, and the sale of course material overseas are all features of an emerging multi-billion dollar trade in higher education. To date, trade in education has been much more difficult to regulate and codify than trade in widgets or wheat. Nevertheless, efforts are now being made to do precisely this--to develop rules governing the international trade in education services. This is occurring through negotiations taking place within the World Trade Organization (WTO) to expand the scope and reach of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The outcome of these talks could have far-reaching consequences for institutions, students and teachers. This article discusses the GATS and its impact on higher education.

No longer are talented people with marketable skills restricted to their birth country. According to a recent article in the "Detroit News," U.S. companies are recruiting employees from overseas with strong science skills because they are in short supply. This article discusses the challenges and solutions for successfully exporting community college education globally through distance education.

Teachers' eyes glaze over when conversation turns to how international trade agreements might affect public education. Industry Canada says GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) will open up new markets in postsecondary education without damaging elementary/secondary education. MAI was deflected, but WTO agreements pose threats. (MLH)

As the United States and other member countries of the World Trade Organization continue negotiations on a new global-trade agreement in Geneva, about two dozen groups representing American colleges are beseeching U.S. officials to avoid making concessions that would threaten the autonomy of higher-education institutions. During the latest round of talks on the General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, U.S. officials have cited higher education as one of many services the United States is willing to make more accessible to other countries. The offer could make it easier for foreign students and instructors to enter the United States, or for foreign-based distance-learning institutions to offer courses to American students. The proposal is backed by for-profit higher-education institutions and testing companies in the United States that seek to grow internationally. They hope that in return for U.S. concessions, other member countries of the trade group will be more open to U.S.-based institutions' operating in their countries. But the American Council on Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation have written to Susan C. Schwab, the U.S. trade representative, saying that the offer could drive a wedge between private and public colleges, as well as undermine state regulations governing higher-education institutions. Twenty-one other college groups also signed the letter, including the Association of American Universities and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The groups are particularly assertive because they say the Bush administration is trying to use fast-track negotiating authority to push a trade deal through Congress.

ryptocurrencies are digital assets created using encryption techniques intended to serve as a means of exchange. Given their cross-border nature, it's important to consider their status within the international legal system. While many governments have recognised cryptocurrencies as money, others view them as assets that can be traded, like goods or services. Under certain conditions, they may also be treated as investments. This raises the question of how cryptocurrencies should be classified under international law of trade and foreign investment law. The hypothesis is that categorising cryptocurrencies as goods, services, or capital presents challenges in applying traditional international law of trade and foreign investment frameworks. The World Trade Organization, as the most critical component of the international trade regime, lacks explicit rules related to cryptocurrencies. Applying the principles of the national treatment and the most favoured nation within this framework to cryptocurrency-based transactions will encounter obstacles. One of the most significant challenges in classifying cryptocurrencies as foreign capital is determining whether these assets meet the requirements for such classification, regardless of their origin. If cryptocurrencies can be considered securities or telecommunications services, they may be included under the scope of the World Trade Organization's legal system. Additionally, investing in technology such as distributed ledger using cryptocurrencies, purchasing company shares with cryptocurrency, buying equipment for investment purposes, or acquiring AI tokens could all be examples of capital under general investment treaties.

The article is devoted to the assessment of the influence of Russia’s entry to WTO on the sphere of educational services. The author analyzes the specific commitments of the Russian Federation related to incurrence on the General Agreement on Trade in Services during the reform of education legislation. In particular, the rules of the Federal Law «On Education inthe Russian Federation», concerning the educational services, within the context of Russia’sinternational obligations are considered.