Global educational markets and global public goods Simon Marginson ANZCIES conference, 3 December 20

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• Global educational markets and global public
  goods Simon MarginsonANZCIES conference, 3
  December 2004, Melbourne

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Coverage of paper

• A global sociology of higher education (in
• pictures) which takes into account relationships
• of power, and examines
• the worldwide map of research capacity, and
• the mix of goods (benefits/ outcomes) of higher
  education, in terms of
• private goods and public goods
• national goods and global goods
• developed and developing nations

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Goods produced in higher education a Global
Matrix
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Top 500 research universities 2004 data compiled
by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of
Higher Education
others includes Denmark, Finland, Austria, Hong
Kong (each 5), Norway, Brazil, South Africa (each
4), Taiwan, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Hungary
(each 3), Singapore, Russia, Poland, Greece (each
2), Argentina, Mexico, Czech Republic, Chile,
Portugal (each 1) actually top 502 universities
due to tie for last place
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Top 100 research universities2004 data compiled
by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of
Higher Education
others Netherlands 2, Australia 2, Israel,
Finland, Austria, Norway, Russia, Italy each 1
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Global share of top 100 universities according to
national wealth, 2004
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Top 20 research universities 2004 data compiled
by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of
Higher Education
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Top 20 research universities 2004
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15 (3) of top 500 universities are in nations
with per capita GDP below world average (8200
p.a.)
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National research capacity compared to economic
capacity
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Public goods are not just goods produced in the
public sector

• Public goods are not simply goods produced by
• government/state/public sector
• Some public sector outputs are inaccessible,
  confined to a few individuals ( private
  benefits)
• Governments work via private sector agents to
  achieve collective ends, e.g. Catholic schools
• There is no global state. Does that mean all
  global goods are necessarily private trading
  goods? Can only nations produce public goods?

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Public and private goods in higher education

• Public goods are non-competitive goods
• non-rivalrous the goods can be consumed by any
  number of people without being depleted (e.g.
  mathematical knowledge), or
• non-excludable the benefits cannot be confined
  to individual buyers (e.g. social tolerance)
• Public goods are under-provided in markets
  individuals reluctant to pay for others benefits
• Private goods, both rivalrous and exclusive, are
  readily produced in market competition

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Public and private goods and educational
financing

• Higher education is not naturally private or
  public. Systems produce a mix of public and
  private goods. Balance is socially determined,
  affected by financing and system structure
• High tuition fees make high value places more
  exclusive, increasing the private benefits
• Even in high fee systems some non-rivalrous or
  non-exclusive goods are produced, but
• Public goods largely depend on public financing
  or non-commercial private sector (philanthropy)

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Goods produced in higher education a Global
Matrix
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Private goods in national higher education
systems

• Higher education creates private goods that
  provide individual advantage (career, status)
• These goods take the form of qualifications
  (credentials) plus access to networks
• These private goods are variously known as
  positional goods, cultural capital, access to
  social capital in theoretical literatures
• There is social competition for private goods
  whether or not tuition fees are charged

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Private goods are produced in a national
hierarchy of universities

• The most valuable private goods are in elite
  institutions and programs (e.g. Medicine)
• Students compete for places in top institutions,
  while universities compete for top students
• The status of universities derives from research
  reputation plus student selectivity/ exclusivity
• Institutions are ranked in a hierarchy (market)
  based on their positional value as producers of
  private educational goods
• Places/institutions can be more/less exclusive
  and university hierarchies more/less steep

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Typical national system segmentation
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Goods produced in higher education a Global
Matrix
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Global private goods in higher education

• Global private goods are degrees/ networking
  opportunities obtained by international students
• These are global positional goods, providing
  access to opportunities at home and abroad
  (status/ careers/ jobs/ migration/ etc.)
• Demand for and supply of global private goods is
  growing especially in English speaking nations
• There are 1.7 million international students.
  Half of them pay full cost fees on a commercial
  basis

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Exporters of tertiary education 2001 OECD data
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Importers of tertiary education in East, South
Southeast Asia2001 OECD data
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Student flows in the global higher education
environment
WESTERN EUROPE
AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA ASIA-PACIFIC (demand for
foreign study in China, Korea, Taiwan, SE
Asia, India, etc.)
UNITED STATES UK CANADA
JAPAN
AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND
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Principal student flows in the global environment
ASIA-PACIFIC (demand for foreign study in
China, Korea, Taiwan, SE Asia, India, etc.)
UNITED STATES UK
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Asian demand for global private goods will keep
on increasing

• Growth of economies and middle classes in China,
  India and Southeast Asia
• Most Asian nations have non ageing populations
• Massive concentrations of future demand for
  education in Asian mega-cities
• Unmet demand in some nations, e.g. China
• Benefits of global private goods regardless of
  domestic system. Willingness to invest privately

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Goods produced in higher education a Global
Matrix
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National public goods in higher education

• Public goods are non-competitive. They are
  non-rivalrous, and non-excludable, and so
  under-produced in markets. Public goods include
• externalities (positive effects of one persons
  education not confined to individual, e.g.
  training of one stimulates others productivity),
  and
• collective goods not captured by individuals
  (social access via equitable opportunities,
  examination systems, advances in literacy,
  cultural understanding, basic research)

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Goods produced in higher education a Global
Matrix
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Global public goods in higher education

• Global public goods are goods with elements of
  non-rivalry and/or non-excludability and broadly
  available across populations on a global scale.
  Global public goods include
• cross-border externalities (in higher education
  one nation augments capacity of another)
• global collective goods (common systems e.g.
  research, or recognition of qualifications)

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Examples of global public goods in higher
education

• Intensive cross-border networking increases the
  scope for global public goods, such as
• academic/research knowledge, and the global
  systems for circulating and codifying it
• student and academic exchange, facilitating
  mutual learning, openness and understanding
• systems and protocols in higher education for
  recognition, etc., that facilitate people and
  university mobility
• infrastructures and resources in higher education
  that assist government and cross-border
  production/trade
• As in ecology there are global public bads too
  (e.g. net brain drain, cultural subversion by
  foreign influences, less global diversity)

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But global public goods in higher education are
under-recognised

• Global public goods are under-recognised and so
  tend to be under-produced. There is no global
  state/ global public policy space - a
  discrepancy between a globalised world and
  national, separate units of policy-making (Kaul
  et al. Global Public Goods, 1999).
• In the developing world (Kaul et al. 2003)
  Whether and how - global public goods are
  provided determines whether globalisation is an
  opportunity or a threat

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Joining public/private national/ global to
global inequalities, we find

• Citizens of developed nations have better access
  to national and global public/private goods
• Developed nations produce more national public
  goods (e.g. access), and to unlock most global
  public goods requires research capacity
• Global public goods are English language-biased
• World market of elite USA/UK universities
  devalues private benefits of leading universities
  in LDCs
• Only a few people in LDCs can buy education in
  the global market (and those that do may not
  return)
• Decline of foreign aid hurts public goods in LDCs

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Figuring the global sociology of higher
education
World market of elite USA/UK universities
N1
N2
Other cross-border higher education e.g. in
Australia
N4
N3
N5
N1, N2, N3, etc. the various national higher
education systems, with internal hierarchies
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Global segmentation of higher education markets
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Unequal global flows between Asia-Pacific nations
and USA/UK
ASIA-PACIFIC (demand for foreign study in
China, Korea, Taiwan, SE Asia, India, etc.)
UNITED STATES UK
research contributions migrant professionals tuiti
on etc revenues
returning labour diasporic investments
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One-way global flows between LDNs and education
exporters
research contributions migrant professionals tuiti
on etc revenues
LEAST DEVELOPED NATIONS (e.g. Banagladesh,
sub-Saharan Africa)
UNITED STATES UK AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW
ZEALAND, WESTERN EUROPE
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Unequal global capital flows s million in 2001
data from OECD 2004
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Unequal global people flows of 1996 Science/
Engineering graduates still in USA in 2001 data
from OECD 2004
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Unequal global knowledge flowsnumber of
published papers in science and social science
1993-1997 World Bank data 2000
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American education hegemony the Yin Yan of
globalisation
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Towards a better global balance of educational
goods

• Globalisation opens new possibilities. It is
  asymmetrical, uni-directional, US ruled. But it
  is associated not just with social competition
  but with greater potential for public goods.
• One key to spreading the value of both private
  and public goods (e.g. to the LDCs) is better
  research capacity. Here foreign aid is crucial
• The evolution of national and global public goods
  would also be enhanced by
• National systems with lower financial/cultural
  barriers to access and flatter hierarchies of
  institutions
• More culturally plural research and knowledge
  exchange
• Multilateral protocols for coordination/
  recognition