Higher Education in Wto Regime

1. Introduction         

When there was no university elsewhere in the Europe Takshasila, Vikramshila, Pallavi, and Nalanda were the centers of Global Education and attracting learners from all around the globe. The development of modern day education in India started with the establishment of Hindu College in Calcutta in 1817. In the course of British reign, Calcutta University was the first to confer the bachelor degree on women in 1883.

After independence various universities have been opened both by the government as well as private sector. The primary motive behind opening these universities were not to earn profit but to serve the society by imparting higher education and conducting researches related to pure and social sciences. The fees charged from the students were minimum, hence these institutions were generating deficit so there was a need to go for the donations and aids to cover its fixed and running expenses. But gradually there was a drastic change in the scene .The education sector emerges as 1 of the most profitable business chance. The boost in the number of private schools and institutions supports the reality. Greater education is not an exception to this. Gradually most of the corporate entities have also entered into the picture.

2. Corporatisation of Greater Education

Now a days education sector is a trillion dollar business. It is a service sector business in the region of education as service with a huge global market in which students, teachers and non- teaching employee constitute resources for profit generation. So the concepts of advertising are also applicable. The organizations have to marketplace their item and themselves in order to survive. In this industry the students are the buyers, the teachers are the service providers and the institutions are organizers or marketers and teaching-studying procedure is no longer for the creating of a nation but a business for profit generating. Education at all levels, will continue to grow, simply because it cultivates the human mind and makes folks critical and helpful in the all round development of a country, nonetheless for the corporate sector it will grow as a large service business. Predatory and powerful MNCs are targeting public education, particularly higher education, for profit- generating. Though predominantly a government supported service most governments are as consequences of neo-liberal economic reforms, withdrawing from it. The government of India by means of extensive privatization, commercialization and deregulation is encouraging this method.

3.  Education under GATS umbrella

In 1996, the United States supplied exports of education and training services had reached 8.2 billion dollars, and its trade surplus in education amounted to 7 billion dollars. Greater education was the fifth largest service exported by the US. As a result, the pressure of the United States on WTO member countries in relation to trade in education service is clearly understandable.

The US, the European Union (EU), Japan and Canada are the main powers behind the GATS. Though WTO membership consists of nation states, the transnational corporations of these countries that sit on all the critical “advisory” committees and figure out detailed policy shape its agenda. While denying access to decent healthcare, education housing and lengthy term care to millions of workers and their families the world over, the agreement will confer ever greater political power on these corporations as they control and dictate public policy.

GATS have two components: (i) the framework agreement containing 29 articles, and (ii) a number of Annexes, Ministerial decisions etc. as well as the schedules of commitments by every member government, which bind them to allow market access, and /or remove existing restrictions to marketplace access. This agreement covers all services, which includes education 

When the services are entirely supplied by the government, they do not fall within the GATS rule. For a service to be out of the purview of the GATS rule it has to be entirely no cost. Nevertheless, when the service have been supplied either by the government partially or some prices are charged (as occurs in education where some fees is charged) , or supplied by the private providers , they shall fall under the GATS rule.

The informal WTO classification List (W/120) divides educational services into five parts: (a) Main education (b) secondary education (c) higher education (d) adult education (e) other education.

The idea behind this is the creation of an open, global marketplace where services like education can be traded to the highest bidder. GATS cover the educational services of all the countries whose educational program are not exclusively provided by the public sector, or those educational systems that have commercial purposes. In India, we cannot get exemption in education from the application of GATS due to the fact education at all levels, especially at higher education level is not entirely free (i.e. some fees has to be paid)

Corporate due to the fact of their huge financial resources are able to attract the very best talent obtainable in the country and hence they are providing the quality service to their buyers (students). They have the access to the new sources of finances .In India also the issuing of shares by the schools and educational institution and its trading in the stock exchange will be a reality. Then the top quality of the institute might be judged by looking at the share costs in the stock marketplace and like any other organization enterprises the wealth maximization will be the main objective of the institute and their whole effort will be to increase their market share and ultimately to improve the marketplace capitalization. The government is decreasing the grants given to the universities and colleges and these institutes are asked to arrange their own sources of finance .In that scenario those educational institution who will not be earning surplus will die like any other seek industrial unit. So it is the high time for those institutes to feel for earning surplus and make themselves competitive for survival.

But when these institutions will be running on completely business principles for earning profit obviously the fees charged from the students will be higher. The application of some unethical and unfair practices for attracting the students and earning higher profit cannot be overlooked in that scenario.

four. Indian reality

In a country like India where a big section of our population is living below the poverty line, virtually 35% of the population is still illiterate and we are talking about removing poverty and illiteracy, in that situation they will be the most mistreated people. So it is the government and its institutions, which will have to look at this aspect. Hence imparting higher education by charging high fees by the government run universities and college will not be desirable and the government has to look at the welfare aspect of its folks. But prior to coming to any conclusion we have to take into account the following two ground and tough realities in this respect: -

1.      India becoming the member country of WTO, must abide by the decisions and regulations of WTO. So it can not quit the foreign universities and institutes to operate in India, which are having ample monetary, physical and intellectual resources and are running on absolutely enterprise principles for earning profit.

2.      The government of India is decreasing the grants and aids given to the government universities and colleges and these institutes are referred to as to mobilize resources from their internal sources as well as external sources. They are also asked by the UGC and NAAC to become much more competitive.

So it is the time as well as the chance for our Government funded institutions/universities/colleges to make themselves competitive and to go for globalization. This can be only feasible when they will stand on their own feet by earning surplus and are successfully and efficiently run. But at the identical time we have to think for the weaker sections of the society who could not afford a high expenditure on the study.

Therefore it is extremely high time for educational institutes to develop a business model, which will be able to compete with the foreign universities and also the weaker sections of the society will also be taken care of.

five. The model of Arvindo Eye Hospital, Madurai

The Arvindo Eye Hospital of Madurai has set an outstanding company model showing how an organisation can serve the society at huge on one hand and can also earn profitable surplus on the other hand. At Arvindo Eye Hospital, economically poor folks are supplied treatment at free of charge of price and the patients who can afford are charged the requisite treatment charges. Much more than two-third of the patients treated in the hospital fall under the former economically unprivileged category and yet he hospital earns substantial profits. But a remarkable policy to be noticed is that the service provided to both categories of rich and poor patients are exactly same and no compromise of any sort is carried out with regard to the good quality of treatment and service supplied. The secret behind the success of the hospital is the volume of patients giving organization and fact that hospital does not invest funds on conspicuous consumptions. Promotion is by way of word of mouth and mass print media.

Similar model can be adopted by our government run and universities, whereby the necessary fees can be charged from students whose parents can afford the identical, and concessions to be supplied to the economically deprived students. With the globalization, liberation, privatization and economic growth far more and far more individuals are locating occupations in private sector leading to an enhance in the buying power at the hands of the middle and upper class of the society who has become conscious of and can afford high quality education at higher prices. This is a positive factor which the universities can money upon and which further supports the above model.

Notes and References

1.      http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/news23/text001.htm

2.      Www.education. nic.in/htmlweb/iperposch.htm

three.      Www.pd.cpim.org/2002/feb17/02172002_wto_educ_2.htm_2000

four.      A Case study on Arbind Eye Hospital, Madurai, IIMB Review, September,2005.

five.      Kumar R World Trade Organisation, Structure, Functions, Tasks, Challenges, Deep and Deep Publications, 2004.