A study of tertiary education and shifts in global mobile students

Abstract

Globalization has impacted almost every aspect of human life. It has manifested itself in the form of internationalization in the field of higher education. Before the winds of globalisation blew over the global economy, there were a few nationsl which were exporting higher education to a wide range of nationals across the globe. Today both the numbers and stakes have gone up in attracting and retaining mobile students. Globalization is a multiface3ted process with economic, social political and cultural implications for higher education. It poses new challenges at a time when nation-states are no longer the sole providers of higher education. Global trade negotiations were restricted to goods only for a pretty long time. However, with ever increasing contribution of services in the share of GDP, GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) was introduced in WTO, GATS include trade in educational services as agreed to and committed by member countries. Since India had proved it's strength in IT sector, it was thought that the nation had a huge scope and potential to export higher education. However, there have been very few changes in the ranking and composition of countries leading in the export of higher education. This paper tries to portray the developed nations which are global leaders in the export of higher education. An attempt is made to understand the broad reasons for their success in achieving and sustaining leadership position for a fairly lonng period of time. The focus of the study is on the type of shifts that are taking place in the global mobility of students and their enrolments.