Education is commodity in educational market!?

"Education has always been a commodity: It has always been possible for those with money to purchase education or instruction for themselves, their children or their protégés. For centuries, royalty and other landed families have regularly employed tutors to educate their children, as did wealthy Ancients before" (Kaye et al., 2006, p.87). Yet, it is not until the mass education taking shape and the establishment of commodity and market economies do the consumerism and commodification of education--particularly of higher education--gain so much extent as well as controversies.

Discussions on the nature of education have encouraged multiple providers to enter the education market, which lead to an increase in private financial investment in education. A market is where providers of a good and service meet those who wish to acquire that good or service (Adnett & Davies, 2002, p.6). Accordingly, an education market is where providers of educational goods and services meet those who wish to acquire that good or service. The ultimate function of an educational system is to create an environment which induces people to make socially optimal investment decisions. According to Mok (2001, p.90), the adoption of market-oriented approach in running education would yield the following consequences:

• Adoption of the fee-paying principle in education

• Reduction in state provision, subsidy and regulation

• Popularity of revenue-generating activities

• Market-driven courses and curricula

• Emphasis on parental choice

• Managerial approach in educational administration and management.

These forms of marketization or consequences of marketization in education are assumed to make educational services more efficient and effective, and to

yield a profit at the same time.

Following the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization 1995, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)83 _{also take education as a}

profit opportunity, and European Union (EU) has added higher education as consumption abroad in its ratification of GATS (Kaye, Tim et al., 2006). In May 2000, the event “World Education Market” attracted 3000 participants, 100 speakers, and 458 exhibits. This conference described the education a new industry within the global marketplace (Molnar, 2006, p.23). The marketplace for trade in education services is big, diverse, innovative and growing fast (Sauve, 2001, p.12). It will almost certainly continue to grow as societies place an increased premium on human capital enhancement as a source of development and as means of better equipping individuals and societies to confront (ibid., p.4).

At this market, education is for sale--it is a commodity to be bought and sold. Altbach (2002) concludes that education and knowledge are international commodities, for some private revenues of higher education are obviously economically easily computable, such as enhanced income, protection against unemployment, etc. and the higher education supply and demand is going international and global. The commodity nature of education has also been confirmed by the United Nations Provisional Central Product Classification in which class 925 is "Tertiary education services" (UN, 200684_{), see table 3-3.}

83 _{General Agreement on Trade in Services. The GATS consists of 3 core components.}

The first is a framework of rules that lays out the general obligations governing trade in services, which it does in much the same way as the GATT does for trade in goods. It provides for disciplines on transparency (of considerable importance given the regulatory density of services trade), most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment, market access, and national treatment. The framework is still incomplete and rule-making efforts on certain issues, such as emergency safeguards, subsidies, government procurement and on domestic regulation, are still underway. Second, it includes annexes on specific services sectors (air transport, financial services, maritime transport, and telecommunications) as well as the movement of natural persons. The third element consists of the schedules of commitments detailing the liberalization commitments of each WTO member.

Table 3-3 United Nations Provisional Central Product Classification (CPC) Version 1.1, Division 92 Education services

Group Class Subclas s

Title

921 Pre-primary education services

9210 92100 Pre-primary education services

922 Primary education services

9221 92200 Preschool education services

923 Secondary education services

9231 92310 Lower secondary education services, general 9232 92320 Lower secondary education services, technical and

vocational

9233 92330 Upper secondary education services, general 9234 92340 Upper secondary education services, technical and

vocational

924 Post-secondary non-tertiary education services 9241 92410 Post-secondary non-tertiary education services,

general

9242 92420 Post-secondary non-tertiary education service, technical and vocational

925 Tertiary education services

9251 92510 First stage tertiary education services 9252 92520 Second stage tertiary education services

929 Other education and training services and

educational support services

9291 Other education and training services 92911 Cultural education services

92919 Other education and training services, n.e.c. 9292 92920 Educational support services

Education as a commodity means that educational products are offered by competitive providers, that educational services are priced, and that the access to them relies on consumer’s calculations and their purchasing ability. . The products and services of schooling are the skills and knowledge acquired, symbolized to some degree by degrees, certificates, or diplomas. Scholars who consider educational service products and activities as commodities maintain that the existence of the education marketplace is buildt upon the exchange between educational service products and other sectors during the process of educational consumption. "And since money is the ultimate arbiter of the value of any given commodity, then education becomes a precious commodity in terms of its perchasing power" (Craig, 2000, p.20). Jin (1999) explains that the commodity nature of educational products involve services instead of material objects and these services thereby increases the the skill set of the buyer, as well as provide revenue for the seller. As a result, educational provision becomes a market, in which educational institutions tend to restructure in accordance with business principles and practices, and market their academic product in the commercial world. That is why ISO 9000 standards in the international exchange of goods and services have been suggested for wgobal adoption, because they serve as ways of the certification for the delivery of intellectual commodities. Total quality management (TQM), featuring participative management, customer needs analysis, has also been applied to education.

As Cooper illustrates, higher education in the UK is enhanced by the commodification of learning, and by the concept that higher education is operating within a competitive marketplace, refelcted in the price and reputation of the service provider as well as other factors (2007). The same

can also be said in India, in Australian, and in USA (Popli, 2005; Coates, 2005; Thacker, 2005).

However, as Aliff (1998) points out, mis-comprehension and mis-application of TQM and other market-driven business metaphors can have negative consequences:

� the tendency to regard students as passive recipients of a commodity rather than active learners;

� the potential that faculty will pander to students' desires for material that is instantaneously stimulating and ready to understand;

� the disappearance of the "Socratic Method" in instruction--teaching through questioning and confrontation;

� confusion and conflict regarding students' "wants" and "needs"--immature students will have too much influence in determining the content and methods of instruction delivery;

� the diminishing of the value of professional expertise in surrender to an anti-authoritarian consumerism

� Conflict between the roles of students as "internal customers" and as "internal and external products"--as empowered internal customers, students may effect the decline of their value as internal products passed to a higher level of study, or as external products passed to an employer

� the decline of specific scholarship areas, or the disciplined discovery and reinterpretation of knowledge that have little commercial value

� the potential death of liberal arts education (p.4)

Right now, some influential national and regional authorities have taken a critical stand towards the trade in educational services and GATS, for instance: the European University Association (EUA), the National Union of Students in Europe (ESIB), and American university organizations (Nyborg, 2003).