Knowledge and Education as International Commodities: The Collapse of the Common Good

Globalization is a central part of higher education in the 21st century. it creates many opportunities, but also is a challenge especially for universities in developing countries. Globalization has many elements of inequality. These include the worldwide role of English, which creates some disadvantages to countries that do not use English as their language of instruction, the ownership of knowledge products such as databases, and the domination of exchange and other linkage programs by the universities in the North. The WTO and the current debates about the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a symbol of the complexity of globalization. GATS seeks to open up markets in higher education worldwide, but at the same time, it will make it difficult for countries to retain control over many of their higher education decisions.