Higher education: a public good or a commodity for trade?

Conventionally, higher education is regarded as a public good, benefiting not only the individuals but also the whole society by producing a wide variety of externalities or social benefits. Of late, however, the chronic shortage of public funds for higher education, the widespread introduction of neo-liberal economic policies and globalization in every country and in every sector, and the heralding of the international law on trade in services by the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Trade and Services—all tend to challenge the long-cherished, well-established view of many that higher education is a public good, and to propose and legitimize the sale and purchase of higher education, as if it is a normal commodity meant for trade. The very shift in perception on the nature of higher education from a public good to a private good—a commodity that can be traded—will have serious implications. The paper describes the nature of the shift from viewing higher education as a public good to a private, tradable commodity and its dangerous implications.

WTO与图书情报业及国际图联的立场

《服务领域贸易总协定》(GATS)和《与贸易有关的知识产权协议》(TRIPS)使图书情报业的地位、生存和发展产生问题。我国图书情报界应根据国际图联的立场 ,对入世后面临的诸多问题进行研究。参考文献 6。     

GATS法境下中国教育服务业的法律问题及其思考

从GATS对"教育服务"的规定来看,其立意是促使各成员国改革限制性的法律、法规,以实现GATS的基本原则及各国承诺.该问题在我国显得十分突出.中国的相关法律规定在体制、调整范围划分、可操作性和透明度上都有诸多与GATS不一致之处.对于一些新兴的教育服务提供方式更是存在大量法律漏洞.     

Measuring educational liberalisation. A global analysis of GATS

In this article, we examine the process of trade liberalisation of educational services in the framework of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Specifically, we analyse the factors that influence the undertaking of commitments on educational liberalisation by the member countries of the WTO. The text is divided into three parts. In the first, we examine in detail the methodology of GATS negotiation. Second, in order to measure the degree of liberalisation of educational services in the countries we construct an index called EduGATS. Finally, we review and analyse the commitments on liberalisation consolidated by member countries in terms of educational services. The sources of the primary data are the lists of commitments on services of the members of the WTO, interviews with delegations from member countries, documents on the position of various delegations and documents from the WTO Council for Trade in Services.     

WTO金融服务贸易法律制度研究

本文从国际金融服务贸易壁垒的研究着手,论述了WTO金融服务贸易的法律框架,重点阐述了WTO金融服务贸易的基本法律原则,其中又重点对GATS的国民待遇原则、市场准入和最惠国待遇原则作了研究。