Universities between the State and the Market: Development Policy, Commercialization and Liberalization in Higher Education

Commissioned by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH), the present research report seeks to address a gap in international development policy as far as the higher education sector is concerned. This report can be seen as a ‘white paper’ grounded on a rights-based approach to higher education: it analyzes the state of the art of higher education globally while challenging widespread assumptions regarding its relationship to international development policy, liberalization, privatization and commercialization. The report is informed by the needs of students, academics and institutions as laid out in the World Declaration on Higher Education, The Bergen Declaration and other relevant documents.The report is developed in ve sections. Section 1 highlights the signi cance and salience of the topic. Section 2 locates the debate on higher education in a rights- based framework. Section 3 reviews the main debates and trends on higher education and international development from the 1990s to date for the purpose of identifying main processes, trends and actors. These trends and processes are grouped under two main categories – (1) globalization/internationalization and the rise of the knowledge- based economy discourse and (2) commercialization, commodi cation and global competitiveness. Section four critically analyzes current developments in the sector, exploring questions of expansion of access and increased enrolment, and ongoing challenges to the right to equal access to higher education. Section ve analyzes the emergence of a quality discourse at the global level and the proliferation of quality assurance mechanisms across a range of local contexts, and it speci cally focuses on preconditions and frameworks to increase quality in higher education. Some of the issues addressed in this report are empirically illustrated by speci c case-study analysis of higher education in Colombia, Kosovo, South Africa, and Zambia. The last section will sum up existing trends, critical developments and implications, and will put forth policy recommendations and research questions requiring further scrutiny.