Higher Education – A public Good or a Commercialised Affair

Higher education is rising as a good component in the global business Marketplace as more and more students Heading to abroad for searching and pursuing specialized courses in their field of interest

There is a rising and complicated debate that is about classifying the education as a Commercial affair or a public good that is a fundamental right to everyone. The evidences about Education (Especially Higher education) being a public affair and also a commercial affair are equal in numbers and also in impact.

In general, the universities and the academic communities would like to see higher education being viewed as a public good (like the traditional view of education as a fundamental right to every person).

Still, the prevailing argument in the World Trade Organization Secretariat is that higher education is now more as a ‘private consumption’ that directly benefits the consumer by ways of generating higher and sustainable income.

Universities from Latin American countries In April 2002, Portugal and Spain adopted a Declaration at the 3rd Summit of Iberian and Latin American Universities in Porto Alegre, Brazil according to which they declared education to be a ‘public good’ and they requested their governments to not to make any commitment on this issue within the framework of WTO.

However, the perception of higher education being more as a commercial service than a public good is gaining more acceptance overtime. The WTO Secretariat in September 1998 has mentioned that abiding the rapid changes in the framework and operations of higher education ‘education now exists also as a private consumption item that has a price determined freely by the institutions that provide it to the Desiring students’. They have stated As a result, that more and more paying students are attracted to these institutions including foreign students.

Thus, education is a public good or a commercialized affair is still debate without any determines and satisfying conclusion.

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