In December 2000, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) publicly released its initial negotiating proposal to remove barriers to trade in higher education services to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This study explored the specific details of the GATS and examined the perceptions and opinions of the American higher education community and the federal government representatives most invested in the outcomes of the on-going GATS negotiations regarding higher education.
This study involved qualitative research--document analysis, historical research, and interviews with government officials and representatives of the higher education 'industry'--culminating in a study of how American higher education responded to the potential liberalization of trade in higher education services through the GATS. The theory of the commodification of higher education--that higher education is increasingly being treated as a commercial product--emerged from the data as an explanation for both the USTR's decision to include higher education in a major trade agreement, as well as the widespread negative reaction of the higher education industry to free trade in higher education services.
The study revealed that American higher education was initially unprepared for the challenges of addressing trade concerns, leaving the USTR to take its cues about higher education from an organization without representative input from the broad higher education community. It also exposed and examined the many serious concerns the higher education industry had, ranging from challenges to quality assurance standards to the rising influence of the for-profit sector to the blurring lines between public and private higher education. A particularly noteworthy observation was that just a few well-positioned individuals have been affecting broad international policy formation in regards to this issue. This research highlighted international trade as an important and relatively unexamined area in which globalization has impacted higher education in the United States and informed the nascent debate about the implications of international trade for American higher education.
