Export Education and the Commercialisation of Public Education in New Zealand

Abstract

Public education in New Zealand has become a globally marketable commodity, with the “export education” industry becoming a major new area within the national economy. While many schools, both primary and secondary, have become financially dependent on the income derived from foreign fee-paying students, scant attention has been given to the educational outcomes of this commercialisation of the public education system. It is a trend that began in the early 1990s with the policies of decentralisation, marketisation and privatisation and has been accelerated under the influences of globalisation and the rise of the new knowledge-based economy. Thus, education has now become a billion dollar export industry. This extension of globalisation into the domain of education produces an agenda for educational reform that raises fundamental questions about the purposes of public education. To what extent, for instance, should global economic purposes have priority over those of citizenship and national identity? The article explores the nature of globalisation and examines the international marketisation of education and the effects of this rapidly growing trend on education in New Zealand, including the implications of the export education industry and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).