This article revisits the notion of difference used in global education, especially study abroad. It suggests a new framework for study abroad to counter its prevalent notions of immersion and global competence that are based on and perpetuate the static notion of difference among discrete units of 'culture'. I introduce the Commodity Project,…

This article discusses the impact of marketisation on the quality of research and education in Turkey and the USA based on the narratives of higher education scholars. It also compares the perception of Turkish and American scholars regarding the implications for Turkey and the USA. It is concluded that there is a link between marketisation and…

Performance-based accountability systems that rank schools based on their effectiveness produce 'winners' and 'losers'. Substantial evidence has pointed to the (side)effects of these classifications, particularly in the most disadvantaged communities. Whilst previous studies have compared schools under different effectiveness categories within and…

This paper analyses the approach to systemic educational reform in the Arabian states of the Gulf and the central role within that of the Global Education Industry (GEI). Initially the authors identify the commonalities of their approach; subsequently they compare the approaches in Bahrain and Qatar. They demonstrate how the GEI is embedded in all…

This paper presents empirical evidence on kindergarten admission preparation services in Hong Kong. Parents increasingly turn to tutoring companies for a range of services, such as social skills training, portfolio editing, mock interviews, and parental consultation. We used qualitative methods to capture the views of parents, teachers, tutors,…

School systems are shifting towards forms of post-bureaucratic governance (PBG), implying higher levels of school autonomy, choice, and performance-based management. Under this governance approach, which combines forms of administrative and market accountability, schools face greater levels of competition and external pressure to perform. Schools…

The metaphor of an 'education hub' was initially promoted as also a policy concept for reversing cross-border student flows to the West in both Malaysia and Singapore. The Singapore version of 'Asian education hub policy' represents a distinct economic policy model of higher education which has since also influenced the very Western contexts it…

In recent years, international development organisations have responded to concerns about the growth of private schooling in the global south by calling on governments to commit to quality public provision and effective regulation of the private sector. This paper draws on the case of India's experience with the Right to Education Act to consider…

This paper examines the impact of internationalisation on the professional identities of lecturers at three international universities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. Higher education in Southeast Asia faces significant pressures to change because of the potential dissonance between emerging forms of global competition between higher education…

The outsourcing of education services has been widely adopted across international contexts as a 'tested solution' or panacea to meet various educational problems including school management, curriculum design, teaching and student discipline. Contracting third-party providers, it is argued, enhances organisational goals such as efficiency,…

What are crucial determinants of a country's average educational performance? Using data from the OECD PISA 2012 study on 58 countries, we develop a typology of educational regimes based on marketisation in terms of school autonomy and accountability. Following organisational theories, we expect that school autonomy is an ideal condition for…

This article inquires into discourses of globalisation as they are put to use to accelerate higher education's seemingly ready acquiescence to the demands of the market. We maintain that globalisation operates as a way to reason about space that produces images and narratives of universities, knowledge and students. We focus our analysis on…

The year 1989 marked the official end of communist rule in Poland and the replacement of "Gosplan" by new instruments for liberal-democratic governance. In terms of the economy this heralded a departure from Gosplan's five-year planning cycles, performance targets and the "propaganda of success." Paradoxically, however, 27…

Private institutions are increasingly visible in the higher education landscape of Egypt. Many of these institutions, however, are within the "demand-absorbing" category, offered at relatively lower fees and requiring lower test scores for admission. Building on interview data, this paper looks at how the graduates of some of these…

This article adopts the critical theory approach to reflect and analyse the impacts of globalization on the internationalization process of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. It argues that globalization forces many of the higher education institutions in the region to follow global practices and ideologies of the Anglo-American paradigm…