Globalisation, Higher Education, the Labour Market and Inequality addresses the global transformation of higher education in relation to changes in the labour market. It focuses on the relative impact of elements of globalisation on social inequality, and provides insights into the ways in which these general forces of change are transformed into specific policies shaped by global forces and the various national values, institutional structures and politics of the specified societies. The book begins with a theoretical conceptualization for a comparative understanding of globalization, higher education, labour markets and inequality. This is followed by a range of mainstream accounts from an international selection of contributors of the ways in which national systems have responded to the forces of globalisation and the increasing demand for higher education graduates – in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the UK. Finally, contributors explore more specific concerns such as the transition from higher education to the labour market in China and Sweden, the division of the ‘knowledge’ workers into traditional social groups in the US, and the role and salience of Doctoral programmes in South Africa in developing a knowledge economy. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education and Work.

Exploring topics such as the fairness of the current social system, the focus on individual competition in an unequal society, and democracy and capitalism in higher education, this important book seeks to uncover the major myths that shape how people view higher education and its relation to the economy.

Ô. . . the Handbook constitutes an essential reference source for everyone interested in studying the current meaning, scope and implications of globalization. Strongly recommended.Õ Ð Higher Education Review Higher education has entered centre-stage in the context of the knowledge economy and has been deployed in the search for economic competitiveness and social development. Against this backdrop, this highly illuminating Handbook explores worldwide convergences and divergences in national higher education systems resulting from increased global co-operation and competition. The expert contributors reveal the strategies, practices and governance mechanisms developed by international and regional organizations, national governments and by higher education institutions themselves. They analyse local responses to dominant global templates of higher education and the consequences for knowledge generation, social equity, economic development and the public good. This comprehensive and accessible Handbook will prove an invaluable reference tool for researchers, academics and students with an interest in higher education from economics, international studies and public policy perspectives, as well as for higher education policymakers, and funding and governance bodies.

This volume surveys and combines the different dimensions of globalization so as to propose a general diagnosis of the way they interact to explain growing inequality in advanced economies. The extant economic literature has widely analyzed (i) the impact on inequality of trade between advanced and emerging countries (North-South Trade), particularly offshoring, (ii) the impact of tax base mobility on tax competition and (iii) the globalization-driven constraints on social policies and labor market institutions. Those three strands of analysis and the related literature have been reviewed in a number of surveys but have not been combined to provide an extensive study of the impact of their interactions on inequality. This volume fills that gap. Providing a general diagnosis of the globalization-inequality nexus within advanced economies and opening new avenues for research and potential reforms, this book will be of interest to researchers and students of economics and the social sciences.

Examines contemporary trends in employment and unemployment, in hours of work, and in the nature of jobs and proposes strategic options for organized labor in the current political context.

In the last half century higher education has moved from the fringe to the centre of society and accumulated a long list of functions. In the English-speaking world, Europe and much of East Asia more than two thirds of all school students enter tertiary education. Bulging at the seams, universities are meant to be fountains of new knowledge, engines of prosperity and innovation, drivers of regional growth, skilled migration and global competitiveness, and makers of equality of opportunity. Yet universities cannot drive prosperity on their own and they can do little to stop rising income inequality, which is shaped by taxation policy and income determination in the workplace. Worse, the growing emphasis on the private benefits of higher education, without regard for its public benefits, has positioned the higher education sector as elite forming, as a maker of social inequality rather than a corrective to it. In the English-speaking countries, in which government sees itself as servant of high capitalism, official policy models higher education as a market and has narrowed its purpose to the enhancement of individual earnings and employability, partly to justify the ever-rising tuition fees. Higher education systems have become intensely competitive and increasingly stratified, with value concentrated at the top. In this quasi-aristocratic economics of education, mass institutions are losing social value and the collective public benefits of universities are unmonitored, underfunded and ignored. In short, governments expect both too much and too little of higher education, and its contribution to the common good is being eroded. Yet this sector can play a key role in rebuilding social solidarity and mobility in fractured societies.

One of the world’s leading experts on international trade explains that we must look beyond globalization to explain rising inequality. Globalization is not the primary cause of rising inequality. This may come as a surprise. Inequality within nations has risen steadily in recent decades, at a time when countries around the world have eased restrictions on the movement of goods, capital, and labor. Many assume a causal relationship, which has motivated opposition to policies that promote freer trade. Elhanan Helpman shows, however, in this timely study that this assumption about the effects of globalization is more myth than fact. Globalization and Inequality guides us through two decades of research about the connections among international trade, offshoring, and changes in income, and shows that the overwhelming conclusion of contemporary research is that globalization is responsible for only a small rise in inequality. The chief causes remain difficult to pin down, though technological developments favoring highly skilled workers and changes in corporate and public policies are leading suspects. As Helpman makes clear, this does not mean that globalization creates no problems. Critics may be right to raise concerns about such matters as cultural autonomy, child labor, and domestic sovereignty. But if we wish to curb inequality while protecting what is best about an interconnected world, we must start with a clear view of what globalization does and does not do and look elsewhere to understand our troubling and growing divide.

Examines how higher education has contributed to widening inequalities and might contribute to change. By exploring questions of access, finance and pedagogy, it considers global higher education as a space for understanding the promises and pressures associated with competing demands for economic growth, equity, sustainability and democracy.

Discussions on globalization now routinely focus on the economic impact of developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. Only twenty-five years ago, many developing countries were largely closed societies. Today, the growing power of “emerging markets” is reordering the geopolitical landscape. On a purchasing power parity basis, emerging economies now constitute half of the world’s economic activity. Financial markets too are seeing growing integration: Asia now accounts for 1/3 of world stock markets, more than double that of just 15 years ago. Given current trajectories, most economists predict that China and India alone will account for half of global output by 2050 (almost a complete return to their positions prior to the Industrial Revolution). How is higher education shaping and being shaped by these massive tectonic shifts? As education rises as a geopolitical priority, it has converged with discussions on economic policy and a global labor market. As part of the Routledge Studies in Emerging Societies series, this edited collection focuses on the globalization of higher education, particularly the increasing symbiosis between advanced and developing countries. Bringing together senior scholars, journalists, and practitioners from around the world, this collection explores the relatively new and changing higher education landscape.

This book examines how major Asian cities have enhanced their global competitiveness by transforming their higher education systems to equip their graduates with global competence. It primarily focuses on policy implications and urban governance, especially comparing how governments are responding to the growing challenges of international connectivity and are managing the diversity of populations resulting from an increasingly globalized world.