Globalisation, commercialisation, managerialism and internationalisation: challenges for higher education in the developing world

Globalisation and the WTO's GATS are imposing unrelenting pressure on governments, universities and academics to abandon traditional values and ways of teaching and learning and adopt a more commercial approach to higher education. At a national level, too, the rising demand for tertiary education and the increased costs of funding higher education are causing governments and universities to move away from the traditional conception of higher education and adopt a more commercial approach. Most writers agree that these changes in international higher education have brought both costs and benefits, though these have more often been explored in the context of advanced economies than with reference to undeveloped and developing countries. In this paper we reverse this emphasis, taking a brief look at the pros and cons of internationalisation and commercialization for higher education in developed countries, before turning, at greater length, to the pros and cons for undeveloped and developing countries. Here we focus on the question of brain drain/brain gain and the impact of internationalisation on local cultural identities and the future of indigenous universities.