The Commercialization of Higher Education: Causes and Implication

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The Commercialization of Higher Education: Causes and Implication
In its simplest definition, education comprises the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that are transmitted from one generation to another. At a complex level, education involves the system (such as public education), organization (school syllabus and curriculum) resources (teachers, learning material) and institutions (schools and colleges) that facilitate collective learning in society. As the most single source of legal authority for civil and social organization, governments are tasked with the responsibility of promoting education in society. As a result, governments fund education through grants for research, building schools, providing learning resources, paying teachers and making relevant policies. However, changing economic times have placed financial strains on governments, leading to inadequate and insufficient funding of public education. At the same time, advancements in information technology have diversified the means through which individuals can access information and knowledge. Thirdly, the expansion of the middle and upper class societies has created an elite group dissatisfied with the quality of education offered in the public system. These developments have opened opportunities for the establishment of private enterprises in the education system. The ultimate consequence is the commercialization of education; putting education in the market place. It involves transforming education into a business enterprise whereby private investors provide education to tuition-paying students. This essay discusses the commercialization of education and its implications in the education sector.
The commercialization of education is probably a consequence of two developments in human history; technology and a rising middle-class population. While the former offers a convenient and effective means through which educational services are marketed and sold to consumers around the world, the latter provides a sizable consumer base with the necessary purchasing power to afford higher education in foreign institutions (John 591). It is not surprising, therefore, that most of the consumers of commercialized education are foreign students, such those who come to the U.S. or the UK for post-secondary education. Having finished primary and secondary schooling in their home countries, their parents send them abroad to earn foreign degrees, which are highly regarded on account of the advanced education system in Western countries.
Nevertheless, the commercialization of education in a global system presents many challenges to the education system and society in general. This is because the modern society, whose technological-orientation has facilitated the commercialization of education, requires individuals who understand other cultures to enable them function effectively in a globalized educational, social, and economic environment. One wa...