The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seems
to be a major actor in globalized and interconnected nowadays world. With the
mandate to facilitate the economic development of the states, the OECD the same
time has a great influence on higher education in member-states. There is an
existing tendency of increasing role of international bilateral and multilateral
organizations in the context of political, social and economic influence on
member-states, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. However, the OECD has a
special place in the hierarchy of international organizations affiliated with
the higher education systems.
It should be mentioned that the OECD does not have sufficient funding as
the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, and also does not have a
legislative capacity as the European Union. In this regard, the impact of the
OECD’s work on higher education can be seen as the shaping the opinion through
the publications, analytical work and open data bases. In this context, the
influence of the OECD can be characterized as unobtrusive guidance in the scope
of higher education. The organization itself keeps a role of an arbitrator in
the negotiation and discussion processes among the member country and also
provides a platform for networking and ideas sharing.
In the context of globalization, the OECD is repositioning its
strategies and adjusting them to fit the emerged requirements. More
specifically, the organization has to “catch up” with latest changes in world
politics and economics in order to provide more objective and comprehensive
analyses and recommendation. Not acting reactively to the emerged issues, but
foresee them and be a proactive actor of the interconnected world.
Overall, the OECD contributes greatly to the convergence of
nation-states in the context of higher education. Considering that the
organization has the impartial and holistic approach in recommendations, it
should not be forgotten that organization first of all see the higher education
through the neo-liberal prism and its recommendations focus mostly on specific
features of liberal and market-friendly economy. It is not critical for the
higher education in developed countries, but might be an issue for developing
ones. For what the World Bank has been criticized seems to be a norm for the
OECD, probably due to the mandate differentiations and “soft law” issues.
References
Amaral, A. & Neave, G. (2009). The OECD and its
influence in higher education: A critical revision. In A. Maldonado-Maldonado & R. M. Bassett (Eds.), International organizations and higher education policy: Thinking globally,
acting locally? (pp. 82-98). New York: Taylor and Francis.
Dear Aizhan,
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea but I am still convinced that membership in this kind of organizations is merely image making contribution. Why would everyone want to suddenly become better than somebody else and the BEST??? These elite clubs exist only for the purpose of revenue generating. Who knows may be there was a group of people who decided the idea was VERY important and agreed to promote it in every possible way. Of course, when you hear something is important you have the feeling that if you own this or somehow are attached to this the importance will become a descriptive word for you as well. It sounds wordy, but overall idea is that every country has to first think of its priorities before deciding on the membership fees to organizations benefits of which are quite blurry and ambiguous.