Robertson 4/17/07

Susan Robertson is a Professor of Sociology of Education in the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol. Her academic career has spanned four countries - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and England. Her current work is focused on understanding globalisation and regionalisation as it works on and through education systems. Recent work includes analyses of the various regional agreements such as NAFTA, APEC and the EU and their implications for education, the WTO's service agreement - the General Agreement on Trade in Services, the creation of the European Education Space as part of the EU's competitive knowledge economy strategy, as well as ways of thinking about new educational spaces that are being generated as part of state's knowledge economy strategies.

Susan Robertson is Coordinator of the European Union's GENIE Project (Globalisation and Europeanisation Network in Education), as well as Co-Director of a major project on new technologies and learning ("InterActive Education: Teaching and Learning in the Information Age"), with a particular interest in the wider policy issues shaping the implementation of these strategies in schools and colleges in the UK. Along with her colleague Roger Dale, she also is founding editor for the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education published by Carfax. Along with Kris Olds (UW-Madison, Geography) she is the co-convenor of a new Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) initiative on globalisation and education (Constructing Knowledge Spaces: Transnational/Transdisciplinary Perspectives).

Abstract of the paper: This paper examines the USA and Australia's response to the European Union's regionalising and globalising strategies through higher education, particularly, though not exclusively, as a result of recent developments under the Bologna Process and related instruments (eg. Tuning, Erasmus Mundus, Asia-Link). Both Australia and the United States have a significant or lion's share of the higher education export market; the US historically as a result of its sophisticated research and development infrastructure, and more recently Australia as a result of its aggressive state-led marketing and student recruitment in the sector.

The paper argues that a combination of internal and external events in the USA has resulted in a rapid decline in their position, while Australia is increasingly concerned with the possible effects of globalising a European model of higher education (structure, content, quality assurance mechanisms) on its European and Asian market if the European model dominates over the American one. The EU's higher education strategies appear to be making the lions nervous - forcing them consider how best to hold onto their share. However I also outline the strategic dialogues being built across the Atlantic between the US and the EU and ask whether this tactic is as much about building multiple strategic alliances in the face of a strengthening China and India as it is providing a platform for the EU to act in a state-like way on the global stage.