Research On Educational Service Trade Of Developed Countries

Under the background of economic globalization, international trade liberalization, the continuous development of science and technology, international trade on education service became one of the components of service trade under the framework of GATS(General Agreement on Trade in Services). The trade on education service in developed countries has been introduced earlier and its market accounts for a significant share of the world market. For the developed countries such as the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the educational service trade has significant effects on the national economy. Although many countries’ education service is still considered as public service, most of countries have shown a positive attitude towards free trade on education services in the commitments under GATS. Liberalization of trade and the activities of Multi-National Corporation have created great demand on skilled labor with cross-cultural learning and life experiences. These factors are promoting the development of trade on education service. The educational resources in the world will be reallocated effectively through the development of trade in education services. The service quality of education will be improved by cooperation between education institutes around world.This article conducts research on the educational service trade in developed countries. It analyzed the evolution of educational service trade in typical developed countries and regions and summarized the motivation, characteristics and prospects of educational service trade of developed countries. It explored the competitive advantages of developed countries through the competitiveness analysis and analyzed the economic effect and other effect of educational service trade. This article provides the countermeasures and suggestions to trade development of China educational service based on the study about the successful experience of the educational service trade in developed countries. The full dissertation is divided into eight chapters; the main contents of each chapter are as follows:The first chapter is Introduction. Firstly, it defines the research problem and objectives, and proposes the research ideas, contents and methods through the research on the Chinese and foreign references. It also discusses the research framework and the technical route, and put forward the innovation and the inadequacies of the study.The second chapter is theoretical basis of educational service trade. Discussion of the comparative advantage theory, national competitive advantage theory and human capital theory is provided. And the applicability of these theories in educational service trade is analyzed. The article analyzed the theory of educational service trade and the relationship between educational service trade theory and economic growth.The third chapter is about GATS and the educational service trade. First, it discusses the relevant provisions of GATS on educational service trade. Secondly, the analysis of controversial issues about GATS related to educational service trade is provided. Finally it also analyzes the influence of GATS on educational service trade.The fourth chapter discusses historical evolution of educational services in developed countries. This part defines each geopolitical characteristic on educational service trade in developed countries, such as American, Europe and Australia and summarizes the evolution process and characteristics of the development of various countries or regions.The fifth chapter is about motivation; current situation and prospects of educational service trade in developed countries. Firstly, it discusses the motivation of educational service trade in developed countries. Secondly, it summarizes the current situation of education service trade in developed countries. The prospects of the educational service trade in developed countries are provided at the end.The sixth chapter is about the analysis on the international competitiveness of education service of developed countries. The research is combined with quantitative analysis and the qualitative analysis on the competitiveness of education service trade in developed countries. Quantitative analysis is using several indexes of the developed countries such as the export market share index, trade competitiveness index and the revealed comparative advantage index, and comprehensive index evaluation. Qualitative analysis uses the diamond model of Potter as a framework to determine the competitive advantage of developed countriesThe seventh chapter is about economic effects and other effects of education service trade in developed countries. First, the economic effects include direct economic effects and indirect economic effects. Direct economic effects consist of the effects from tuition fee, living expenses, travel, visiting relatives and friends of overseas students and other costs. Indirect economic effects include human resources and technological innovation. Secondly, select America as an example, the article provides the empirical analysis of direct economic effects and the indirect economic effects of the educational service trade in developed countries. Finally, it summarizes and analysis of other effects of trade on educational service in developed countries.The eighth chapter is the countermeasure analysis of Chinese educational service trade. Based on the experiences of developed countries for educational service trade, some suggestions will be put forward. The suggestions include:changing the concept of education, government strategy on educational service trade, the development strategy of education services, connecting the support industries.Through the above analysis the dissertation draws the following conclusions:First, the main motivations of the development of education service in developed countries include driving political expansion and economic cooperation, released from the economic plight, the globalization of the market demand, the huge economic interests. The developed countries occupy a major share of the market. They are the major target countries for students from developing countries in Asia, notably China and India; the development of educational service trade mode of developed countries including cross-border supply, consumption abroad, commercial presence and flow of natural person. Education service trade policies of developed countries have also become an important factor to promote the development of trade.Second, in the quantitative analysis of the competitiveness of educational service trade of developed countries, the highest comprehensive international competitiveness is Australia and New Zealand, followed by USA and Britain, third group is Canada, international competitiveness of educational service trade in France is low. Qualitative analysis of causes of competitiveness of education service is as following:Product supplied in developed countries has great advantages; International education service market is huge and increased significantly; The government’s tuition policy and immigration policy is cooperated with educational service trade; The development strategy is diversified internationalized; Auxiliary support of related industries on educational service trade is provided in developed countries; The potential market opportunity is huge.Third, the economic effects of trade in education service in developed countries including the direct economic effects and indirect economic effects. Through the empirical case analysis of the US, it concludes that education service export is the drive of GDP growth, GDP growth also promotes education service export; educational service import is the reason of GDP growth, GDP growth does not produce the increasing of education service import; educational service export can promote the technology progress, while imports of education service has negative effects on technology progress.Fourth, suggestions on trade development of education service in China:The idea of education need to be redefined in which the awareness of service nature of education and market competitive need to be considered; The role of government need to be adjusted which will help to establish related legal support system, improve the quality of supervision and audit and establish policies of credit and degree recognition; education service institutes should improve its services and set up their market strategy; China need to establish and improve the support of related industries such as medical, insurance, employment services.