On The Higher Education Policies Of The OECD

During a time of increasingly globalization of the modern world,Education policies and ideas generated from International Organizations have influenced a lot of education policies in many countries.While in the higher education policy circle,the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development has become "an incontrovertible brand",however,there are not so many studies in this field conducted by Chinese scholars.The "soft power" of the OECD,is quite similar to the symbolic power presented by Pierre Bourdieu.This study focuses on the analysis of the education work carried out by the OECD since it was founded,the programs and publications in the higher education field,the generation of its higher education policies,the textual features of some typical policy texts,and their effects on the higher education development in three countries.The generation and effecting mechanism of the higher education policies of the OECD is examined through the perspective of symbolic power.The main conclusions are stated as following:Since the very beginning,the Education work has come through different stages in the OECD:the embryo stage,the start-up stage,the expansion stage,now it's in the maturation stage,which has become a core part of the work carried out by the organization.The work in the higher education field,while came a little later in the OECD,has also evolved during all those years.Taking two programs for example,National Education Policy Reviews(about higher education)and the Feasibility Study of AHELO.Those two programs are excellent models which represent the work OECD does in higher education.Their operation processes perfectly exemplified the advantages of project-based pattern,and the symbolic power during the generation of higher education policies:the foundation of the symbolic power is based on the needs of countries,the formulating of the structure depends on the independence of the intellectuals(experts),and the subjective structures are the highly effective and practical modus operandi of the OECD.23 important higher education policy texts of the OECD are analyzed by using MAXQDA,while six similar features appeared across those texts:quality is emphasized as a core value of higher education development;the function of higher education is somehow economized;crisis,competition and innovation are over-repeated;the tones are usually mild and roundabout,impeccable and objective;quite a few terms are defined by the OECD and repeated many times in those texts,which contributes to the constructing of authority for the organization.As for its impact on member and non-member countries,their traces are left in some newspaper reports,academic studies,policy texts and policy actions.In the United Kingdom,many reports in The Times Higher Education Supplement,either praise or criticize the OECD,represent its impact anyhow.The higher education policy review of Ireland conducted by the OECD,has contributed a lot on the construction of today's Irish higher education system.Due to its generous contribution to the organization since the founding of OEEC,the United States plays a unique role in the OECD:it is effected by the organization,which is shown in many ways,such as the first national education policy review,the California higher education review,some policy texts and a great deal of newspaper reports;meanwhile,it also has powerful impact on the higher education policies of the OECD.As a non-member country,China has been increasingly active in translating higher education policies from the OECD,studying its policies and programs,getting involved in many higher education programs,and taking policy recommendations from the OECD.From the perspective of symbolic power,in the higher education field,the symbolic capital of the OECD originated from the solid economic capital of its member countries and its own successful experiences in the economic policy field,which brings both advantages and disadvantages at the same time.Those higher education policy texts,which carries the structure built by the OECD,are generated through cultural capital and diffused through social capital.The reconstructing of the structure comes as the result of the interactions among the deliberate guidance of the OECD,the choices made by individual countries,plus the historical trends of the whole world.