A Comparing Study On The International Competitiveness Of Trade In High Educational Services

Since the 1970s, all the countries in the world have decreased restrictions on service trade, and the service trade has developed rapidly. According to statistics, the world service trade export sales were seven point one billion in 1970,but it increased to one hundred and forty nine billion in 2000.The world service trade export sales increased by more than 20 times in 30 years and the average annual growth rate exceeded 11%,which was not only higher than the average annual growth rate of the world goods trade export sales,but also above the average GDP growth rate in the world. The international service trade is growing at a high speed, and the speed accelerates. In the 1970s and 1980s, the international trade in services took a ratio of about 20% in international trade, but in the 1990s it increased to 25%.After the 1990s, the international trade in services changed into a dependent mode of trade and became a new field which the developed countries competed for. It is well known that the developed countries occupy absolute superiority in international competition in trade in services and especially in software development, telecommunication design, finance and other knowledge intensive fields.The service trade not only includes finance, communications and transportation, international tourism which are familiar to us, but also includes education, health and environment of trade in services. Education service trade is a part of the international trade in services and it is regarded as a kind of products in the international trade in services. International education service trade generated in the process of international education and it originated in educational exchanges. Before the 1970s, many European developed countries provide a lot of scholarship to developing students in order to attract more students to study in the developed countries. Some countries even dispatched experts to some developing countries to assist in launching schools, training teachers and researching. But the earlier education communication not only brought the advanced education resources and concept for the developing countries but also political pressure. Since the 1980s, the education service trade has been developing quickly, the United States is the first country in international education service trade, occupying absolute superiority. England also develops international education service trade as an important aspect of high education development. The education service trade in Australia and New Zealand and other countries have developed rapidly.The education service trade in our country also shows the momentum of rapid development after entering to WTO. The high education has made many achievements in the quantity and quality. In the world, the high education is seen as a department of innovating knowledge and cultivating advanced professional talents. It not only has economic, political and social and cultural functions, but also has economic feature. High education has been paid attention to by the government, society and markets in the world. Because our education service developed later than the western developed countries, the competitiveness is obviously weaker than them. With the pace of economic globalization, our high education will be further shocked. But we should believe that the education service trade in our country is facing unprecedented opportunities because the political, economic and cultural exchange is strengthening with each other. Globalization is a double-edged sword, and it provides more experience for our high education service trade, bringing challenges for our high education.High education service trade involves international trade, education and economic comprehensive topics. This paper will wield comparative education and educational economics theory and analysis methods. To enhance the international competitiveness of Chinese high education, this paper will also discuss policies and relevant measures of the development of our high education. In order to deeply understand our education service trade competitiveness, the service trade competitiveness theories will be firstly introduced. Next the basic conditions of the development of high education service in developed countries will be introduced so that the readers will have a basic understanding of the situation. Then this paper will introduce the development of high education service in developing countries so that readers can understand the development of high education service trade in developing countries. After that, this paper will give the quantitative analysis of the international competitiveness of the developed countries and the developing countries respectively. From the analysis of high education, we can note that deficits exist in education services trade between China and the western countries and some disadvantages exist in our high education service trade compared with some developing countries. To change this situation, the only way is to promote international competitiveness of our high education service trade. Finally, the article discusses policies and suggestions to promote international competitiveness in high education trade in services in order to contribute to the development of our high education service trade.