Privatizing Education: The Impact of Globalization on the Education Policies and Practice in Public Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines

Abstract

The study identifies the negative impact of globalization on education policies and practices of Public Higher Education Institutions (PHEIS) in the Philippines. In general, this undergraduate thesis aims to examine education policy formulation and find out the major players involved, both in the international and local arena, in the shaping of such guidelines. It also aims to determine the trend of privatization schemes and their effects on PHEISs in the country. The author made use of archival materials for comparative content analyses of various local and foreign policies of international organizations. The study required scrutiny of several events. places and time which portray the evolution of different education policies, surveys, studies and enactments. Being a qualitative research, the author employed the oriental qualitative method as it fits the topic being studied. The method was used to determine the manifestations of globalization in the variables ideological perspective. Using this as a tool. the study was then viewed from the lenses of political economy. The author then came to the conclusion that the Philippine government’s unconditional adherence to recommendations made by international financing institutions and supranational organizations permit local education policies to be tailored to adhere to the needs of private firms and foreign monopoly corporations. In the Philippines, this translates to the government’s gradual abandonment of the education sector through reduction in public spending on education, and the corporate takeover of tertiary education by private and foreign corporations. Such schemes institutionalize the process of privatization, making higher education a mere commodity.