Session Information
23 SES 03 D, Education, Skills and the Economy
Paper Session
Time:
2009-09-28
14:00-15:30
Room:
HG, HS 21
Chair:
Ingolfur Asgeir Johannesson
Contribution
This paper considers the theoretical and policy implications for higher education of fundamental changes in the demand for high skilled labour as a consequence of economic globalisation.
The paper reports on a study of the skill formation strategies of leading transnational companies and their relationship to national policies of skill formation in China and India. It is argued that high skilled work, undertaken by graduates will increasingly move to countries like China and India.
The results of this study raise fundamental questions about human capital theory as well as higher education policies based on its assumptions. In particular, the paper will argue that students in Western Europe and the United States will have to pay increasingly more for their university education for lower returns, than hitherto in the labour market, what Brown (2006) has called the opportunity trap.
Method
The paper is based on a study of the skill strategies of transnational companies in South Korea, Germany, China, India, Singapore, Britain and the United States. 190 interviews were undertaken with executives and senior human resource managers in these transnational companies and with senior policy makers in these countries over a period of 3 years (2004-07).
Expected Outcomes
The conclusion to this paper is that higher education policy in Western Europe and the United States will have to be re-thought because the labour market returns to higher education will decline, raising fundamental questions about the links between education and the labour market. Alternative rationales and forms of funding for higher education will have to be considered
References
Brown, P., (2006) The Opportunity Trap in Lauder, H, Brown,P, Dillabough, J and Halsey, A.H (eds.) Education, Globalization and Social Change, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Brown, P, Lauder, H and Ashton, D., (2009) The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Opportunities, Jobs and Rewards, New York, Oxford University Press.
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