Globalization, Neoliberalism, and International Student Enrolments in Higher Education: Expanding Global Interconnectedness and Academic Commodification

Abstract

The last 20 years has witnessed a dramatic surge in international student enrolments around the world. Canada has been among the countries that have experienced some of the most significant increases international enrolments in college and university postsecondary educational institutions. This major research paper explores this trend and critically reviews the growing body of literature that seeks to explain this growth phenomenon. While the growth of the number students travelling the world in search of educational opportunities is, indeed, a global trend, the movement is largely from key developing nations to a smaller number of English-speaking, Western, wealthy capitalist countries. While for some scholars and commentators this movement is understood as part of the internationalization of all nations as part of the process of globalization, others see it as imbricated in the neoliberal project that has contributed to the corporatization of higher education and the commodification of knowledge within Western, capitalist nations. I review this debate with specific reference to data and examples from the province of Ontario, Canada.