UTJECAJ GLOBALIZACIJE NA VISOKO OBRAZOVANJE: POGLED IZ BIH
IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON HIGHER EDUCATION: A VIEW FROM BIH

Summary/Abstract: This paper is dedicated to a topic which has been attracting increasing interest in recent years: the impact of globalization on higher education. The comprehensive concept of globalization is far from clear and well defined. Globalization is not simply an economic term. The umbrella concept of globalization constitutes a changing and complex environment for higher education institutions and policy makers to operate in. Globalization processes are creating new forms of interdependencies between actors, institutions and states. The restructuring of the world economic system, the political reshaping of the post-Cold War world order, the erosion of the nation-state, the rise of the ‘’network’’ society symbolized by the expansion of the Internet, demographic challenges, the growing mobility of people and complex cultural developments, the growth of the knowledge economy, ‘’the marketization and commodification’’ of higher education are the main forces and tendencies that create new and very important demands and exigencies towards universities. One of the most visible manifestations of globalization is the emerging ‘’borderless’’ higher education market (the transnationalization of higher education). The high demands placed upon universities worldwide create tensions in institutions, and at the same time stimulate other organizations and actors to engage also in research and teaching activities (e.g. for-profit private universities, corporate ‘’universities’’, media companies and publishing houses offering educational programmes, ‘’cyber and/or virtual universities’’, etc.). The substantial growth of these new providers poses a direct threat to the market position and the very future of existing traditional universities. In other words, can traditional universities survive when higher education is completely put into commercial arena? In his concluding remarks the author underlines that transnational higher education is a growing and unstoppable phenomenon. It is also becoming evident that the processes and values often associated with globalization are not necessarily compatible with specific national developmental agendas and do not bring equal benefits to developed and developing countries alike. To what extent is the higher education community in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) able to think of itself in global and European terms? Are the policy makers and institutions fully aware of the above mentioned global challenges and are they prepared to respond to them? What is the position of the University of Mostar in this context?

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