Globalization in Education

‘Time-Space compression’. That is how Harvey (1999) summarised the term globalisation. It is brief, yet the phrase still brings an enormous connotation of globalisation which implies that the process of globalisation has demolished the geographical, cultural, social and historical boundaries across the world and the intensification of social relationship is evident. With regard to the topic of globalisation, my group had decided to choose the topic on “Globalisation In Education” to fulfill the requirements for our short coursework task. I personally view this task as a podium for me to acquire new knowledge specifically the one regarding on the impacts of globalisation in education.

In the first place, globalisation has elevated the standard of education in such a way that individuals in now globalised world are lavish with information by the growing number of both private as well as public higher learning institutions. This is in contrast to one of the scenes depicted in the movie clip which portrays the previous education system in Malaysia. The inadequacy of facilities makes the learning process inconvenient for both the teacher and the students. Nowadays, there has been a growing number of public as well as private universities in Malaysia. ‘In 1985, Malaysia only had 6 public institutions but the number has increased to 20 in 2008’ (Morshidi Sirat and Tierney, 2008). Along with this, a lot of steps have been taken for example the establishment of APEX (Accelerated Programme for Excellence) universities and research universities to improve the standard of our national education system. The Star dated October 20, 2009 entitled “USM bags five awards at British invention show” has proven the credibility of USM in obtaining the APEX status.

In the same way, globalisation in education has also enabled easy access to information. Conversely to the traditional educational system during the British colonisation in which information was scarce and the learning process is only confined to the real classroom, today’s education system portrays new trends. In the movie clip, we have incorporated a few future trends in education through the scene in which a student watches her tutorial task through a video. With the assistance of the technological advances she manages to learn through e-learning and distance learning. The technology has given great impacts on education as it bridges the time constrain and allows learning process to take place anytime and everywhere. Taking e-learning as an example, it is reliable as it reduces learning time, and overall costs such as meeting room rentals, student lodging and meals.