Education Business

Many English speaking countries such as the UK and Australia has been packaging education industry as a kind of business like field which can generate unexpectedly huge amount of  'oversea investment' to the countries. Oversea students obtain what they want and the local education institutions give them what the students ask. It is like business negotiation where two parties start their negotiation and sign a contract to complete the transaction upon mutual agreements; hence a deal is done and both parties must render their responsibilities as agreed on the contrct!

Is that what it is for the Education Sector? I.e. a student and the school make mutual agreement on the studies (or the contract) and therefore both will be completely abode by the contract they make. Ideally it is practical. In reality, fierce competition distorts the idea completely. Unqualified students are admitted to a school simply because the school needs foreign investments; students obtain a graduation certificate because they pay the money to the school; the school gives the graduation certificate because they obtain money from the students. Then, how does the 'contract' preserve both parties' rights/obligations, and importantly, how is Quality of studies assured if everything seems to be directly associated with 'investments'? Probably the education sector has been adopting self-assuring mechanism over the past as academic freedom has allowed the sector to develop in its own style. However, despite the lucrative foreign investments coming into the region, it's time to think about what the sector is obliged to do for the students and the world as the world gets closer in the globalization era.