Faculty Unions Vow to Protect Academic Freedom and Watch International-Education Companies

The Canadian Association of University Teachers, Britain’s University and College Union, and nine other faculty unions abroad have signed agreements to safeguard academic freedom and to monitor the growing commercialization of international education.

The unions, all members of Education International, met in England this month to discuss their growing concerns and to back the British group’s initiative to defend public education.

The unions said they would be watching companies, like Navitas, that have gone into public-private partnerships in Australia, Britain, and Canada, along with others, like INTO and Study Group International. The agreements reflect the unions’ increasing concern that universities and colleges, caught up in the move to expand overseas, may regard their foreign franchises as commercial businesses, not educational institutions.

The unions believe their watchdog role will help protect academic freedom, maintain employment standards, and perhaps dampen the unrestricted spread of for-profit international education. Some of these issues have come up at this week’s annual meeting of Nafsa: Association of International Educators, in Los Angeles (see Chronicle articles from Tuesday and today).

“It’s a complete coincidence that this news came out in Canada at the same time of the Nafsa meeting,” said David Robinson, associate executive director of the Canadian association. “It’s a campaign that the British union began last October.”

Mr. Robinson said the new agreements were just the beginning. “We want developing countries to sign on. It’s time to amplify the voices of the developing countries.”

The American Association of University Professors is not a member of Education International, but it has joined with its Canadian counterpart to express concerns about workers’ rights and curriculum development on offshore campuses. The groups issued a joint statement in April. “Participating in the movement for international education can rest on laudable educational grounds,” the statement says. “But those grounds will be jeopardized if hard-earned standards and protections are weakened rather than exported.” The statement also asserts that education “should not be a commodity, bought and sold in the international marketplace and subject to the rules of competitive trade that govern a regulated global economy.” —Karen Birchard