I. Identification

1. The Issue

As transnational travel and telecommunication technologies advance, the potential for the trade of educational services increases as well. Many universities approach distance education as a source of profit. For the purpose of this case study, distance education refers to any education received abroad or through foreign institutions by the means of satellite campuses, the Internet, or audiovisual technology. However, due to the social and most often public nature of education, barriers to trade extend beyond those associated with material goods to include issues of constitutionality and protectionism, accreditation, disparities in technology and varying approaches to teaching and learning. The case of Greece makes the contradictions and challenges involved in the transnational trade of services clear. Greece’s Constitution directly prohibits recognition of private and/or foreign higher education institutions, yet the country belongs to the European Union (EU), which is currently spearheading the promotion of transnational education among its members. Moreover, Greece is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which has created a General Agreement on the Trade of Services (GATS), under which education is included as a service. By discussing Greece’s approach to education as compared to the EU and the WTO, the case study explores the barriers to deregulating trade within the educational sector.

2. Description

Understanding how the case of Greece exemplifies complexities relating to trade of educational services, is relatively easy once one understands the basic law of supply and demand. To be direct, Greece has created an elite higher educational system that has cut off the supply to many interested students. Its protectionist policy which prohibits private or foreign-owned institutions of higher education has further decreased alternatives for supply, upping the demand even more. On top of this, the European Union is now implementing measures to make student mobilization much easier among its member countries, thus offering an abundance of resources to fulfill the demand Greek students are so desperately voicing. Yet, education is not like any other material good. Education serves to ensure that a country's youth is socialized to become the next working generation. Education helps instill values and lifelong habits. According to the state of Greece, education therefore should remain Greek. But, according to many Greek students, a foreign higher education is better than no higher education and thus the exportation of educational trade services is on the rise. Essentially, this contradiction between what the Greek State has decided is best for its students and what the students are deciding for themselves is only being intensified by the EU's liberal stance on the exportation and importation of educational services.

It is the purpose of the following case to give a detailed example of how trade in education can be such an emotional issue. In order to do this, the first section will explain in detail the different levels of the Greek educational system. The second section will give an account of the problems caused by an insufficient supply of public educational services as compared to the excessive demand. From there, Greece’s educational policy will be contrasted to the general educational policy of the European Union, of which Greece is a member. Next, Greece’s membership in the World Trade Organization, its involvement in the General Agreement on Trade of Services (GATS), and the status of education as a tradable service will be talked about. The final subsection will relate Greece's situation to the larger and more philosophical issue of different societies and their governments perceiving education in different ways.

GREECE's EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Primary and Secondary Education in Greece [1]

The Greek education system has three levels: primary, secondary, tertiary. The primary level consists of nursery school and elementary school, also known as the Demotikon. Nursery school, attended by children ages 4 to 6, aims to reinforce both the education and socialization processes. “Day nurseries” offer longer hours of schooling, running from 8 am until 4 pm and helping to occupy children in creative ways. “Special nurseries” serve young children with special learning needs. At age 5, most children go to kindergarten intended to prepare them for first grade and their overall entrance into elementary school, which houses grades 1 through 6. At the elementary school, attendance is mandatory and students are promoted from one class to another without examinations, as long as they attend at least half of their classes and are judged by the teacher to have learned the required material. Gradually, all-day elementary schools are being established to serve students with remedial learning levels and with working parents. In addition, there are special schools which work specifically with special needs students. Also, since 1996, some schools have been incorporating multicultural educational programs into their curriculum.

After 6th grade, children (usually 12 years old) begin the secondary education level formed by the compulsory secondary education, provided by the Gymnasium and the Post-compulsory secondary education, provided by the Unified (Eniaio) Lyceum and Technical Vocational Schools. The gymnasium is known as the lower level of secondary education, serving students aged 12 to 15 years old. The majority are day schools, although some operate during the evenings, serving working students above 14 years old. Multicultural, musical and gymnasiums with sports departments as well. Assessments are made in many different forms, with the most important occurring at the end of each year. Those who fail the year-end examinations must repeat the year. Those in their last year who fail have the right to re-take the exam. After passing through the final examination, each student received a certificate which allows him/her acceptance into either the unified lyceum or a technical vocational school.

The unified lyceum and technical vocational schools act as parallel cycles. The former is divided into three classes – 1, 2, and 3. Students in Class 1 focus on general knowledge subjects, while students in class 2 must elect orientation lessons: theoretical, practical or technological orientations. At the end of class 2 and class 3, pupils must take an exam. Upon passing the examination after class 3, students receive a certificate which allows them to:

• seek employment in the public and private sector
• seek admission to universities or technological educational institutions (TEIs) after passing national examinations in five general knowledge subjects and in four orientation subjects
• attend a public or private vocational training institute

The technical vocational schools (TEEs) are another option for students upon completion of the gymnasium level. The number and content of subjects taught depends on local economic and societal needs, the number of students and their choices. Some examples are electronics, construction and hairdressing. Any type of laboratory work is done in separate facilities called School Laboratory Centres (SEK). TEEs consist of 2 levels called Cycle 1 and Cycle 2. After passing an examination for Cycle 1, a person may obtain a license to practice a profession or continue specialization training in Cycle 2. Cycle 2 certificates allow individuals to obtain a professional license or to enroll in a Vocational Training Institute. In order to attend a Technological educational Institute, a person must complete cycle 2 as well as pass a national examination in two general knowledge subject and one specialized subject.

Finally, it is important to note that the unified lyceum is horizontally linked to the TEEs and thus transferring between the two is possible. For example, if a person successfully completes a TEE Cycle 1, he or she may transfer to Class 2 of the Unified Lyceum.

The level of tertiary education is divided into university education, (aka universities), and higher technological education, (aka the technological educational institutes TEI). 20 universities exist in Greece and 14 TEIs and both offer 4 year programs of study. Also, the Hellenic Open University exists which provides distance and open learning. The official language of instruction is Greek, although knowledge of one or more foreign language is a prerequisite for post-graduate programs. Entrance requirements to institutions of the tertiary level are based on academic performance in the second and third classes of the Unified Lyceum and on the nationwide examination results.

Entrance Into a Restrictive Higher Education Structure

While tuition is free at all Greek higher education institutions, the competition for acceptance is fierce. On average, 140,000 Greek students take the national examinations required to gain acceptance into the 20,000 spots available among the public universities.[2] When considering the acceptance rate to technological educational institutes, the percentage of acceptance is around 35%.

One may immediately ask, “So, what are the alternatives?” And it is the conflicting answer between Greece and other countries like EU members, New Zealand and Canada where-in lies the root of the complexity involving trade in educational services.

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s notion that, “Education must be regulated by the state. For as the end of the State for the whole is one, the education of all of its citizens must be one in the same, and must therefore be an affair of the State” [3] is embodied in present-day Greece’s constitution. Article 16, sections six and eight of the 2001-Ammended Constitution of Greece read:

6. Education at university level shall be provided exclusively by institutions which are fully self-governed public law legal persons. These institutions shall operate under the supervision of the State and are entitled to financial assistance from it; they shall operate on the basis of statutorily enacted by-laws. Merging or splitting of university level institutions may take place notwithstanding any contrary provisions, as a law shall provide.

8. The establishment of university level institutions by private persons is prohibited.[4]

The above stipulation makes for-profit transnational trade of educational services, institutional partnerships among Greek Universities and private universities abroad, and the recognition of foreign degrees illegal. Combined with the strong value for education ingrained in Greece’s culture and the economic implications of receiving a degree in higher education, one quickly understands the competition and stress felt by students in regards to the national examination.

GREECE'S EDUCATIONAL DILEMMA

Greece has declared through its Constitution that the importation of private and/or foreign educational services is illegal, but it has not yet presented solutions for the inequity between supply and demand. Plus, social status has been proved to be a big influent in determining one's likelihood to attend a public university. According to a study done, in which the fathers' titles of all the accepted students for 1993-1994 academic year were reviewed, one's family social status strongly influences one's chance to be accepted. In fact, the percentage of students who come from wealthy families is 2.64 times greater than what they make up of the total Greek population.[5] This lack of resources, in addition to biased examinations, essentially encourages Greek students to ignore the Constitution and to travel abroad or attend satellite campuses in Greece for higher education.

The College of Southeastern Europe is an example of a satellite campus. Subtitled “The American University of Athens”, the College advertises itself as an accredited U.S. university offering a full range of academic programs.[6] It proclaims that it is an International University but makes no reference, at least on the website, to affiliation to the Greek educational system. In fact, Greek students are considered international students and therefore are required to pay full tuition. For more information, the website is: http://www.southeastern.edu.gr/.

This demand by Greek students for the supply of educational alternatives has made studying abroad a very appealing option. So, the EU’s educational policy to increase mobilization is further encouraging Greek students to export educational services. It is also putting pressure on Greek employees to recognize their foreign credentials when they return. As a resut, the Greek government is feeling pressure to revamp the Constitution.

EDUCATION, GREECE AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Greece is dealing with two major issues:

1) excessive demand and insufficient supply of higher educational services
2) increasing discontent among the Greek population in regards to its government's staunch stance on keeping education public and Greek.

From the perspective of many EU members (e.g. the United Kingdom, Austria and Germany), transnational trade of educational services, in the forms of distance education, international campuses, and student/faculty mobility, work to offer Greece a solution to issue #1. But, by offering alternative, international, routes to attain a higher education degrees, issue #2 will only intensify and the likelihood of Greece students demanding transnational educational services will grow.

One of the most common examples of a program which encourages the transnationalization of education is Europe's ERASMUS program. The ERASMUS program is the higher education division of the SOCRATES program and stands for the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. It is sponsored by the European Commission and run by the different participating institutions within participating countries. Officially founded on January 24, 2000, more than 30 countries are allowed to participate – the 15 EU Members, Iceland, Liechenstein, Norway, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus. Initially set-up to promote student mobility, the objective has widened to create overall cooperation among EU countries. The slogan, "Bringing students to Europe, bringing Europe to all students" is representative of this inclusive goal.[7]

In addition to ERASMUS, the European Commission has been striving to promote the standardization of quality measurements, accreditation and recognition of credentials among the member countries. In fact, the agreement entitled the Bologna Declaration, established in 1999, legally binds the EU members, including Greece, to make tangible efforts to:

1. Adopt a system of easily readable and comparable degrees
2. Adopt a system essentially based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate. Access to the second cycle shall require successful completion of first cycle studies, lasting a minimum of three years.
3. Establish a system of credits to promote extensive student mobility. Credits could also be acquired in non-higher education contexts, including lifelong learning.
4. Encourage mobility by removing barriers to free movement for academic purposes, specifically:
   - access for students to opportunities
   - for teachers, researchers and administrative staff, being recognized for time spent in other European countries in terms of incentives and tenure.
5. Encouragement of quality assurance
6. Promotion of the inter-institutional co-operation and programs of study, training and research. [8]

In addition, the European Commission's Directive 89/48/EEC, established in 1998, mandates the recognition of higher education and professional diplomas among EU members.[9]

EDUCATION, GREECE AND THE WORLD

Because Greece is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the organization responsible for the General Trade Agreement on Services (GATS), it is relevant to briefly discuss the inclusion of educational services within the agreement.

The GATS is considered one of the most flexible agreements to come out of the WTO because each country decides to which services it will offer other countries market access. While this flexibility has allowed GATS to evade any loud complaints regarding implementation, it has also caused some major uncertainty as to what really is covered under the agreement. For example, author Jane Knight points out that much of the confusion stems from the exemption clause concerning, “services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority.”[10] According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),

GATS negotiators understood this to cover ‘public services” broadly (if somewhat loosely)
defined, including public health and education services. But public/private frontiers are
inherently murky, vary significantly across countries and sectors, and are subject to change as
markets, political dynamics and technology evolve. Governments have to date chosen not to
clarify the scope of the GATS’ public services carve-out. But ask any negotiator in Geneva
and she/he would be prone to regard primary and secondary schooling, so-called
basic/compulsory education, as lying outside the scope of the GATS. [11]

Currently, educational services is the sector within GATS least committed to among members of the WTO. When the agreement was negotiated in 1994, each country agreed to create a specific schedule of commitments. Yet, only 44 out of the WTO's 144 countries have made included education within their schedules thus far. Essentially, the commitments a country would make to trade in educational services are to Market Access and National Treatment. A commitment to Market Access means a country must allow transnational providers to establish and operate businesses within its borders and National Treatment means that a country cannot provide special treatment to the local providers of educational services. [12]

Out of the 44 countries to include educational services in its schedule of commitments, only 21 countries included specific reference to liberalize trade of services in higher education.[13] Although some of these countries, namely New Zealand, Australia and the United States are employing efforts to convince other nations to make such commitments, the status of the negotiotion process for educational services is still very much in progress. The positions of Greece, as well as some of the key players in the negotiation of educational services' inclusion in GATS will be described in the legal aspects section below.

EDUCATION AS A PRIVATE OR PUBLIC GOOD: COMPARING THE U.S. AND GREECE

Under GATS, education is considered a tradable service. But can something like education, which is considered by many countries as a public good, be a tradable commodity?

According to the Student Statement to the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education on June 24, 2003, education cannot continue to be a public good if it is deemed a tradable service. In this Statement, the All Africa Student Union (AASU), Asian Students Association (ASA), the International Student and Youth Movement for the United Nations (ISMUN), International Union of Students (IUS), JustWorld International, Mouvement international des étudiants catholiques / Jeunes étudiants catholiques internationale (MIEC/JECI), National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB) and Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes (OCLAE), declare that,

As students’organizations, we reaffirm that higher education is a public good and a public responsibility as well as a human right, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights` the World Declaration on Higher Education, and other United Nations instruments. In this context, we believe that the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization is not a tool for internationalization, but a process driven foremost by narrow commercial interests that run counter to these principles.[14]

In Greece and worldwide, teachers Unions have also expressed their concern that trade in education will rip governments of their ability to protect education from privatization and commoditization. In fact, the National Technical University of Athens Teachers and Research Staff Association has compiled a clearinghouse of resources that discuss the threats GATS poses to public education. (see http://www.ntua.gr/dep/International/WTO/WTO-EDU.html)

Nevertheless, one may quickly notice that among those objecting to GATS, very few are from the United States (note that not one U.S. student group was represented on in the above list). Essentially, a basic difference in governing philosophies is at play. In Europe, for example, most Constitutions grant positive rights, while the U.S. Constitution protects negative rights. Simply comparing the wording of the Greek and U.S. Constitutions illustrates this point.

Article 6, Greek Constitution: Education at university level shall be provided exclusively by institutions which are fully self-governed public law legal persons. These institutions shall operate under the supervision of the State and are entitled to financial assistance from it; they shall operate on the basis of statutorily enacted by-laws. Merging or splitting of university level institutions may take place notwithstanding any contrary provisions, as a law shall provide. [15]

Amendment 1, U.S. Constitution: U.S. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. [16]

In the United States, interpretative room within the Constitution exists for the private sector to be granted the same rights as the public sector because of this "negative" wording. On the other hand, Greece's Constitution declares what the Government shall do and thus solidifies the public sector's role in society. The result is a very powerful private sector in the United States with little responsibility to the public sector and a very powerful public sector in Greece with a strong command over the private domain. These opposing social structures result in the United States' tendency to view education as having the potential to be a for-profit service, while Greece cannot fathom the idea.

Greece (keyword: GREECE)

• Culture and Trade: UK-Greece Dispute over Ownership of the Elgin Marbles, by George Arvantides
• The Granting to Greece of the Rights to Feta, by Georgia Economou
• Greek Turtle Decline, Tourism and Fishing Impacts, by James Lang

Distance Learning (keywords: DISTANCE EDUCATION or UNIVERSITY)

• The Social Aspects of Distance Learning in Costa Rica, by Lisa Campeau
• The Social Aspects of Distance Learning in Mexico, by Lisa Campeau
• The Ban on English on French Web Sites, by Amy Guffy

Social Preservation through Protective Measures (keywords: MILK, POTATO, DOLLY)

• Milk, Genetic Hormones and EU-US Trade, by Athina Balta
• Irish Potato Famine, by Theresa Purcell
• Dolly the Sheep and the GMO Agreement, by Amy Schulz

Cultural Preservation through Protective Measures (keywords: FRENCHTV, CMTVCAN)

• French TV Broadcast Quotas and Cultural Protection, by Karen Rinaman
• The US-Canada Country Music Feud and Cultural Trade Protection, by Karen Rinaman

4. Author and Date:

Jessica Corlett, November 13, 2003

II. Legal Clusters

Greece versus the European Commission:

5. Discourse and Status: DISAGReement and INPROGress

6. Forum and Scope: GREECE AND MULILATERAL

7. Decision Breadth: All member countries of the European Union (15 countries)

8. Legal Standing: TREATY

In March 1995, the European Commission asked the European Union Court of Justice to impose fines on Greece. They claimed that Greece had infringed on EU Directive 89/48/EEC. This Directive declared that a Member state cannot deny an individual from an EU country a position solely due to his foreign qualifications.

The official statement of the EC is,

"The Commission does not consider the transposition to be consistent with Community law, particularly as regards the compensatory measures (aptitude test or adaptation period) that might apply to migrants, and the exclusion from the scope of the Directive of persons who have already practised their profession in Greece under non regulated arrangements."

Two Cases from the Pressure Pot

In December 2002, the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions issued an opinion paper on the European Council’s directive for the recognition of professional qualifications. (For more detail go to Section II of this case study entitled Legal Aspects.) The Committee argued that the directive, which ensures the recognition of foreign diplomas, should do so across professional fields, labeling this a “horizontal approach.” In order to illustrate the current confusion and unwillingness of many member countries to fully commit to the directive, six examples of petitions were included. Out of these six, which were chosen from the hundreds of petitions they receive each year (4-5% of all petitions received by the Committee concern foreign credentials), two were petitions concerning Greece. [19]

The two cases appear in the Opinion Paper as follows [20]:

Petition No 793/1999 by Mr Harris Synodinos (Greek), on behalf of Mr D. Markatos, concerning the refusal by the competent Greek authorities to grant practising licences to opticians who had studied in Italy.

Summary of the petition:
The petitioner studied in Italy to become an ophthalmic and dispensing optician. In 1995, the Greek Ministry of Health rejected his application for a licence to practise as an optician; after a second and a third application had also been rejected, the petitioner appealed to the Greek State Council, which pronounced in his favour. He then submitted another application, which was once more rejected, this time on the grounds that his course of study was not covered by Directive 89/48/EEC. In 1998, Directive 92/51/EEC was transposed into Greek law, but one year later the Council for the Recognition of Equivalence of Professional Education and Training Qualifications still had not been constituted. The petitioner asks the European Parliament to intervene with a view to securing the immediate application of Directive 92/51/EEC in Greece.

Petition No 651/2000 by Mr Mihalis Peros, (Greek) concerning his complaint to the
Commission regarding the implementation in Greece of the directive on the recognition of higher education diplomas

Summary of the petition:
The petitioner indicates that he has, for twenty years, been unsuccessfully endeavoring to secure recognition in Greece for his degree in architecture obtained at a German university. Despite the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities condemning Greece for its refusal to implement in full Directive 89/48/EEC and the recommendation by the Advocate-General of the Court of Justice regarding penalties to be imposed on Greece, Greece has still not complied with the directive.

As is obvious, the resistance of Greece to accept the new regulations to internationalize education and increase the importation and exportation of educational services is still strong despite Greece’s active membership in the EU.

Greece and the GATS:

5. Discourse and Status: AGReement and INPROGress

6. Forum and Scope: GREECE AND MULILATERAL

7. Decision Breadth: All member countries of the World Trade Organization (146 members)

8. Legal Standing: TREATY

Below are brief statements about different WTO countries' stances in regards to educational services being included in the General Agreement on Trade and Services.

TABLE 1: Stance of several WTO countries on the trade of educational services

 

Greece	To be Determined	no reference to the trade of educational services has been made in its Specific Schedule of Commitments to the General Trade Agreement on Services the clause which exempts pubic educational services from GATS also seems to exclude Greece from having to discuss trade in education because all recognized education in Greece is public ultimately Greece may not be protected after all due to the "not-in-competition" measure. This measure stipulates that if private institutions enter into the same market as public institutions, public institutions may automatically be deemed competitors and thus susceptible to GATS provisions.[21]
United States	Agree	is pursuing liberalization of trade in educational services aggressively funded in part by the U.S. government, the Global Alliance for Transnationalization of Education (GATE) has worked to compile research regarding countries who have established barriers to the liberalization of educational services trade. Greece is one of the countries. .[22]
Australia	Agree	one of the leading supporters of the trade in educational services has made a formal commitment to liberalizing its educational services within the Schedule of Commitments it submitted to the WTO clearly pushing for other countries to liberalize [23]
France	In progress	government's response to the inclusion of educational services under the GATS has been relatively cloudy. have stated that its position on liberalization efforts will be determined after an indepth review of market conditions for French educational services.[24]

Other Countries ...

As evident by the few countries who have yet to make a commitment to the liberalization of trade in educational services, the status is thus in progress. According to Jane Knight, a visiting Scholar at the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, it is not known why the majority of WTO members are unwilling to commit to educational services at this point, although she does hypothesize a few points. She states,

The education sector is one of the least committed sectors. The reason is not clear, but perhaps it can be attributed to the need for countries to strike a balance between pursuing domestic education priorities and exploring ways in which trade in education services can be further liberalized. Or it could be linked to the fact that to date, education, in general, has taken a very low priority in the major bilateral agreements and rightly or wrongly, the same may be true for the GATS. [25]

Other key issues which may be attributing to the lack of commitment are concerns regarding regulation of educational services and assurance of quality, ambiguous wording of the GATS treaty, cultural imperialism of smaller less developed countries by larger, industrialized nations and the commoditization of education, perceived by many as a public good, as discussed above.

16. Economic Data:

• 13% of the income of a family in Greece is spent on higher education (consider that attendance at Greek public higher education institutions are free)
• During the 1999-2000 academic year [26]:

**57,825 students from Greece in 1999 studied outside of Greece**

TABLE 2: GREEK STUDENTS ABROAD

TABLE 3: IMPORT AND EXPORT OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES: GREECE vs. USA

19. Exporters and Importers: MANY AND GREECE

• Importer: Greece
• Exporters: Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
• Among the OECD countries, the top exporters and importers are as follows:

TABLE 4: Top Four Leading Importers and Exporters of Educational Services** [27]

** It is important to remember that, at present, these countries only report educational-related personal travel as educational services. They do not consider private educational services like cross border e-learning or training, nor the financial gain created by off-shore campuses. Underreporting is thus a significant concern. Also, considering Greece’s population in comparison to Asian countries like China and India, the significance of Greece’s import of educational services is apparent.

[19] http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/committees/juri/20030219/482502en.pdf

[20] ibid

[21] http://www.columbus-web.com/en/partj/Trade.pdf

[22]http://www.qnu.org.au/PDF%20files/GATS%20on%20education.pdf

[23] Ibid

[24] http://www.columbus-web.com/en/partj/Trade.pdf

[25] http://www.cmec.ca/international/oecd/CanDelReport.GATSForum.eductrade.en.pdf

[26] http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/5/1933574.pdf

[27] http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/24/1853938.pdf