Higher education and GATS - Regulatory consequences and stakeholders' responses, A. Vlk, CHEPS, 2006. ISBN 90-365-2372-9

This study investigates how and to what extent the inclusion of educational services in GATS affect the steering capacity of a nation-state in higher education with a special focus on regulatory consequences and stakeholders’ responses. It shows that at this moment and under existing circumstances GATS alone cannot be assigned any actual power to restrict the steering capacity of a nation-state in higher education. Yet in combination with other important factors on the national level (liberalization, competition in public services, deregulation, etc.) and the global level (internationalization, globalisation, etc.) it could contribute to it becoming increasingly difficult for the nation-state to steer its higher education system. The study argues that although the nation-state is still the most important player in determining its steering philosophy and capacity in higher education, it is not the only one. An increasing number of actors and factors have made the position of the nation-state in higher education more complex and more complicated during the last decade.