The global city concept which has emerged in the recent times has led to many fold
changes in the territory and people who were associated with nation-states.
of space due to globalization has provided international visibility of the non-
governmental organizations, first nation people, immigrants, small organizations and
multinational corporations.
The global city has developed as the center of servicing and
financing international trade, investment, and headquarters operations in the global
In these global cities exists the educational institutions which are also effected by the
globalization processes. They are undergoing large scale transformation to provide the
best possible education to all those who are looking for and have the ability to pay.
Globalization has led to the large scale privatization of education, specially the higher
education. Most of the existing institutions of learning are modifying their infrastructure,
curriculum, method of teaching and examining and creating an environment where
students from different parts of the world can receive knowledge, acceptable in the
professional arena globally. There are many existing public institutions in most of the
global cities which have accepted the internationalization process and thus are ready to
modify their curriculum. The cultural environments of these institutions are made
favorable for the international students. There are others which are new ones opening
with public-private partnership, and thus there is lesser control of the University Grants
Commission.
This is a vast topic which has raised many questions related to the nature of education
these institutions are meant to provide, the place where they are situated, their source of
its funding, and the vision of these institutions in the era of commercialization of
education etc. Being a student of history of education I have my limitations in the field of
economics but would try to still relate the role of globalization in internationalization of
education in India. This paper provides an outline of the public universities in the global
5
See Saskia Sassen article on “The Global City” in David Nugent and Joan Vincent (ed.). 2004. A
Companion to Anthropology of Politics; Blackwell Publishing; Malden, MA, USA and Oxford, UK,
pp168-178.
6
For details on this see Saskia Sassen article “The Global City”. Pp 169-172.
7
See Saskia Sassen. Op. cit.
2