Moglichkeiten internationaler Betatigung von Hochschulen nach dem General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

摘要

The internationalization is both the driving force and goal of current reforms concerning the German universities. These reforms are not only motivated by the so-called Bologna Process; they also take place against the background that education is more and more regarded as an objective of international trade. Some important legal prerequisites for international trade with education services are laid down in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The GATS is applicable to higher-education services performed in one of the four modes of supply mentioned in Art. I para. 2, if that performance is affected by state measures such as: immigration requirements for foreign students, difficulties for foreign universities and their subsidiaries to obtain national licences to be recognized as a degree or certificate-granting educational institution, limitations of direct investments by foreign education providers, nationality requirements, needs tests, or other forms of restrictions on recruiting foreign teachers, existing government monopolies, or high subsidization of local institutions. A general obligation of WTO members under GATS is the most-favoured-nation (MFN) treat-ment which forbids discriminating between several foreign suppliers. For example, if a state has committed itself to recognize certain courses of study performed on it's market by universities of one state, it is not allowed to refuse the recognition of e^ual courses to be offered by education institutions from another state. However the GATS provides several exemptions from the general obligation to MFN treatment. For example, the member states of customs unions and free trade zones dojfiot have to share internally granted trade advantages with third states being member^'of the WTO. This is an important provision in particular for the single market ana the numerous preferential agreements of the European Union. Moreover, the WTO member states are obliged to gradually open their markets for foreign education services according to the provisions concerning market access (Art. XVI GATS) and national treatment (Art. XVII GATS). But these obligations, which must be listed in the so-called schedules of specific commitments, do not exist automatically; they must be negotiated in each single case. Nevertheless, the actual schedules reveal that many states already allow foreign suppliers of higher-education services to be active on their markets. The German universities should use the chances and possibilities to take a stand on these markets. This would enhance the scientific exchange in favour of the domestic education institutions, oppose the increasing Northern American hegemony in the field of research and teaching, and finally, bring an export of cultural achievements and characteristics of Germany and "Old Europe" to the rest of the world.