Experience of Foreign Higher Education Service Trade and Its Enlightenment to China

With China’s entry into WTO, China’s trade in higher education services has developed rapidly. In addition to the highly developed economy, the broad market prospect has attracted more and more foreign students. However, China’s current trade in higher education services is still at the initial stage of development, showing an obvious trade deficit. From the perspective of international comparison, this study combs the development process of education service trade in major developed countries, summarizes the general rules and basic modes of its development, discusses various factors that affect the competitiveness of its national education service trade, thus analyzing the development characteristics and international competitiveness of education service trade in major developed countries, and summarizing the relevant experience and enlightenment of the development of education service trade in major developed countries. On this basis, the current situation of China’s higher education service trade is comprehensively combed, the main problems existing in China’s higher education service trade are analyzed, and reasonable ways to improve the competitiveness of China’s higher education service trade are put forward from aspects of perfecting the legislative content of higher education service trade, formulating development plans and policies, and strengthening the construction of education service institutions themselves.

international industrial structure, the world trade in services has caught up with the trade in goods in the past ten years and has begun to concentrate on knowledge and technology. The frequency of import and export of educational services has also increased significantly in international transactions and has gradually acquired its development characteristics: according to the data of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), more than 5 million students worldwide are currently receiving education in countries other than their home countries, up 67% compared with 10 years ago, and the degree of cross-border mobility has accelerated significantly, with the number of overseas students receiving higher education increasing significantly. At the same time, the trade in educational services has become more and more important in international trade in services, which is enriched by its trade methods and contents. Countries all over the world have reached consensus on the importance of educational services and promoted the development process to varying degrees.
However, the education service trade market shows an unbalanced situation. Statistics show that the number of international students from OECD countries accounted for more than 80% of the total number of international students from 2000 to 2010, of which the United States became the national representative for training international students. Compared with western developed countries, China's education service trade started late and developed slowly, and there is a serious deficit problem in the field of international education service trade, which accounts for a very small share of the international market in education service trade. At present, China's export trade in education accounts for only 0.5% of the world's trade in education services, which is extremely disproportionate to China's status as a major international trading country. In this situation, it is necessary to correctly understand and objectively evaluate China's foreign education service trade from a new perspective and a higher strategic level, so as to improve the economic benefits of China's education service trade.
This study will analyze the development characteristics, international competitiveness, and the relationship between education service trade and economic growth of major developed countries by combing the development process of education service trade in major developed countries, summarizing the general rules and basic modes of its development, and discussing various factors that affect the competitiveness of its national education service trade. It will also summarize the relevant experience and enlightenment of the development of education service trade in major developed countries, and explore reasonable ways to improve the competitiveness of China's education service trade, so as to innovate China's soft power output mode and enhance China's international influence and comprehensive strength.

Experience of American Higher Education Service Trade
The United States is the world's largest exporter of educational services. Its development started early and is large-scale. On November 18, 2019, the Institute of International Education officially released portal data. According to the data in the report, the number of international students in the United States exceeded 1 million for the fourth consecutive year, and the data showed that the number of students staying in the United States reached a new high from 2018 to 2019, reaching 1,095,299. According to data from the US Department of Commerce, international students contributed 44.7 billion US dollars to the US economy in 2018, up 5.5% over the previous year. On the whole, everyone's enthusiasm for studying in the United States has not decreased. The development history of American education service trade can be divided into three stages: the initial stage of post-war education service trade, the rapid development stage of education service trade and the U-shaped development stage of education service trade. U.S. trade in educational services is far ahead of other developed countries, which is inseparable from U.S. possessing the world's highest quality and extensive educational resources. First of all, there are many famous universities in the United States with famous professors and scholars. At the same time, academic facilities and research funds are sufficient. Of the top 20 universities in the world in terms of educational services, 13 are American. Secondly, the United States pays attention to the development and promotion of relevant knowledge industries. The United States supports the development of its information industry. The complete infrastructure of computers and networks has laid the foundation for distance education in the United States. Thirdly, the concept of educational service in the United States is more advanced, with more emphasis on stimulating creativity and quality education. This educational concept is more suitable for the rapid pace of current global economic development. Therefore, advanced educational concepts have also become an important factor in attracting international students and outstanding talents. Specifically, the United States has the following characteristics in developing trade in higher education services: First, the government has invested a huge sum of money in education. The U.S. government has long attached importance to the development of education and has made investment in education an important part of its national expenditure. In the 1990s, the US spent more than US$ 400 billion on education every year. In recent years, the US government's investment in education has continued to grow steadily. The U.S. government attaches great importance to the role of the education industry in the economy. On the one hand, it hopes that the development of education can drive scientific and technological innovation and personnel training. On the other hand, it hopes that educational services can become a way for the United States to promote educational ideas and behavior patterns to the world.
It also hopes that the export of educational services will bring huge economic benefits to the country. Second, the government attaches great importance to the quality of educational services. The development of American education service trade is second to none in the world. In the long-term development of educational services, the quality of educational services has been continuously improved and experience has been accumulated, making American educational services reach the world's leading level. It has attracted overseas students and scientific research talents from all over the world, which has provided US education with funds for further development and a scientific research www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer

Experience of Australian Higher Education Service Trade
Australia's exports of international educational services developed rapidly during this period. developing trade in higher education services: One is to vigorously promote the international market for educational services. The Australian government has signed free trade agreements with the United States, Thailand and Singapore in an open market attitude, and has established quite close economic cooperation relations with New Zealand.
At the same time, the Australian government is constantly negotiating various multilateral and bilateral trade agreements with countries with close economic ties. These trade agreements provide opportunities for Australia's trade in educational services to expand into a broad market. In addition to various trade agreements, the Australian government has also held talks with many countries on trade in education services. It has held dialogues in this field with Germany, France, Mexico and India, and has signed memorandums of understanding on education services. As can be seen from Australia's commitment to trade in education services, Australia has no restrictions on cross-border delivery and consumption abroad's market access and national treatment. But there is no commitment to the national treatment of commercial existence. A more cautious attitude has also been adopted regarding market access and national treatment for the movement of natural persons. In addition, the Australian government launched a multi-level and multi-network marketing strategy. Use multilateral or bilateral talks to hold exhibitions and promotional activities of educational service products, provide market information for Australian educational service institutions, carry out online marketing, establish an Australian study abroad website to provide information on various aspects of studying abroad, and pay attention to consumers and potential consumers in the global market of educational services in multiple languages.
In addition, the Australian government and educational service agencies have launched a series of policies to attract overseas students. The government has continuously simplified the visa procedures and shortened the visa time, allowing foreign students to work and study part-time, and establishing an immigration scoring system to attract high-quality graduates. Educational service organizations offer various courses that are in great demand for foreign students and establish multi-dimensional scholarship incentives. The Australian government has combined the export of educational services with the immigration policy and has become an important advantage in its competition with other major countries exporting educational services in the world. Since 2001, Australian graduates do not need to return to China for two years and can directly apply for permanent residence.
Second, relevant government departments cooperate to develop the export industry of educational services. Since the 1980s, the Australian government has gradually started to collect full tuition fees from overseas students, marking the initial formation of Australia's education service export industry.
In 1985, the Australian Ministry of Education put forward the slogan of "turning aid into trade". The government regards the export of educational services as an important protection and support object for international trade and provides various policy support, such as immigration policy. Under the coordination of the Ministry of Education, several departments of the Australian government have formed a cooperative mechanism for the export of educational services, including the cooperation of the ministries of education, trade, foreign affairs, immigration and industry. Australia's Department of International Education is attached to the Ministry of Education and is responsible for the international part of education services. The organization has formed a cooperation mechanism with the Australian Trade Commission to carry out international marketing strategies for Australian education services in its branches around the world. In addition to the multi-department cooperation of government agencies, some non-profit independent organizations have gradually developed and played a decisive role in the expansion of the education service market.
The third is to strengthen the supervision and guarantee of educational services. While expanding the education service market overseas, the Australian government has continuously improved its international education legislation, gradually building a complete legal framework, using laws to restrict education service institutions and protect overseas students and their legitimate rights and interests. The legal restraint mechanism formulated by the government mainly starts from the following aspects: First, strict access to the education service market. The qualification of international educational service institutions is strictly examined, that is, educational service institutions that recruit overseas students must be certified by the government and obtain registration qualification in the "overseas student institutions and courses federal registration system". Second, strict student visa system. International education service providers need to provide information to the Immigration Bureau, which can grant students visas according to their registration status. Third, formulate relevant laws and regulations including the interests of overseas students. The Australian government promulgated the Overseas Student Service Act in 2000, which requires the Australian government to carry out a multi-level and multi-network marketing strategy. Including the use of multilateral or bilateral talks to hold exhibitions and publicity activities of educational service products; Providing market information for Australian educational service institutions, etc. In short, in the increasingly fierce international competition for educational services, the Australian government has continuously introduced various quality assurance mechanisms for educational services to ensure the steady and sustained development of the export industry of educational services.

Experience of Singapore Higher Education Service Trade
As a free, open and multicultural country, Singapore has a high degree of openness in the education service market, and education service trade has developed rapidly in recent years. Singapore not only encourages local universities to go out and run schools abroad, but also attracts many well-known universities to cooperate in running schools in Singapore. Not only does it vigorously develop distance education and push online education to the whole world through market-oriented operation, but it also pays attention to the internationalization of teaching staff and actively carries out international talent flow. Singapore has adopted an open policy in four ways: consumption abroad, commercial presence, cross-border payment and the movement of natural persons, and has actively expanded the international market for educational services based on the principle of mercerization. Singapore's development of trade in higher education services has the following characteristics: They also have the ability to quickly respond to the rapid changes in the economic environment and improve the allocation and use efficiency of educational funds. They can formulate effective educational policies and vigorously develop educational services.
The second is to establish a sound education system. The implementation of a unique bilingual education and diversion system is a major feature and highlight of Singapore's development of education service trade. English is the first language in Singapore education. English is used as the language of instruction in all courses except mother tongue courses and moral education courses. While mastering English, the students did not fall behind in their study of their mother tongue and their own traditional culture. The unique bilingual environment strengthened their national identity and social cohesion, and also attracted a large number of foreign students, especially students from Asian countries headed by China. Singapore's education diversion system sets up different courses and learning contents according to students' mastery of English and mathematics, their actual learning level, learning talent, learning attitude and learning interest, and introduces competition mechanism. This can make rational use of teaching resources, reduce waste of educational resources, fully develop human resources, and enable elite talents to emerge as soon as possible and be put into economic construction. The third is to formulate an open and free immigration policy. Singapore has long been promoting a free economic system and recruiting talents. It welcomes entrepreneurs and professionals from all over the world to settle in Singapore. The conditions for receiving new immigrants are getting wider and wider. In December 2017, the Singapore Immigration Bureau announced the latest policy that foreign students can apply for a Singapore green card (i.e., permanent resident) if they meet three conditions at the same time. These three conditions are: students in Singapore; Having lived for more than 2 years; Must pass a national examination. Therefore, they not only welcome foreign students to study abroad, but also hope that they can stay, so international students can apply for PR as long as they meet the requirements. This clear and understandable foreign student policy fully demonstrates Singapore's determination to cultivate talents. After naturalization, children can apply for a Singapore green card for their parents.

Experience of India Higher Education Service Trade
The development of the trade in educational services between China and India is both similar and has its own characteristics in terms of the modes and main contents of the trade in higher education services. However, overall speaking, China's education service trade lags behind India's due to its late start. Many practices of Indian higher education service trade development are also worth learning

from:
One is to actively develop trade in educational services through international exchanges and cooperation. In less than half a century, India's higher education has risen rapidly by means of international exchanges and cooperation and by taking the road of internationalization. It has broken through the traditional mode of running higher education and has carried out reforms in terms of educational system, source of students, mode of education, course content and teaching facilities. This is instructive for the reform and development of higher education in our country. In the international exchange of higher education, India has always attached importance to learning from foreign experiences and developing itself with the help of international forces. Since the mid-1950s, India has set up seven institutes of technology in succession, following the example of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Up to now, there have been more than 400 engineering and technical institutes. Today, it is the graduates of these institutes who support the building of India's economy. The construction of these buildings was funded by the former Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States and Britain.
The second is to attach great importance to strengthening international and school cooperation. India Third, efforts should be made to realize the leapfrog development of higher education. India has always regarded higher education as the leader of education development, and higher education funds have always occupied a larger share of the total education funds. Today's achievements in India's economy, especially in the IT industry, are due to the role of education and trade in educational services.
The fourth is to effectively solve the problem of studying expenses for overseas students. At present, about 80% of the overseas students in China come from Asian countries, and few from Europe, America and other regions. It is worth noting that Asian countries are mainly newly industrialized countries and developing countries, and the families of students studying abroad do not all have strong economic ability to pay, especially in West Asia, Indonesia, India and South Korea. Therefore, cost and price become important factors that restrict students' studying abroad. Therefore, to effectively solve the problem of studying expenses for overseas students is one of the key measures for India to attract a large number of foreign students to study in China.

China's Higher Education Service Trade Development Status and Problems
Higher education service trade is divided into higher education service import and higher education service port. When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), it promised to open the domestic education service market including higher education service to other WTO members. With China's entry into WTO, China's trade in higher education services has developed rapidly. In addition to the highly developed economy, the broad market prospect has attracted more and more foreign students (see Figure 1). However, on the whole, China's current trade in higher education services is still in the initial stage of development, showing an obvious trade deficit, and mainly concentrated in consumption abroad and there are two modes of business provision.   Although China's status and influence in the international community continue to increase, its appeal to students from other countries is also increasing. However, compared with other developed countries, the development of China's higher education service trade is lagging behind. The specific reasons are as follows:

Education Service Concept Is Relatively Backward
Developed countries, such as the United States, Britain and Australia, have long incorporated the development of education into the society of large economy and large industry. By vigorously developing the education industry, they have driven the great development of economy and society. The U.S. comprehensive opening-up system and global development strategy have determined that the entire U.S. attaches great importance to trade in educational services. Britain has changed its emphasis on aid and exchange since the mid-1980s, abolishing tuition subsidies for overseas students from non-EU countries and replacing them with full fees. In contrast, China has long regarded education as a welfare undertaking. Similarly, due to the unclear concept of the higher education market as a whole, the education authorities still limit overseas education in China as a means to enhance the international reputation of the country and universities, believing that overseas education is to a large extent an educational aid. This leads to the lack of competition in the international education market and the lack of enthusiasm in how to expand the influence of universities in the international market to attract foreign students. Universities are basically in a state of passively waiting for demand instead of actively stimulating demand.

Higher Education Has Lower International Influence
The number and scale of world-class universities has become an important indicator to evaluate the educational service capability of a country or region. Among the Top100 and Top200 universities in the world, the number of universities in the United States, Britain, Japan, Australia, Canada and other countries account for about 70% and 50% respectively, which makes their education service export quality in the leading position as a whole. U.S. News & World Report, a global authority, released the 2019 ranking of the world's best universities, with 1,250 well-known universities from more than 70  States has the most highly cited scientists, with a total of 1,465, accounting for 47.5%;Followed by 346 people in Britain, accounting for 11.2%;Germany has 177 people, accounting for 5.7%, ranking third.
China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) has 175 people, accounting for 5.7%.This shows that there is still a big gap in development between Chinese universities and world-class universities in both quantity and quality.

Lack of Financial Support
At present, China's investment in higher education service trade is relatively limited. The amount and types of scholarships offered by Chinese universities to overseas students are relatively low, and the educational infrastructure and teaching staff are not up to international standards. Some universities have relatively backward dormitory and teaching equipment for overseas students. In addition, the strength and coverage of scholarships for studying in China are relatively low. Although the number of government scholarships provided by China has been increasing in recent years, the proportion of students who can obtain government scholarships is still less than 10% compared with the growth in the number of international students.

Inefficient and Rigid Education Administrative System
Since the reform and opening up, although China's economic system has undergone major changes and a market economy system has been established, there has been no substantial reform or change in the educational administrative system. The government and educational administrative departments monopolize all educational resources, firmly control the personnel, financial allocation, professional curriculum and enrollment plan of public higher education institutions, and use the monopoly power of resources to strengthen the control of private higher education institutions, thus making higher education institutions, as the main body of educational service trade, have no independent autonomy in running schools.

The Legal System Is not Complete Enough
At present, China has made slow progress in the legislation of educational services. It lacks a complete and unified legal system for higher education services and cannot meet the development needs of trade in higher education services. The existing education service legislation can only be said to be a preliminary framework. For the rapidly developing trade in higher education services, except for a "Regulations on Sino-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools" which regulates the commercial existence mode of providing education services in the form of Sino-foreign cooperation in running www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjer schools, there is basically no systematic high-level legislation for the other three modes of providing education services, and there is no necessary legislation in such important fields as education sovereignty, inheritance and dissemination of national culture, protection and relief of students' rights and interests, supervision of education quality, recognition of academic degrees, certification, investment in higher education services, higher education institutions, funding for education services, etc. Generally speaking, China has not given enough consideration to the particularity of higher education service trade and has not formed a unified, complete and coordinated legal and regulatory system conducive to promoting the development of higher education service trade. The second is to improve the relevant system for foreign students in China. The reason why developed countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia can attract a large number of foreign students is that they have a relatively perfect foreign student system in addition to their own unique advantages.

Experience Inspiration and Future Development Direction
In order to solve the problem of foreign students' difficulty in working, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Employment issued two decrees in January 2002, allowing foreign students to work part-time during their studies. Upon completion of their studies, they can change their study residence to work residence as long as they provide employment certificates. The German government's revised "Regulations on the Administration of Foreigners Law" also allows foreign students to work part-time and give unrestricted work and residence permits to the top 1,000 of the 11,000 or so foreign students who graduate in the state each year. Therefore, China should also improve the relevant system for overseas students. We will improve the education management model for overseas students, relax the relevant policies for overseas students, and adopt a policy of "lenient entry and strict exit" in enrollment and student status management for overseas students. Educational institutions should set up sound organizations to be responsible for the enrollment, pre-school training and daily management of foreign students so as to systematize the education of foreign students. We should establish a work-study program for foreign students in China and allow them to work in their spare time. We should raise funds through various channels to provide scholarships and bursaries for overseas students.
The third is to improve the diploma certification system. Establishing a diploma certification system in line with international standards is the guarantee for the development of education service trade.
International students consider to a large extent whether the degree they obtain from studying abroad can be internationally recognized in the consideration factors of choosing the destination country for studying abroad. The international recognition of Chinese educational institutions is relatively low, and the world does not know enough about Chinese education. The Chinese government should play a leading role in the international recognition of academic degrees and strengthen communication with foreign governments and international organizations. On the one hand, the service provided by foreign educational organizations is investigated and analyzed to collect first-hand data for policy formulation; On the other hand, it will publicize Chinese educational institutions, promote exchanges between Chinese educational institutions and foreign countries, and promote the international recognition of Chinese educational services.

Development of Trade in Higher Education Services
First, it is necessary to formulate and implement development plans and promotion policies for trade in higher education services. China has drawn up the outline for the development of education several times, but it is mainly aimed at all levels of the whole educational service. Moreover, the development of the whole educational service is mainly planned from the perspective of government leadership and supervision, and basically does not involve foreign trade in educational services. I n the future, a long-term and medium-term plan for the development of trade in higher education services should be formulated with clear objectives, that is, to promote the provision of foreign higher education services from the perspective of trade, and to develop foreign higher education services by trade methods and means, so as to promote the rapid and healthy development of trade in higher education services.
The second is to strengthen international negotiations, exchanges and cooperation on trade in higher education services. The rapid development of international higher education service trade and China's service trade practice after China's accession to the WTO provide a good opportunity for China to participate in the competition and cooperation of international higher education service trade. At the same time, the reform of domestic education administrative system also needs to be promoted by external forces. Therefore, strengthening China's international cooperation in the field of higher education service trade, actively participating in the international higher education service trade in education services, and seek and explore the international market for trade in higher education services.
The third is to actively do a good job in the international marketing of higher education services. In the development of China's trade in higher education services, in order to promote the export of higher education services, we should attach importance to the role of international marketing while improving our own competitiveness. We will step up publicity efforts to provide more abundant and comprehensive information to potential students studying in China so that they will have a strong interest in China. Using the Internet and other modern means of communication, as far as possible to set up a multi-language publicity website, to facilitate students to accurately understand the information and basic situation of colleges and universities. We can also cooperate with overseas institutions and individuals to set up some recruitment agencies to use local people to promote and expand the influence of China's higher education services.

Competitiveness of the Development of Higher Education Service Trade
One is to improve the competitiveness of educational service institutions themselves. The development of educational service products is a key factor in forming the competitiveness of educational service trade. The development of educational service products is the same as that of products in the ordinary sense, and there is a product life cycle. The education service in developed countries started early and kept bringing forth new ideas in the fierce international competition environment. Educational institutions in developed countries have made continuous improvements and breakthroughs in teaching content and teaching methods, and have continuously introduced new professional fields and research directions according to different stages of economic development and to meet market demands. China's educational service institutions should establish a perfect institutional framework to protect the rights and interests of educational service providers and consumers with clear school rules and regulations. At the same time, establish and perfect supporting services, establish a logistics support system to assist students in learning, and improve students' learning and living environment. Finally, educational service institutions should establish a market-oriented mechanism, carry out market research, adapt to market demand, adjust professional settings and curriculum construction, and improve the quality of educational services. The second is to seize the opportunity of "double first class" construction to enhance the international competitiveness of higher education. Under the guidance of the "Overall Plan for Promoting the Construction of World-class Universities and First-class Disciplines as a Whole", universities should innovate the construction management mode, fully mobilize resources and forces from all sides, and make overall plans. They should not only insist on competition and opening up, but also emphasize reform guidance and comprehensive reform so as to effectively promote the connotative development of universities. On the basis of the present situation, we should focus on strengthening the cultivation of innovative talents, improving the level of scientific research, inheriting the excellent culture of innovation and promoting the transformation of achievements so as to make up for the shortcomings and enhance the comprehensive strength and international competitiveness of colleges and universities.