International Influences on Educational Policy--With Special Reference to the Technological Sector of Higher Education--in Greece as a European Semi-periphery

Abstract

This article argues that in the 1960s-1970s, two international organisations, namely OECD and the World Bank, influenced educational policy in Greece: higher technical education was expected to contribute to economic development and modernisation. This process took place within the framework of the 'semi-peripherality' of Greece during that period: the so-called 'internationalisation' process, which included foreign investment and technological transfer. By the end of the 1970s, there was a dramatic expansion of the education system. Nevertheless, particular emphasis was attached to higher technical education to promote economic development and modernisation, in view of Greece's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC). In the 1980s-1990s, the major actor influencing higher technological education policy in Greece was the EEC. Within the context of an expansion of the higher education system, higher technological education was upgraded also to promote modernisation and a 'self-reliant' economic development, for the full adaptation of Greece to the EEC. However, the respective reforms were incompatible with the state of the Greek economy and the nature of the Greek State, which was one of the main reasons for Greece's difficulty in adapting to the EU on equal terms.