高等教育委外與地主國勞動市場關係之研究

A Research on the Relationship between Higher Education Outsourcing and the Labor Markets of Host Countries

隨著高等教育的國際化，不但使高等教育機構競爭力增強，也讓國家的教育投資成本降低，讓國家稀少的資源可轉作更有效率的運用。Agarwal & Winkler（1985）就提到，學生的國際性移動可以讓教育資源不足以滿足學生需求的國家，藉由國外的教育資源來讓學生獲得更高的受教品質，提升國家人力資源的素質。Braczyk, Husain & Green（2007）亦提到，越來越多的超小型企業，由於無法具備所有的人力資源管理技能，無法獨力從事人力資源管理活動。因此，將人力資源管理活動委外來進行。教育資源不足的國家，藉由國外教育機構來培育學生，有如超小企業委託其他機構代為從事人力資源管理活動。故而，本文將學生的國際性移動視為國家將高等教育委外。不同於大多委外生產文獻將研究重心放在委託單位（client organization），本文著重在探討受託單位（service provider）所受到的影響。換言之，本文根據OECD在2012年8月公布的統計數據，以國際學生最多的美、英、澳三國之中、印、韓、馬、越籍國際學生為研究標的，利用Pearson相關係數，探討中、印、韓、馬、越五國的「高等教育委外」與「地主國（美、英、澳）勞動市場就業率及失業率」的相關性。此外，美、英、澳三國基於保障國內勞工就業機會，近年來陸續採取限縮的移民政策與國際學生政策，進而影響其高等教育機構在國際學生市場的競爭力。本文發現，僅部分國籍的國際學生人數與地主國的就業率或失業率具有顯著相關性。亦即，地主國代委託國培訓國際學生，僅部分國家的國際學生對於地主國就業率或失業率有影響。全面採取更嚴格的國際學生簽證與工作許可政策，可能讓地主國就業市場未蒙其利，卻先讓該國失去國際學生市場的競爭力，因此，美、英、澳三國近年採取緊縮的移民或國際學生政策不見得是明智之舉。

Agarwal &Windler (1985) asserts that the international mobility of students fulfills the needs for higher education in countries that in general cannot satisfy the needs. In such countries, educational opportunities abroad provide students with higher quality of education and also raise the quality of human resource. In the meantime, Braczyk, Husain & Green (2007) mention that it is hard for very small businesses (VSBs) to obtain all knowledge and skills needed to manage human resource activities. Thus, more and more VSBs outsource their human resource management activities to obtain such knowledge and skills. With the similarity of the former countries to VSBs that make use of external institutions to fulfill the needs, in this article, the international mobility of students is treated as the country's outsourcing higher education. Different from most of researches on outsourcing, this article aims at the impacts on service providers. This article intends to study the effects of international students on host countries. Using the statistics reported by OECD in August 2012, this article studied the relationship between ”higher education outsourcing from China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam” and ”employment rate and unemployment rate in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia (the host countries).” To measure the relationship, the Pearson correlation coefficient was applied. On the other hands, as higher education is becoming more and more internationalized, the competitive advantage of institutions for higher education has increased and the investment costs of education have decreased. As results, countries can use their scarce resources in more efficient ways. However, in order to protect employment opportunities in the domestic labor market, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have been introducing more and more restrictive immigration policies and international student policies. The restrictions are expected to further affect the competitive advantage among institutions for higher education in the international student markets. While this article found some significant correlations in the United States and the United Kingdom, it did not find any significant correction between ”employment rate and unemployment rate in Australia” and the ”higher education outsourcing” of the five countries. The results indicate that introducing more restrictions on immigration policies and international student policies for protecting domestic labor markets may not be a wise decision.