Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The globalization of education has opened an increasingly intensive interaction space between the governments of a country with international institutions such as the World Bank. In Indonesia, the World Bank plays a role in guiding the policy direction of higher education through a series of policy prescriptions. This paper questions the Indonesian tovernment’s decision to receive a prescription for higher education reform. To consider this question, this study uses discursive institutionalism and policy borrowing theory. Therefore, it examines the various World Bank prescriptions that are derived into Indonesian tovernment discourses on the process of identifying interests, policy constructs, and policy legitimacy. This paper shows that the idea of new paradigm and knowledge economy oriented towards the enhancement of competitiveness play an important role in encouraging the Indonesian government to undertake higher education reforms after the 1997 financial crisis. The implications show a change in how education was seen from as public good into education as private.This review is useful for assessing how structures affect agents in which the World Bank influences government.