EDUCATION AND COMPETITIVENESS IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

The educational system is one of the important factors in creating and developing the competitive forces of a country. The higher education provides the socio-economic environment with two basic services: teaching and research. The duality marks an entire history for higher education, but nowadays a new dilemma has emerged: economic efficiency (the university as an economic provider of services) versus academic competitiveness (the university as a research forum). In addition, a new challenge seems to be altering the future of higher education, these stemming from the massive increase in the demand for university teaching services: elite higher education, thus efficient, highly competitive academically (competitiveness), or mass higher education, adapted to the demand, with the primary role of harnessing knowledge though professional training (effectiveness).