Antoni Verger
Antoni Verger was awarded a PhD on Sociology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) for his work on the WTO/GATS and Education. In the context of the UAB, he has participated in the following competitive research projects: "Globalization and inequalities in Latin America", "Beyond Targeting the Poor: Education, development and anti-poverty policies in South America" and "Advances and Shortcomings of Education for All in Latin-America".
He has been a post-doctoral researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) of the Universiteit van Amsterdam between 2007 and 2011. In the framework of the IS Academy Education and Development (Minbuza+UvA), he has carried out research in the areas of the global governance of education (with a focus on international organizations and transnational civil society networks), education privatization, and higher education and international development. Since 2011, Verger is a "Ramón y Cajal" Research Fellow at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (antoni.verger@uab.cat).
Austerity and education reforms in Spain: Moving far from international excellence
At a time of economic crisis, many governments have a schizophrenic relationship with education. On the one hand, they consider education as a strategic sector and the key to getting us out of the crisis. On the other, they apply indiscriminate cuts to the sector, with very negative effects in terms of educational quality and equity. To try to overcome this contradiction, during a crisis, our governments propose “educational reforms” aimed at improving education systems without necessarily investing more resources, ...
Education reform in times of crisis: Emulating Finland?
Education reform is an increasingly internationalised phenomenon. Governments seeking to reform their education system usually look to the international level for successful experiences, with a view to learning from their strengths and, as far as possible, emulating them. In Europe, Finland currently stands out as the principal international reference for education reform owing to its excellent results in standardised international tests such as PISA. The current economic crisis however, and the superficial manner in which governments try to import international “good ...
Financial servility and the education crisis in southern Europe
In Southern Europe, we are immersed in a deep financial crisis. This is largely due to greed within the banking sector in this hyper-liberalised financial system, a growth model highly dependent on speculation and the 'bad government' prevalent in the region that has tolerated, if not pro-actively fuelled, this erratic development model.In response to the financial crisis, Southern European governments have embraced austerity measures characterised by significant cuts in fundamental social services such as health and education. Education cuts Spain is a ...