Education for economic success new models for higher education ewf london january 2011

Education for Economic Success:New Strategies for Higher EducationDirk Van DammeHead of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation at the OECD, Paris

Outline

• Some starting points and questions

• Contexts of change: trends and policies

• Diverging rationales and resistance to change

• Four scenario’s for higher education’s future

• The need for new strategies

• And technology…?

Starting points and questions

• Despite high degree of technology adoption, massive impact of globalisation and continued massification, universities in general have not radically transformed their operation and delivery model.

• Increasing and diversifying demand and participation will continue to challenge prevailing models.

• Economic and fiscal crisis will lead to increased policy demands for excellence, efficiency and accountability.

Will this create an environment of innovation and reform leading to new models of higher education?

Contexts

• Main trends:– Continued expansion of higher education

systems in access and participation; demand will remain high

– More heterogeneous student population– Institutional diversification– More challenging and insecure funding– Increased competition for resources and output,

including for academics on a competitive market– In an increasingly global context of networking,

mobility and collaboration

Contexts

• Main policy directions:– Policy frameworks (theoretically) exchanging

more institutional autonomy for accountability– Integration (or subordination) of research in

national and regional innovation systems– From ensuring quality to promoting excellence– Continued (or even increased) steering to

integrate institutional objectives with national priorities

– Regional convergence (Europe: EHEA and ERA)– Positioning national systems in global arena

with rankings as benchmarking tools

Contexts

• Future trends and policies to be expected:– Continued increasing participation; growth will come

from more diverse and more demanding students– Changing skill demands, including innovative skills

and interdisciplinary skills for new professions– More challenging situation at input side: resources,

staff– Increased social and political demand for

effectiveness, productivity in research and teaching, innovation

– More competition, not only between institutions and countries, but also with new types of institutions outside the HE sector

Resistance to change?

• Challenge of tuning the different rationales, system dynamics and motivations present in the higher education and research system– Public policy rationale: efficiency,

rationalisation and specialisation– Institutional rationale: autonomy, expansion,

coherence and competition– Market rationale: rankings, reputation race and

competition– Research rationale: flexible networks organised

around research needs and ideas

University Futures:Four Future Scenarios

• Open networking

• Serving local communities

• New public responsibility

• Higher education, Inc.

Scenario 1Open Networking

Main features

• International collaboration and networking leading to harmonization of systems

• English as lingua franca• Free and open knowledge

exchange and access to research

• International collaborative research, even if within the persistent hierarchy of institutions

• New approaches to teaching

Related developments

• Bologna Process in Europe

• International academic partnerships and consortia

• Increased mobility• Cheap and fast

communication facilitated by the Internet

• Developing culture of openness

Open Networking – Some Implications

Institutional Governance• Focus on international co-

operation and networking• Institutional leaders

providing overall vision and guidance

• Rather horizontal than vertical decision-making structures

• Networks within disciplines

• Inter-institutional information sharing for decision-making

Students• Autonomous and

cosmopolitan students (use of English)

• Study flexibility (online courses)

• Widespread student mobility

• Active international student networks

Scenario 2 Serving Local Communities

Features• Institutions mainly focused on

national, regional and/or local missions

• Convergence between universities and polytechnics

• Academics are trusted professionals with teaching as their central objective

• Mainly publicly funded and administered systems

• Strengthened financial support from local industry and needs-based lifelong learning


• Scepticism regarding globalisation, even anti-globalisation movements

• Emergence of geo-strategic concerns

• Interest in preservation of national culture and fostering social cohesion

• Interest in regional role of higher education

Serving Local Communities – Some Implications

Institutional Governance

• Focus on local responsiveness

• Integral industry and community participation in decision-making

• Regular informal exchanges

• Coordination between local institutions

Students

• Interlinked study and working life

• Preference for vocationally oriented degrees

• Strengthened family and community ties

• Diversity of students and lifelong learning

Scenario 3New Public Responsibility

Features• Autonomy of institutions

combined with ‘new public management’ tools

• Significant share of public funding with increasingly mixed resource base

• Strong public accountability but also more private reward systems

• Strong national competition for public research funding

Related developments• General quest for

transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness in public management

• Increasing institutional autonomy in many countries

• Cost-sharing and raising tuition fees increasingly under debate

• Increasingly competitive research funding

New Public Responsibility – Some Implications

Institutional Governance

• Institutional autonomy coupled with accountability

• Increasingly diversified accountability (Governments, students, industry)

• Strong supervision bodies• Increased vertical

accountability of staff

Students

• Students as “clients”• Increased financial

responsibilities• Participation in institutional

decision-making • Responsiveness on the

needs of different kinds of students

• Rather cross-border mobility of institutions than of students

Scenario 4Higher Education Inc.

Features• Global competition on a

commercial basis• Disconnection of research

and teaching according to competitive advantage

• Strong competition for (English-speaking) students

• Concentration of research with worldwide competition for funding

• Public funding exclusively to non-commercially viable disciplines


• Trade in higher education and inclusion of it in trade negotiations

• Increasing international mobility of students and cross-border higher education

• Increase of cross-border funding of research and private research activities

Higher Education Inc. – Some Implications

Institutional Governance• High institutional

autonomy coupled with “market test”

• Direct accountability to different financial contributors

• Focus on securing funding and ensuring competitive advantage of the institution

• Business like human resource practices

Students• Students as mobile

“clients” of global higher education industry

• Strong financial participation

• Strong say in decision-making

• Choice over variety of programs and prices

• Influence of rankings on student choice

Serving Local Communities

International

National

MarketDemand-driven

AdministrationSupply-driven

Open Networking Higher Education Inc.

New Public Responsibility

University Futures Scenarios

•

Need for new strategies

• Continued expansion of demand, participation and graduation: massification

Source: CERI/OECD, 2008

Expected supply of tertiary graduates



• Changing skills demand and skills utilisation in learning organisations

Changing skill demand

Source: Levy and Murnane, 2005

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4-Dec-2009 22Dies Address Academic Ceremony 25th Anniversary OUNL

Distribution of employees across organisation classes (2005)

Source: Holms, Lorenz, Lundvall and Valeyre

Learning organisations are associated with lead innovation (2000)

Discretionary learning Lean organisation




• Added-value of tertiary level qualifications and skills need to be maintained and even improved




• Added-value of tertiary level qualifications and skills need to be maintained and even improved

• Growth and globalisation of scientific research asks for more flexible and interdisciplinary knowledge organisation

And technology…?

• IT has penetrated and transformed HE, but more so in research and management than education

• Today’s students are technology savvy, but do want technology to improve the teaching & learning process, not to radically change it

• Some expectations for revolutionary change in HE did not materialise

• But technology will be a crucial part of the process of change in higher education

Thank you !

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