Trends in Higher Education around the world – Perspectives and OECD responses

Barbara Ischinger

Director for Education

OECD, Paris

Outline

• 1. Context

• 2. Policy trends

• 3. Regional development

• 4. Assessing learning outcomes

1. The context: key trends1. GrowthTertiary education is growing… but in some places much faster than others

Pressure on budgets

TEKS, 2008 Fig. 2.3

1. The context: key trends2. Diversification of provisionGrowth of vocationally-oriented HEIs

Growth of private provision in some countries

3. More heterogenous student bodiesRising participation by female and mature students

More heterogenous socio-economic backgrounds than in the past

4. New governance arrangementsGrowing autonomy… coupled with greater accountability requirements

Development of quality assurance systems

5. New funding arrangementsDiversification of sources (cost-sharing)

Increasing focus on accountability and performance

2. Trends in tertiary (post-secondary) education policy:

• Quality• Equity• Internationalisation

Drawn from a 24-country review conducted between 2005 and 2008

Policy directions

Assuring and Improving Quality (1)

Build consensus on clear goals and expectations of the QA system– Expectations from QA aligned to overall tertiary education strategy – Reconcile different perceptions of quality to build national commitment to QA – Distinguish accountability and improvement to build consensus

Ensure that QA serves both improvement and accountability purposes– Find the right balance between them– Revisit this balance periodically move to audit once baseline standards are met

Combine internal and external quality assurance mechanisms– Most effective to address the different purposes of QA– Specific mechanisms according to traditions and stage of QA development

Build capacity and secure legitimacy– QA agency: independent from Ministry, trust of TEIs– Involve academic community in external teams

Align QA processes to the particular profile of institutions– E.g. more focus on LM relevance in tertiary vocational institutions

Source: Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society (OECD, 2008)

Policy directions

Assuring and Improving Quality (2)

Make stakeholders visible in the evaluation procedures– Students and employers in external teams, graduate surveys– To build legitimacy

Increase focus on student outcomes– Shift focus from inputs to learning and labour market outcomes– Develop and publish indicators of teaching quality, cognitive outcomes– NQFs, LM indicators, graduate perspectives in QA

Enhance the international comparability of the QA framework– Convergence and mutual recognition of national QA systems, international guidelines– Involve international experts, publish results in English

Put more stress on internal QA mechanisms– Less costly and more effective than periodic and comprehensive external reviews– Role of QA agency: technical assistance, promote dialogue and best-practice

Avoid direct links between results and public funding decisions– Prefer ex-ante links with funding (e.g. to be eligible for funding) to ex-post links– Limit financial rewards to better assist low-performing institutions

Source: Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society (OECD, 2008)

Career guidance and counselling services at the school level are instrumental in improving equity of access

Assess extent and origin of equity issues: Systematic collection of data.

Provide opportunities for tertiary education study from any track in upper secondary school

Strengthen the integration of planning, policy and analysis between secondary and tertiary education systems

Diversify the supply of tertiary education to accommodate a more diverse set of learners

Policy directions

Making tertiary education more equitable requires policy to intervene much earlier

Achieving Equity (1)

Source: Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society (OECD, 2008)

Consider positive discrimination policies for particular groups whose prior educational disadvantage is well identified

Improve the access to tertiary education in remote areas by expanding distance learning and regional learning centres

Diversify criteria for admission and give a say to institutions in entrance procedures

Policy directions

Achieving Equity (2)

Improve transfers between different types of institutions within tertiary education

Provide incentives for tertiary education institutions to widen participation and provide extra support for students from disadvantaged

backgroundsSpecial financial incentive for inst. to attract less represented groups; positive

discrimination; studies progression support (e.g. tutoring services); adapting the learning environment to account for the diversity of the student body.

Source: Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society (OECD, 2008)

Policy directions

Shaping internationalisation in the national context (1)

Develop a national strategy and comprehensive policy framework for internationalisation

– Build on country-specific advantages/constraints resist replication

Improve national policy coordination– Inter-governmental committee to maximise synergies among policies

Immigration, S&T, Labour, Foreign Affairs

Encourage institutions to become proactive actors of internationalisation– Framework conditions to make TEIs more responsive to internat. envt

int° strategy in annual negotiations, remove blockages, incentives

Promote sustainable strategies of internationalisation– Diversify activities, partners, distribution of internat. students within system

Create structures to assist TEIs in their internationalisation strategies

Develop on-campus internationalisation– From equity perspective, efforts should focus on internat° on campus– E.g. revisit HR & pensions policy to ease recruitment of foreign academics

Source: Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society (OECD, 2008)

Policy directions

Shaping internationalisation in the national context (2)Create structures to promote the national tertiary education system

– E.g. ‘marketing’ agency, capitalise on diplomatic missions abroad

Enhance the international comparability of tertiary education– E.g. Bologna-compatible degree structures, credit transfer schemes

Develop alternatives to current global rankings– E.g. instruments accommodating the diversity of TE, measuring value-added and

allowing tailored rankings

Foster centres of excellence at postgraduate level– To showcase research achievements in areas of strength

Ensure quality provision in undergraduate cross-border education– Coordination between agencies dealing with QA and int°, support for int. students,

OECD/UNESCO guidelines, cooperation with foreign QA agencies

Encourage the mobility of domestic academic staff and students– Students inform on benefits of study abroad, credit transfer schemes, means-tested

mobility grants/loans, portable public financing– Academics include mobility in promotion criteria

Source: Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society (OECD, 2008)

3. Enhancing the contribution of post-secondary institutions to regional economic and social development

With globalisation, the comparative advantage of regions that can create the best conditions for growth and development is increasing.

.

… But to stay competitive, key parts of their operations need to be based in knowledge and innovation-intensive regions …..

…High technology companies, once tied to their locations, can now move their production to anywhere in the world

To Be Globally Competitive Countries need to invest in their Innovation systems and human capital development not only at the national, but also regional level

… Universities and other higher education institutions can play a key role in Regional Innovation Systems and Human Capital Formation…..

OECD reviews of HE in regions

• Reviews of 14 regions in 12 countries established a steering committee with representatives from HEIs, public and private sectors. The focus was on innovation, human capital development, social, cultural and environmental development and capacity building.

What was learnt?• Regional engagement of universities is often based on short term

project funding and generic growth. It lacks systematic processes and structures ; There is limited co-operation among HEIs and btw HEIs and stakeholders

• Most countries have invested in making universities engines for high tech based innovation; but innovation is also incremental, not only radical: low tech fields innovate too

• Only few universities have gained income through patents and commercialisation: Open science could enhance innovation by reducing the costs of knowledge transfer

• Policy focus on few high technology fields, while 70% of OECD workforce is in the service sector. Cultural industries are becoming a major driver globally, accounting for 7% of GDP and growing at 10% annually

Uncoordinated HE, S&T and territorial policy

Limits to HEIs’ autonomy

Limited incentives to HEIs

Weak management, lack of entrepreneurial culture

Tensions between regional engagement & academic excellence

Lack of incentives to individuals

National Regional Institutional

Fragmented local govs, weak leadership

Intraregional and interinstitutional competition

HEIs not part of strategy work and implementation

Barriers to HE engagement

Pointers for governments• Make regional engagement explicit in HE legislation

• Strengthen university autonomy ; provide funding incentives; develop indicators and monitor outcomes

• Require HEI governance to involve regional stakeholders; encourage the participation of HEIs in regional governance

• Support collaboration between HEIs and mobilise resources for joint regional and urban strategies

• Provide a more supportive environment for university-enterprise co-operation

• Focus on human capital development

Pointers for regional authorities

• Establish a permanent partnership structure of key stakeholders from local and regional authorities, business and industry, the community and higher education

• Mobilise the resources of HEIs in the preparation and implementation of regional and urban strategies

• Invest jointly with HEIs in programmes which bring benefit to regional business and community

Pointers for HEIs• Mainstream regional economic, social and cultural engagement

into the core missions of teaching and research

• Revisit the mission statement, strategies and goals; monitor results and provide incentives

• Develop senior management teams, a regional development office and facilitators

• Establish modern administration with HR and financial resources management systems: Review recruitment, hiring and reward systems.

• Establish partnership organisations between HEIs

Information on Phase 2 reviews with focus on city regions for 2008-2010

www.oecd.org/edu/higher/regionaldevelopment

4. Feasibility study on assessing higher education learning outcomes (AHELO)

The context: key trends• Several trends going in the same direction

Greater attention to quality by stakeholders• Students and employers to make better-informed choices • HEIs, departments or faculties to better understand their

comparative strengths and weaknesses• Public policymakers to quantify stocks and flows in high-level skills

and to assess the impact of policy decisions.

• OECD Education Ministers Meeting, Athens (June 2006)

From quantity to quality

Summary: Why this initiative?

• Information feeding peer pressure and public accountability has become more powerful than legislation and regulation…… makes international comparisons inevitable in a field hitherto primarily of national interest

• The cost of action is significant…Major challenges to be overcome

… but so is the cost of inactionJudgements about tertiary education outcomes will continue to be made on the basis of rankings derived from inputs or research-driven outputs

• Not a ranking, nor standardisation, but evidence for policy and practice

The AHELO feasibility study• Goal

… to assess whether reliable cross-national comparisons of higher education learning outcomes are scientifically possible and whether their implementation is feasible

• Not a pilot!Proof of concept AND practicality

Designed to assist countries decide by the end of 2010 whether to pursue the AHELO initiative towards a full-scale pilot

• OECD role Establish broad frameworks that guide international expert committees charged with instrument development in the assessment areas

• Timeframe 2008-2010

• Countries to determine further steps on the basis of the outcomes

AHELO scope and purpose• Our measures need to reflect parts of tertiary education

teaching that relate to quality of outcomesCapture what students know and can do in order to

– Provide better information to TEIs, governments, and other stakeholders including students and employers

– Assist TEIs in their development and improvement efforts

• Challenge of getting the balance right between breadth and depthNot everything that is important needs to be dealt with in detail but the complexity and diversity of tertiary education needs to be reflected

• Seek measures that are as comparable as possible… … but as specific for institutions as necessary

• Focus coverage as much as feasible… … but keep it as large as necessary to be useful for policy formation

Some practical considerations• Target population

Collect data near, but before, the end of the first degree (large testing window)

• Successful institutional participation contingent on meeting international standards for test administration and student participation rates

• Computer delivered assessmentsPossibly web-based

• Describe performance through proficiency levelsCan do statements

• What feedback to TEIs?Performance profiles and contextual data

Their own results and those of other TEIs (anonymously)

• What feedback to students?How to motivate them?

Four strands of workCarried out independently but coherently

1. Generic skills strand International pilot test of the US Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA)

– To assess the extent to which higher-order skills of the type measured by the CLA can be validly measured across different cultural, linguistic and institutional contexts

2. Discipline strandEngineering and Economics (following experts’ advice)

Instruments yet to be determined– Possible candidates: Provao (Brazil), EGEL (Mexico), GRE Major Fields Test (US),

ABET (Engineering, US) etc.– Approach (implementation of a full instrument of combination of item pools from distinct

instruments) to be determined by experts

3. “Value added” or “Learning gain” measurement strandExploring the issue of VA measurement from several perspectives– Conceptually– Examination and analysis of existing data sources, methodologies and psychometric

evidence

Four strands of work (2)

Piloting of instruments

involved

1. Generic skills strand 2. Discipline strand

3. Value added measurement strand

4. Contextual strand

Development of contextual information indicators at institutional level:

– Of the kind developed by the CHE in Germany– Already successfully applied across borders in Europe

The AHELO feasibility studyCurrent status

• Circulation of roadmap • Invitation to countries for participation

Deadline 25 July

Cost per country 150K over 2009-2010 + national implementation costs (100-400K depending on strands)

• Fundraising

AHELO: next steps• Allocation of participating countries to various strands

• Planning for field implementation in the various strands

• Securing funding

Countries and foundations

• Developing instruments for the different strands with international expertsSelection of instruments, translation, cultural adaptation, development of computer platform etc.

• Communication and discussion with relevant stakeholdersUniversity groups (e.g. European University Association), staff, business, and student organisations

IMHE General Conference, 8-10 September 2008, Paris

Outcomes of higher education: quality, relevance and impact

Thank you for your attention

www.oecd.org