Regional Responses to Global Challenges

Tertiary Education in ECA: Challenges and Opportunities

Ian WhitmanKyiv, 28 March 2008

I. BackgroundII.Tertiary education

issuesIII.Kazakhstan

Education and the Economy in Non Member Countries

• 1991 - Partners in Transition Programme (Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary and Poland)

• 1991 - Programme for the Newly Independent States of the former USSR

• 1991 - Programme for the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

• 1999 - People’s Republic of China• 2000 – Latin America• 2005 – Africa• 2007 – Central Asia

53 COUNTRY REVIEWS

• Complete Reviews– CSFR, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia,

Slovenia, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Chile, Dominican Republic, PHARE, SEE, North Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Mauritius , Gabon and South Africa

• Thematic Reviews– Lifelong Learning in Hungary– South East Europe– Expanding Tertiary Education in PRC– Financing Higher Education in PRC

Why Are Reviews Important?

– OECD Accession/Aquis communautaire – Links Education Policy to National and

Regional Economic and Social Issues– Places Each Country’s Education System in an

International Comparative Perspective– Makes Policy Recommendations to the

Governments– Stimulates internal discussion– Is Not Conducted by a Donor Organisation --

and therefore is of benefit to Multiple Donor Organisations and Partner Countries

Vis à vis Member Country Reviews• Education Policy Committee/External Relations Committee• Financing

– Programme donor or self financed• Terms of reference

– Case by case– Makeup of team – capacity building– Secretariat input

• Objectives– Implementation of reform, post conflict, linked to economic

development• IO and Member participation

– World Bank, ETF, IDB, UNICEF, ADEA• OECD reputation• Complements their work• Coherence and overlap• Loans, grants, partnerships

Vis à vis Member Country Reviews #2

• Available data– Variable quality– Improvement is often a goal

• PISA/WEI/INES• Recommendations & policy alternatives

– Specific by sector and thematic chapters• Countries often expect a recipe

– Overall synthesis chapter with overarching recommendations– Regional aspects

• Implementation– High level of Secretariat involvement

• E.g. SENDD in SEE• World Bank loan preparation/implementation, UNICEF

reviews, Soros projects, ETF and ADEA peer reviews

Tertiary education issues

The University is no longer a quiet place to teach and do scholarly work at a measured pace and contemplate the universe as in

centuries past. It is a big, complex, demanding, competitive business

requiring large-scale ongoing investment

The University Challenged – A Review of International Trends and Issues with Particular reference to Ireland by Malcolm Skilbeck (2001)

Pressures for change

• Growth – elite to mass to universal - has changed the nature of higher education

• Higher education is increasingly recognised as vital for economic success for individuals

• … and together with knowledge creation for the economic growth of countries

• Inequity is less well tolerated than in the past• Institutions have to respond to student needs and

expectations• There is competition -from the private sector, and from

the public sector in other countries• Increasing awareness of quality and accountability for

public funds

Entry rates into tertiary type A education Sum of net entry rates for each year of age

%

C2.1

Growth in university-level qualificationsApproximated by the percentage of persons with ISCED 5A/6 qualification

born in the age groups shown below (2005)

%

A1.3a 1. Year of reference 2004.2. Year of reference 2003.

Pressures for change

• Growth – elite to mass to universal - has changed the nature of higher education

• Higher education is increasingly recognised as vital for economic success for individuals

• … and together with knowledge creation for the economic growth of countries

• Inequity is less well tolerated than in the past• Institutions have to respond to student needs and

expectations• There is competition -from the private sector, and from

the public sector in other countries• Increasing awareness of quality and accountability for

public funds

Private internal rates of return for malesobtaining a university-level degree, ISCED 5/6 (2003)

%

A9.6b

Pressures for change

• Growth – elite to mass to universal - has changed the nature of higher education

• Higher education is increasingly recognised as vital for economic success for individuals

• … and together with knowledge creation for the economic growth of countries

• Inequity is less well tolerated than in the past• Institutions have to respond to student needs and

expectations• There is competition -from the private sector, and from

the public sector in other countries• Increasing awareness of quality and accountability for

public funds

New approaches to governance

• Institutions have greater freedom to run their own affairs

• Lump sum funding is replacing line-item budgets• A diversity of funding sources is authorised and

encouraged• Institutions are held to account for their outputs• Quality is publicly assessed• Funding is linked to performance• Institutions are ranked – formally or informally

Revenue enhancement options

• Non-degree programmes• Research• Technology transfer• Facilities rental• Consultancies and other services• Gifts and endowments

– OECD review of financing and quality assurance reforms in higher education in the People’s Republic of China (2003)

– 2007 Kazakhstan, 2008 Chile

Creative tensions

• Financial sustainability becomes an institutional responsibility– Government remains the major provider of funding

• Academic mission is sometimes in conflict with the institution’s capacity to deliver– Institutions are obliged to consider whether they can

afford to maintain all their departments• Competition requires differentiation and market positioning

– Few institutions can cater for all sectors of the market• Quality is seen as being under threat from commercial

considerations– Institutions need to demonstrate that efficiency does not

mean taking short-cuts

Developing institutional capacity

• Governance: external members of governing boards are not a threat to academic self-government but a key to mobilising resources from the outside world

• Professional leadership and management skills are required in a complex environment

• Financial management capability comparable with that in the private sector– Understanding costs– Investing in infrastructure– Pricing policy

• Strategic management at the institutional level– Strengthening the centre at the expense of the

department

OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education

Key questions• What are the economic and social objectives of the tertiary

education system?• How can countries make sure that their tertiary education

system is economically sustainable, that it has an appropriate structure, that there are effective links between its parts, and that adequate mechanisms exist to ensure its quality?

• How can adequate resources be mobilised for the tertiary education system?

• What mechanisms and policies at national level can ensure effective governance of the system as a whole?

Case of Kazakhstan

Introduction• The Republic of Kazakhstan (ROK) is a

special and unique country• which aims to compete with the world’s

leading economies.• ROK’s legacy from the former Soviet

Union included some good but many challenging features.

• It is determined to modernise, reform, build on the good features and cast off those which would hold it back from joining the 50 most competitive countries.

Introduction (2)

• Key to competitiveness is development of the ROK’s human capital through education.

• Within education, the quantity and quality of tertiary education (higher education plus higher level skills training) are particularly important to competitiveness.

• But tertiary education needs to be founded on good secondary education, if all who could benefit are to have a fair chance of accessing tertiary education, and all who undertake it are to achieve excellent standards.

Strong points• ROK’s young people - who have high literacy

levels, good language skills and are ambitious to learn and succeed.

• ROK’s economy – strong enough to afford the investment in education and research needed to join the world’s most competitive countries.

• The size and diversity of the university sector, with equal rights for private institutions.

• The steps already taken towards equal access, through the Unified National Test (UNT), the grants system, allowing students to choose which institution to attend and quotas for disadvantaged groups.

Strong points (2)• Steps already taken towards giving Higher

Education Institutions (HEIs) operational, financial and administrative autonomy.

• The ROK Government’s recognition of the need for high quality education, and willingness to develop and modernise education infrastructure and approaches - for example, by introducing a 12th year of schooling.

• Internationalisation efforts – particularly adoption of Bologna’s 3-level model for courses, and the Bolashak programme.

Challenges• Public spending on education and research is low or

very low by international standards. Buildings, facilities and equipment in HEIs are often old and inadequate.

• There is too much central control of teaching and research content, through State Standards, 2nd year and final tests and a burdensome quality assurance system directed mainly at enforcing compliance.

• There are too many impediments, too few incentives for HEIs themselves to innovate, develop curricula and improve quality in teaching and research.

• Teachers’ high compulsory workload leaves them little time for updating their subject knowledge or for research. Teachers and researchers are underpaid. Pay structures do not recognise and reward good performance or professional development.

Challenges(2)• There are serious inequities in access to university and

to student financial support. The UNT is imperfect, both as a school-leaving certificate and as a HE entrance test.

• There are no effective mechanisms to ensure that universities produce graduates whose knowledge and skills meet the needs of the economy or of employers.

• Vocational HE is weakened by the tertiary colleges’ low student numbers, poor funding and low status.

• All HEIs have too little autonomy over academic matters. Public HEIs also have too little autonomy to use resources to best effect, whereas private HEIs have less of the public funding necessary to maintain education quality.

• Too few students go on to post-graduate education. Research suffers from an eroded material base, including poor IT and information resources. International publication rates are low.

Recommendations

• System size, shape and labour market relevance

• Access and equity• Financing• Improving quality• Governance and management• Internationalisation• Research

Current Lessons from International Experience

• Acceptance of the lifelong learning perspective is essential;

• Tertiary education has to be seen as an element of a comprehensive coherent system – linked to secondary and vocational systems;

• Our understanding of performance (outcomes) remains limited – there is no PISA for tertiary;

• National systems operate in regional and global contexts

Challenge for Kazakhstan (1) • The OECD/World Bank report sets

out the analysis and the recommendations for Kazakhstan;

• Two questions: – Where does the tertiary education

system in Kazakhstan want to be in 2015?

– And how will it get there?

Key elements of a modern tertiary education system

Building Blocks to getting there…

I. Equitable Access;II. Broad Governance Structures

( with employer participation);III. Autonomous Institutions;IV. Transparent accountability

mechanisms;V. Robust Quality Assurance systems.

(I) Equitable Access• In order to ensure fairness in access to places

in tertiary education, a best practice policy is one that admits all students with the ability to meet entry criteria, without any reference to their ability to pay.  After places are distributed based on these principles, funding (scholarships, grants or loans) should be available to support all those who could not take up their places without it.

• Discussion: probably no one country completely does this but some countries partially do…the UK and, to some extent, the USA.

(II) Governance of Higher Education Institutions

• Increasing autonomy in management of institutional affairs

• Diversity of funding sources, and freedom to use resources as they wish

• Evaluation of quality by reference to outputs not inputs

• Smaller, more effective and rapid governance structures

• Growing demands on institutional leaders and managers

– Source: OECD Education Policy Analysis 2003

(III) Autonomy

• Ownership of buildings and site• Right to borrow funds• Freedom to decide how to apply budget• Freedom to decide programs and content• Recruit staff and make them redundant• Fix salaries• Decide on the number of students enrolled• Fix tuition fees • Tables 6.1, 6.2 in the report details how various

countries deal with some of these functions. Table 6.3 shows where Kazakhstan is now.

(IV) Accountabilty

• Participation in Governing Boards broadened to include multiple stakeholders;

• More transparent management practices;

• Provision of publicly available information about education and labour market outcomes.

Autonomous and Accountable HEIs look like this

• Question: how far are Kazakh institutions away from this model?

Challenges for Institutions

• Mission– What is the institution's mission and market

(regional, national, international)? Is it serving that market well? How is that known?

– Primary institution focus on Teaching or research?– On undergraduate, post-graduate, lifelong learning?– What is the discipline coverage?– What scope is there for developing strengths and

eliminating weaknesses?• Management

– Professional and business-like ?– Understanding costs and cross-subsidisation– Appropriateness of internal structures

(V) Quality Assurance

• Institutional responsibility for internal quality screening and self evaluation;

• External and autonomous QA capacity;• Participation in continuous quality

assurance exercises ( national and international).

• There are no wholly appropriate international models. Kazakhstan will develop its own ( for discussion).

Challenge for Kazakhstan ( 2)

• Mobilising the resources necessary to provide such a system

• Meeting labour market needs, and contributing to regional economic development

• Providing incentives and controls which will keep the system on track

• Working in partnership with the private sector

Funding to support vision

• Do Government funding policies support and promote the policy outcomes they seek?

• Is the long-term financial sustainability of the system (not necessarily all individual institutions) secure?

• What role is left to market forces, and how can the market best be regulated?

• What is the fairest way to allocate scarce resources?

From the student perspective

• What choices are open to prospective students?

• Is complete and reliable information about these choices available?– Cost– Quality– Utility

• Are there pathways to support choice?• Do considerations such place of residence

( geography) or levels of poverty constrain the choices available to students?

Role of government

• With HEIs and employers, build consensus for vision and strategy; and set policy objectives;

• Encourage the development of capacity for evidence based policy formulation;

• Establish benchmarks : eg participation and completion rates; quality and labour market indicators;

• Provide adequate resources.

Thank YouIan.whitman@oecd.org

www.oecd.org/edu/globalforum2008www.oecd.org/edu non members