Commission I

Relevance for Higher Education

Final Report
Dr. Hebe Vessuri
Pertinence
Prof. Carlos Tnnermann Bernheim
Principios bsicos que deben guiar el diseo de las
polticas en la educacin superior
Prof. Michael Gibbons
st
Higher Education Relevance in the 21 Century
Prof. Eduardo Aponte
Diversification and organizational development of
higher education: a typology of trends in the North
America region and the periphery
Prof. Jerzy Woznicki
Diversification of Higher Education
Discussion Note: Relevance in Higher Education

Commission I - Relevance for Higher Education

Final Report

1.

Opening of the Commission:

The Commission was opened by Professor Peter MEDGYES, (Hungary), representative of the
Director-General, on Tuesday, 6 October 1998 at 10:00 a.m.

2.

Election of the Bureau:

The Commission agreed to the composition of the Bureau as proposed by Member States,
according to Article 4.A.v) of Rules of Procedure, as follows:
Chairperson: Dr. Om Nagpal, India
Vice-Chairpersons: H.E. Mr Andrew Petter, Minister of Advanced Education, Province of
British Columbia, Canada; Mr Daniel Altin, Vice-Chancellor, University of Quisqueya, Haiti;
Mr Iyad Aflak, Councellor, Permanent Delegation of Iraq to UNESCO, H.E. Mr Jusenf Vrioni,
Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Albania to UNESCO;
Rapporteur: Professor Geoffrey Mmari, Vice-Chancellor, Open University of Tanzania.

3.

The commission was assigned by the Steering Committee of the World Conference on Higher
Education the following topics, other topics related to relevance being dealt with in the
Thematic Debates:
Session 1: Basic Principles Governing Policy Making in Higher Education; Tuesday 6 October,
10:25 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Session 2: Access to Higher Education: The Impact of Massification. Basic principles for
access based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Wednesday, 7 October , 10:00
a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Session 3: Diversification of Higher Education; Wednesday, 7 October, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Session 4: Higher Education and Capacity Building for Citizenship: Thursday, 8 October,
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
The final session was held on Thursday, 8 October, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
All sessions of the commission were held in Room II.

4.

Ms Hebe Vessuri (Venezuela) made a general presentation of the subject by summarizing her
paper on which the Chapter on Relevance of the Working Document ED-98/CONF.202/5 was
based.

5.

The first session, chaired by Dr Om NAGPAL (India), was introduced by the following three
facilitators: Professor Carlos Tnnermann (Nicaragua), Member of the Advisory Group on
Higher Education, Mr William Saint (World Bank) who presented a paper written by Professor
Michael Gibbons, and Professor Ahmadou Lamine NDiaye (Senegal). All highlighted the
complexity and multi-faceted aspects of relevance.

6.

The topic of the second session, chaired by Vice-President Andrew PETTER, Minister of
Advanced Education, Province of British Columbia, Canada, was introduced by Professor
Suzy HALIMI (France), followed by three other facilitators, Professor Ronald Barnett (United
Kingdom), Professor Carmen Garcia Guadilla (Venezuela), and Professor Jairam Reddy
(South Africa). All highlighted the phenomenon of massification of higher education, still the
existence of inequalities in access both nationally and internationally, and called for the
transformation of higher education systems to accommodate the ever increasing flow of
students of various backgrounds.

7.

The topic of the third session, chaired by Vice-President Iyad AFLAK, Counsellor, Permanent
Delegation of Irak to UNESCO was introduced by Professor Jean-Claude Garric (FISE)
followed by Professor Eduardo Aponte (Puerto Rico) and Professor Jerzy Woznicki (Poland).
All facilitators emphasized the necessity of diversification of higher education institutions and
programmes as a response to the challenges of rapid social change, to the ever-increasing
demand for higher education, and to students' needs and aspirations.

8.

The topic of the fourth session, chaired by Mr Daniel Altin, Vice-Chancellor, University of
Quisqueya, Haiti, was introduced by Mr Arild Tjeldvoll (Norway). He stressed that the
relationship between states and the universities are subject to continuous change and give
way to dominance by market forces and competition for resources.

9.

During the debates that followed the presentations of facilitators, 84 delegates representing all
UNESCO regions and reflecting a wide range of higher education community took the floor.

10.

The debates put emphasis on the following key issues perceived as important by delegates.
(a) Meaning of the concept of relevance:
It was emphasized that relevance was a dynamic concept which could be constraining if
misused and that it should be enshrined into each particular context. Several speakers
underlined the importance of cultural relevance of higher education. The examples of
education for aboriginal people and other minority groups were used to this effect. It was
also recognized that discrimination against certain groups in society has been enacted
through imposed curricula. It was expressed that the individual should not be forced into
finite outcomes.
It was also expressed that relevance should encompass such concerns as environment
issues, sustainable development, etc.
The question as to who should decide on relevance was raised several times.
Transparency and accountability were stressed. Likewise, appropriate university-society
interaction can only be achieved by fostering a productive dialogue. A suggestion was
made as to the establishment of national committees to guarantee a democratically
reached decision.
(b) Responsiveness to national needs:
-

The necessity of adaptation of higher education to the changes that occur at previous
educational levels as well as the contribution of higher education to these levels were
highlighted.

There was a general view to consider higher education as public service, calling for
continuous and adequate financial commitment and support from governments; however,
private institutions of higher education were seen as having a role to play and this is to
complement public institutions, provided that relevance and quality are ensured.

Teachers should be more responsive to local realities and at the same time open to
international trends, particularly as regards developments in information technology.

(c) Increasing demand for higher education:

There was a general consensus to the effect that demand for higher education is
exponentially increasing, triggered off by the increasing number of secondary school
graduates, by enhanced mobility and the presence of other age groups looking for second
opportunities. In agreement with Article 26 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,
and considering that higher education is a key factor for development, Member States
were called upon to take all necessary measures to meet these needs.
(d) Issues directly related to students:
Seven issues concerning students were raised by several speakers:
-

Widening access to higher education to all groups of society with particular attention to
the access of minority groups, of women, etc.

The potential opposition between the wishes of students and the needs of society should
lead to well-informed career decisions from the part of the students. Institutions and their
personnels have a crucial responsibility in this regard.

Students made a strong plea for participating actively in decision-making processes, and
it was largely supported.

Obstacles to mobility of students should be considered and removed.

Higher education should aim at the development of the person in its wholeness. Particular
emphasis was put on the development of critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and
the capacity to contribute to the development of society.

The phenomenon of massification necessitates the creation of new structures to support

students during their studies, such as guidance services, remedial courses and preventive
measures against early drop-out.

Many speakers drew the attention to the need to duly match access to higher education,
learning environment and the world of work to prevent graduate unemployment.

(e)

Diversification of higher education:

Several approaches to the concept of diversification were spelled out. One of the issues
was to achieve a balance between massification and diversification. Another one focused
on individualization in the sense of adjusting curricula and programmes to personal talents
and to encouraging imagination. Others envisaged diversification in terms of enlarging the
students choices between short and other longer programmes implying different durations
for getting academic degrees, and creating appropriate institutions in regions so as to have
a positive impact on the development of the region of their location. Stressing the need for
complementarity between higher education institutions was viewed as a further step to
diversification.

(f)

Financial resources:
Developing countries, supported by numerous developed countries, stressed that limited
financial resources, as well as pressures stemming from structural adjustment measures,
are major constraints to expanding access to higher education and to the diversification of
institutions and the programmes in view of the need for important investments in facilities,
equipment, teaching/learning materials, and human resources.
A strong plea was voiced for a renewed social contract between all stakeholders at national
level, as well as for a pact of solidarity at international level, including contributing to the
training of the needed higher education teaching personnel and measures to stop brain
drain from developing countries to developed ones.

(g)

Transforming higher education:

There was general consensus that massification implies the transformation of higher
education institutions, particularly with respect to:

larger participation of students in decision-making;

expanding opportunities for lifelong higher education;

flexibility and interdisciplinarity of programmes;

renewal of teaching methodologies;

continuous up-grading and expanding the use of information technologies.

(h)

Higher education and capacity building for citizenship:

Higher education institutions can and should, through curricula and appropriate modes of
governance, include the teaching and research on basic freedoms, conflict resolution,
human rights and citizenship in order to sustain democracy.

Teaching personnel was recognized to have special roles and duties to perform with
respect to capacity building for citizenship both in terms of knowledge transfer and of
providing patent role models of mature citizens to students.

Democracy inside universities and the respect of institutional autonomy and academic
freedom build the seed for promoting democracy and active citizenship in society. Many
speakers emphasized the strain under which certain higher education institutions are
operating because of situations of external conflict, political uncertainty, and civic strife.

There was general consensus that institutions of higher education have a crucial role to
play in ensuring equality of access to all minority groups and to foster positive attitudes
and respect towards different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

(i)

Other issues:
Finally, the following issues pertaining to quality and financing of higher education were
raised: shortage of instructional materials, teaching overload, national security funding to
the detriment of higher education budget allocations.

11.

The commission approved a proposal for amendment of the Framework for priority action for
change and development of higher education to the effect that the principle of equal access
to higher education stipulated in the Draft Declaration, Art. 3 (d), be reflected in the framework
for priority action, requesting Member States to take appropriate measures to ensure equitable
representation of minority groups in higher education.

12.

UNESCO was called upon many times to ensure in its programmes the implementation of the
conclusions reached by Commission I. Particularly, the inter-governmental research
programme MOST (Management of Social Transformations) was mentioned as a good
instrument to assist in the implementation of the conclusions of the commission as regards
higher education and capacity building for citizenship.

13.

As a follow-up to the work of the commission, the Bureau proposed that it should continue to
operate to study, discuss and prepare proposals for the relevance of higher education in the
various areas of the world.

14.

In the final session, chaired by Dr Om Nagpal (India), the commission approved this report by
acclamation after its presentation by the rapporteur.

15.

The commission was closed by the chairperson, Dr Nagpal, who thanked UNESCO for calling
this World Conference on higher education which brought together representatives of the
various stakeholders in higher education. He urged all concerned to have a comprehensive
view of the links between higher education and society transcending market forces and the byproducts of the information age, in order for higher education to participate in the
transformation of society and to contribute to building a better and happier world, materially
and spiritually.

Pertinence
Hebe Vessuri
Department of Science Studies, Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research

Introduction. Relevance in a changing world

In a rapidly changing social and natural environment, higher education is being called upon to play a
varied and complex role in development. Pertinence, together with those of quality, management and
st
financing, and international co-operation, is assumed to be one of the key strands in the 21 century.
In general, in the regional conferences held in Havana, Dakar, Tokyo and Palermo in preparation of
the World Conference on Higher Education that will take place in UNESCOs Headquarters during
Autumn 1998, the term Pertinence has been used to refer to the fit or the match between what higher
education institutions do and what society expects of them. It is particularly about the role and place
of higher education in society, but it also covers access and participation, teaching and learning, the
research function of the universities, the responsibility of higher education to other sectors of society,
the world of work and the community service function of higher education. No less important is the
participation of higher education in the search of solutions the pressing human problems, such as
population, environment, peace and international understanding, democracy and human rights.
Another way to consider relevance is to focus on the particular services that higher education delivers
and to evaluate the type and extent of this service, how it is delivered and how it is valued by clients.
In the competitive contexts of a world increasingly oriented towards the market, actors with
differing interests join the game, and thus the dimension of Pertinence becomes a field of forces with
conflicting values, philosophies and instrumental interests pressing in different directions, some of
them quite arbitrary. Many of the problems identified by the consultations and expert meetings are due
to the failure of higher education and training to adapt to a changing world with new societal needs
and demands, and to an insufficient commitment on the part of governments, particularly in developing
countries, to support the potential of endogenous R+D. However, the main problems are well known
and it is essential to ensure that the dynamic of renewal that is already under way in many countries
and institutions be generalised to those that have not yet started and be consolidated with the
collaboration of all the parties concerned. Access to higher education and the broad range of services
that it may bring to society is an essential component of any sustainable development programme, for
which higher level human expertise and professional skills are required.
Major factors that affect higher education are:

The role of Government in higher hducation

Population growth and population education

Globalisation, regionalisation and subregionalisation

Rapid scientific progress

Access and participation

Increased cultural sensitivity and pressure for democracy and peace

Need to cater for more diverse clienteles and changing labour market needs

New instructional methods resulting from the application of new technology

Funding constraints and privatisation

Reorganisation of systems and diversification in structures

The present document highlights the problems, issues and recommendations that were discussed at the
Regional Conferences and expert consultations and draws closely on the rich documentation prepared for them.
A list of the references with appears at the end.

Major factors affecting the relevance of higher education institutions

The role of government in higher education

For different reasons depending on whether the context is highly industrialised or underdeveloped,
governments have in many countries ceased to delegate to higher education institutions the definition
of their own teaching and research agenda and want to really keep track of the funds flowing to the
systems of higher education. In other words, the tacit and self-referenced relevance of higher
education is being re-negotiated throughout the world. Within this common framework, contextual
differences operate strongly, mitigating in the highly industrialised countries and reinforcing in the
developing ones, the salient angles of the transformation under way. When strong restrictions to the
funding of the basic sciences are enforced, the reproduction capacity of the mass of researchers is not
endangered in the former but it may imply the very disappearance of the activity in the latter. In highly
industrialised countries governments have long been convinced of the centrality of knowledge to
national development and economic competitiveness. In them, the system of higher education shares
with other public and private structures the responsibility for the creation and transfer of knowledge,
and there is a continuous monitoring of the technological edge that guides policies so that the country
does not fall below the threshold of international knowledge competitiveness. In developing countries,
knowledge tends to be treated by governments as one more good in a totally open market: it is to be
bought wherever it is already available and/or is cheapest, without much concern for having domestic
capabilities relevant to the creation, transfer or adaptation of knowledge within national boundaries.
Population growth and population education
Population projections suggest that the world population will continue to increase from the present
figure of around 5.5 billion to a population of between 11 and 14 billion by the end of the next century.
Although average population growth rates are declining worldwide, for the present populations
continue to rise in developing regions where efforts to reduce fertility levels have met with limited
success. Unless rapid population growth can be reduced, additional pressure will be put on natural
and environmental resources and governance problems will increase. UNESCOs projections for
students enrolments show an increase in enrolment worldwide from 65 million in 1991 to 79 million in
the year 2000, 97 million in 2015 and 100 million in 2025.. Over the past two decades, higher
education has undergone dramatic and quite fundamental change, and many of the forces which
produced these changes continue to operate. Particularly important have been quantitative expansion
in student enrolments, funding constraints and privatisation, reorganisation of systems and
diversification in structures, and changes in curriculum design and delivery. The rate of expansion of
enrolments has been impressive and the pressures for growth continue, with increasing numbers of
young people completing secondary education as a result of the expansion of schooling and
population growth, with increased social demand for higher education places, and with increasing
demands from employers for highly trained professionals, such as engineers and accountants.
Particularly impressive has been the growth rate in some newly industrialised economies in Asia and
Pacific region. Higher education institutions need to incorporate population education concepts and
principles into curricula, for many graduates will become managers, planners, and policy/decisionmakers who will need to understand the dynamic inter-relationship between population, the
environment, natural resources and national socio-economic development. In Africa, on the other
hand, there is the combined effect of an upward demographic surge which has tended to increase the
demand for education, uncontrolled urban and population growth, and the phenomenon of displaced
populations, as one of the economic difficulties or the trauma of wars - a situation difficult to manage
by the countries receiving such displaced persons.
Globalisation, regionalisation and sub-regionalisation
Increasing internationalisation reaches also the worlds of teaching, learning and research. Universities
cannot escape the consequences of globalisation and the heightened atmosphere of competition this
creates in a situation in which financial resources are harder to obtain. The new trends can be seen in
terms of universities as knowledge brokers, global markets for students, international student and
faculty mobility, international diploma recognition, availability of programmes through Internet, and the
development of strategic alliances between institutions as providers on a global basis. Rapid advances
in communication technologies in recent years have made collaboration and co-operation between
institutions of higher education increasingly possible and desirable both within and among countries.

At the same time, reduced funding for research programmes make inter-institutional collaboration
increasingly necessary. Not all the internationally-geared changes are positive, though, and higher
education institutions in weaker countries risk loosing further relevance unless adequate strategies of
twinning and co-operation are set in place. At the same time, higher education institutions have a key
contribution to make to realising both sub-regional imperatives (for example to promoting cohesion in
the Baltics or the Balkans in Europe, Mercosur in the southern cone of Latin America or
in Africa) and at the regional levels within distinct national contexts where the role of higher education
institutions as actors of regional economic development/agents of urban development is growing
rapidly.
Rapid scientific progress
New developments in science and technology have profound implications for higher education. There
is continued acceptance of research as an essential element in the mission of higher education, for it
is evident that no system of higher education can fulfil its mission and be a viable ally to society in
general, unless part of its teaching personnel and its organisational units do not carry out research.
The increasing knowledge intensity of society and science require graduates with a set of attributes in
terms of transferable skills to be able to cope with these challenges. New developments in science
and technology have increased the number and depth of subjects important to an understanding of
basic processes of development. Scientific knowledge is changing very quickly as modern
communication technologies facilitate the sharing of information among scientists. It is, therefore,
important that students develop the skills and attitudes that will allow them to continue to learn
effectively and to develop their own competencies during the rest of their working lives.
The research market will become even more competitive. This applies to industrial and public
agency contract research, with obvious implications for internal management. It is realised that the
Humboldtian principle of each academic doing teaching and research has to be re-examined, and the
cost of research increases tendencies towards selectivity or concentration, or the securing of
alternative funding sources through strategic alliances. There is a variety of governmental policies
towards research, but increasingly governments are becoming much more directive in the volume of
their funds devoted to the pursuit of government-defined research priority themes, leaving less scope
for funding researcher -inspired themes; large science-based corporations, which always had their
own research laboratories, and also health and social welfare organisations, are becoming
progressively more sophisticated in terms of basic research, better resourced in general than many
universities, and capable of offering better salaries and work conditions to researchers. They are likely
to represent increasingly potent competition for higher education institutions. They may eventually
have to decide whether or not to bow out of the competition with corporate laboratories at particular
phases of the product life-cycle (research, development, evaluation, production, etc.). They may
decide to concentrate on particular niches of activity within the cycle for particular scientific areas or
embryonic products. They may decide to enter into consortium arrangements with companies for a
range of purposes, from basic research to production to venture capitalising.
At the same time there is also recognition that R+D is very unequally distributed worldwide,
being highly concentrated in the most industrialised countries. The examination of activities related to
the Gross Expenditure in R+D (GERD) in the different regions underlines the predominant function of
OECD countries, which make up 85% of the total world expenditure in science and technology. When
activities relative to the GERD are compared with the GDP-of which OECD countries make up only
62%-it may be observed that those activities are more concentrated than economic activities in
general. In the U.S.A. and Japan there is a highest rratio-2.8%-between the magnitudes of GERD and
GDP, while in the European Union and Israel it reaches approximately 2 %. Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, Central and Eastern Europe and the NICs are in an intermediate position, with ratios
between 1.2% and 1.5%. In India, China and the Community of Independent States the GERD/ GDP
ratio is close to 1%, while in the remaining regions of the world the ratio is below 0.5%, although some
countries such as South Africa, Brazil and Argentina, whose ratios are above the regional averages,
are exceptions to the norm.
Access and participation
Continuing massification of higher education due to surges in participation rates of school leavers in
some countries, increased access of hitherto under-privileged groups elsewhere, widespread

acceptance of lifelong learning for professional updating, career change, etc., as well as frequent
mismatches in the supply and demand of highly trained personnel, will mean that the methods and
contents of higher education need to change and take into account current trends and influences if
they are to meet the needs and realities of societies. Expansion of enrolment has meant passing from
13 million students in higher education in 1960 in the world, to 65 million in 1991. By the year 2000 it is
expected that there will be 80 million students enrolled in HE. Although in absolute terms expansion is
also spectacular in developing countries, these have less opportunities of access. UNESCO indicates
that the young of developing countries have 17 times less chances of continuing into higher studies
by comparison with the young of industrially developed countries. Despite the major overall expansion
in student enrolments in recent years, access and participation, especially for women, non-urban
populations and members of minority groups, remains a problem in most countries. While the number
of higher education places has rapidly increased, in many cases competition for those places has
become more intense.
Overall in the Asia and Pacific region there has been marked progress in female participation
over the past decade. In 1993, the percentage of female students varied from a low of 14 per cent in
Indonesia and 20 per cent in Bangladesh to a high in four countries where females constituted more
than 50 per cent of the student population -the Philippines (59%), New Zealand (54%), and Australia
and Thailand (both 53%). These figures suggest that with appropriate strategies, it is possible to
increase participation from previously disadvantaged groups. In Africa, on the other hand, where there
are only 1.1 specialists per 10000 inhabitants and where 70-80% of the population lives in the rural
areas, economic problems and political agitation in the last two decades have deviated attention from
crucial questions such as the regional creation of scientific and technological capacities. Women have
a scarce representation in science at all levels of the educational system, specially in the universities.
In 1992 they constituted only 10.5% of the scientific staff in ten African universities (Botswana, Ghana,
Ibadan, Lesotho, Malawi, Nairobi, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Privatisation of higher education is globalised across national boundaries with universities in
disparate geographical locations engaging in twinning arrangements to compete for students markets,
for private advantage. Public access to knowledge, even across international boundaries is therefore
increasingly enclosed behind the walls of private markets.
Cultural sensitivity and pressure for democracy and peace
This domain is one of considerable ambiguity, elusiveness and rhetoric. Having said this, it is
nonetheless possible to detect what most higher education institutions, or at least universities,
perceive today their universal values to be: pursuit of enquiry, truth, excellence and self-criticism;
scope for argument and diversity within a common frame; individual autonomy and freedom; rational
economic behaviour; peaceful co-existence and synergy; liberty and democracy; respect for human
rights, the sovereignty of the law and ethical considerations; interdenominational ecumenism. From
this broad philosophical base to which most universities would subscribe, there are particular nuances
and points of emphasis in individual institutions. At the same time, problems of national or ethnical
cultural identity remain strong and certain forms of international collaboration are perceived as
threats to them, especially when
internationalisation
sometimes involves aggressive
proselytisation of certain cultural images or dominance of some value systems at the expense of
others.
More diverse clienteles and changing labour market needs
Among the intervening factors in the light of emerging government and industrial priorities vis vis
higher education are:
the globalisation of the world economy, which in different regions is reforming the base of
capital ownership, shifting management into a professional era, and opening up national economies
to competition, privatisation and modernisation;
At a time when higher education moves towards a mass enrolment system as most
economies become increasingly knowledge intensive and therefore depend more on graduates of HE,
who constitute a think work-force, there emerges a problem of graduate employment/employability,
raising questions about the benefit of tertiary education, the value of the curriculum and learning
experience and the loose completion rate;

10

diminishing occupational integration in certain sectors, resulting from structural changes in

basic productive industry; graduates will have to accept the need to keep changing jobs, updating their
knowledge and learning new skills. The world of work is being radically redefined and a large part of
the specific knowledge that students acquire during their initial training will rapidly become obsolete.
Continuous and interactive partnerships with the productive sector are essential and must be
integrated into the overall mission and activities of higher education institutions;;
the invasion of the world of higher education policy formation (previously the preserve of
education ministries) by ministries centred on science, economic and industrial development, trade,
etc., which are concerned primarily with information and communication in a knowledge-based society,
while striving for sustainable economies and internationalisation concomitant with regional growth.
In many countries, how well higher education meets the needs of employers is often a matter
of debate. Frequently employers voice concerns about academic standards and complain that
particular courses do not meet specific employment needs. Others complain about graduate
unemployment. On the other hand, there is evidence that in industrialised economies which are
growing at a significant rate, higher education institutions play a key role in economic development.
The observed trend towards a reduction of state funding, or its reallocation to other educational levels
is therefore, worrying, although the difficulties faced by developing countries are not ignored,
especially by those who have needed to introduce structural adjustment policies .
New instructional methods
Accelerating change brought about by the digital revolution has permeated every strata of society. In
the educational domain, we have begun to observe that textbooks can no longer keep up with the
growth of information; richer forms of knowledge transfer are becoming necessary for making complex
information more learnable; there is a broad consensus that jobs in the information age require lifelong
education, and the notion of a terminal degree is not as important as a lifelong education and the
capacity of lifelong learning. Greater access to electronic data bases and sources information, better
institutional management, competency-based education and the practical application of improved
pedagogical skills and technology may help students learn how to solve problems and find answers. A
critical question is what are the changes and adaptations in structure, strategy and policy that
st
educators will need to make as they face the challenges of the 21 century?
Financial constraints
The decade of the 1990s emerged with wide-ranging political, social, economic and technical changes
that have had dramatic impacts on a world scale. The vast majority of universities faces the harsh
reality of two contradictory trends: an increase in the services expected of universities and a
stagnation, or even decrease, in the financial resources at their disposal, for governmental ability to
pay for expanded higher education systems is at best in steady state, and is likely to decrease
absolutely or relatively to the size of demand. The fact that student numbers have not been matched
by equivalent increases in public funding is a matter of great concern. Developing countries, in
particular, face major dilemmas because of the inability of public resources to match expansion
demands; average expenditure per higher education student in them is, in absolute terms, ten times
below that on developed countries. But even developed countries have found great difficulty in
devising strategies to cope with rapid increases in student enrolments. In many cases, declining levels
have resulted in worsening staff-student ratios and staff workload, deteriorating staff working
conditions and student services, and inability to maintain infrastructure at previous standards. The
retreat of the State from a series of social fields in many countries has resulted in greater inequality
and poverty. It is likely that in response to the decreased ability of governments almost everywhere to
pay for expanded higher education, the respective roles of state and university will have to be
redefined, involving a shift towards greater institutional autonomy and self-determination. Most
countries appear to be seeking market-oriented economic policies and the political structures and
institutions to promote and support them.
Institutional transformations
To cope with enrolment and other pressures there is already an efflorescence of institutional change
within higher education. For example, in the 1980s, Australia abandoned its binary system of
universities and colleges of advanced education and greatly reduced the number of separate

11

institutions through institutional merges, while New Zealand set post school institutions on a more
commercial basis and developed an overall qualifications framework. Diversification in structure,
curriculum and teaching methods has resulted from the pressure of both internal factors (such as
changes in academic disciplines and new instructional methods resulting from the application of new
technology) and external factors (such as need to cater for more diverse clienteles and changing
labour market needs, which induce the development of continuing education programmes).
Particularly important has been the development of new forms of non-university institutions, the
establishment and rapid development of distance education, the setting up of branches of foreign
universities and twinning arrangements.
The development of major distance education and open universities has been an impressive
development. Today, for example, Thailands two open universities cater for an enrolment of almost
three quarters of a million students, while Chinas Radio and Television University System is the
largest distance teaching institution in the world. Between 1979 and 1989, it enrolled 1.61 million
students in degree programmes, of whom 1.04 million had graduated by 1991. In Latin America, the
National Open University in Venezuela (UNA), the National Distance Education University (UNED) in
Costa Rica, the Southern University Unit in Colombia, the System of Distance Education of the
Universities of Brasilia, Havana and Mexico, seek to achieve a potentially higher coverage than the
one allowed by conventional systems, and at the same time, to structure new teaching-learning
experiences based on personalised instruction methods and the use of multimedia.
It is also important to mention the regional and subregional associations that are coming to
play an increasing role in exchange and co-operation. In Latin America, the University Association of
the Montevideo Group (AUGM), the Association of Amazon Universities (UNAMAZ), the Central
American University Higher Council (CSUCA), the Latin American University Union (UDUAL), are
among a number of organisations of different modalities that are acquiring increasing importance. The
Association of African Universities and other organisations working in connected fields to higher
education in Africa like the African Academy of Science and the African Foundation for Research and
Development (AFRAND) are also coming to the fore with proposals and initiatives.

Challenges to improve relevance

The role of government in higher education
It is abundantly clear that governments have the power to facilitate universities endeavours to cope
with difficulties, or alternatively, to create severe infrastructural or procedural problems which
frustrate creative leadership Constructive partnership between government and university leadership
is a critical element in the process of transformation of HE. Such partnership must be founded on the
respect of academic freedom and institutional autonomy, principles which distinguish higher education
institutions from educational institutions at other levels.
The impact of higher education on development
Higher education may contribute in many ways to societies and their social and economic
development. Perhaps most important is the provision of well trained personnel who fit the needs of
employers. According to some political leaders, human resource development is the key to the future
for higher education, in particular to produce an increasingly large pool of technical, scientific,
industrial, managerial and entrepreneurial workforce which is versatile, hardworking, disciplined and
conscientious. Many countries look to higher education to play a major role in national economic
development and restructuring. Over a number of years, for example, Australia has been faced with an
adverse balance of payments and a rising level of national debt. Ten years ago when higher education
was restructured, a major aim was to make higher education much more central to economic
reconstruction. The assumption was that for the country to respond and prosper as a nation, there
had to be changes in attitudes, practices and processes in all sectors and at all levels of the national
community. The education sector, and the higher education system, in particular, must play a leading
role in promoting changes
In most developing countries the so called innovation chain is not well developed as it might
be in respect to the particular R+D profile of many higher education institutions. This may be because
of national industry which does not, or is not able to, support or work with universities. It may be
because it is dominated by multinationals which use American or European universities for their

12

research needs or, yet again, because it is categorised by SMEs whose research demands are on the
small scale, and rarely encompass basic or strategic research. The challenge in this respect is for
higher education to contribute to give shape to some of the links in the innovation chain by inducing an
entrepreneurial spirit in graduates so that they can themselves become entrepreneurs and efficacious
creators of those links.
As to the consequences of the expected high level of systematic demand for HE provision -the
so-called massification-, the negative past experience of many developing countries makes it
necessary to ensure that the expansion of access does not lead to a deterioration of quality
standards. It is therefore imperative that quality assurance philosophies and instruments are built into
proceedings from the beginning. Among the approaches being explored in higher education
institutions are
confining massification to certain curriculum areas (Tartu); redefinition of
massification as education for the masses )Copenhagen Business School), or not as mass
standardization, but as mass culture, with individually profiled learning experiences (Porto). These
redefinitions clearly require a substantial paradigm shift in the philosophy of learning; a funding of the
expansion by means of increased, not decreased, resources per capita, through the introduction of a
fee structureor loans; a funding of expansion of part-time education through the extensive
involvement of industrial stake-holders in co-operative/in-company education. These approaches are
not, of course, mutually exclusive, and make great demands on staff, students and institutional
capacities for conceptualising and managing education innovation.
Correcting regional and rural/urban imbalances
The university is widely recognised to be a significant player in national regions, which in turn are
perceived to be major future influences on universities. Synergy is clearly implied, with potential
mutual benefit. Dimensions of significance are the role of universities in regional economic
development or regeneration, through technology transfer, small and medium-sized enterprise
development, continuing/co-operative education, applied contract research; as agents of urban
development; as economic generators -local employment services, etc.; as cultural providers and
brokers. The nature of specific regions varies in terms of growth rate and wealth and, therefore, so will
differ the most appropriate roles which universities can play in relation to the sophistication and need
of the particular region. It is desirable that national education programmes aim at diversification with a
greater emphasis on a regionalisation of specific disciplines. This could be a means of getting
institutions to serve the specific needs that will generate employment or create jobs; training
programmes and structures should be flexible in order to adapt rapidly to changing needs. It would
also be necessary to develop (in consultation with appropriate stake-holders)a wider variety of short
duration programmes.
Institutional diversification
It is necessary to diversify the institutions of HE, not simply to satisfy market needs, but also to ensure
the availability of a wider range of knowledge and capabilities needed by all countries to enter the
st
21 century. This diversification will depend to a large extent on the establishment and reinforcement
of regional centres of excellence that will provide the necessary capabilities that will serve as the basis
of a total reform of the higher education sector and will contribute efficaciously to the priorities of
national and regional development Reference is made, particularly in the European context, to
evidence of growing differentiation of mission around common core elements and an increase in
individual institutional individual profiling (which may become more significant than institutional
categories). More attention will be paid to image and identity/ marketability in response to
environmental changes, expressed sometimes in the search for a particular identity through the use
of brand names or sub-titles which sum up the basic stance of the university concerned, e.g. the
performance university (Basel), promoting the scientific realisation of society; the applicationoriented university (Bremen); the professional university (Sheffield Hallam); or the learning
university (Copenhagen Business School)
The academic staff are the key to the transformation and effective diversification of HE. They
determine what goes on in the lecture halls and the seminar rooms; they design and implement
curricular reforms; they help define and execute the research agendas. In Africa, insufficient
pedagogical training of teachers in higher education, coupled with a lack of systematic management
training for institutional and system-wide managers are part and parcel the deep crisis in which the

13

university system finds itself since the 1970s. Out-sourcing is of little benefit to Africa, in view of the
trend for fund managers to associate the region with political instability and an insufficiency of qualified
and skilled persons. Also structural adjustment policies have led to loss of jobs in the public sector
(losses not fully absorbed by the private sector), which have tended to devalue the degrees awarded
by institutions of higher education. Excessively high student/teacher ratios, make individual attention to
learners difficult; insufficient remuneration of academics leads to loss of motivation, moonlighting and
brain drain. As part of the initiative to cope with these problems the Association of African Universities
is establishing in several universities educational and research programmes in key areas to
development. It is expected that higher degree programmes be organised around a quantitative and
qualitative critical mass of committed academics, working together in a qualitatively conducive
environment on subjects relevant to Africas development. Doctoral training programmes can be
restructured using team work or networking strategies.
Cultural identities and globalisation
In this era of growing globalisation, universities appear as well adjusted to inter-cultural communication
and understanding and the creation of new international values. Among the instruments available to
higher education institutions to deepen their international commitments are major expansion of student
and staff mobility to contribute to the build up of an international academic body that may become a
crucial step in harmonisation within inter-cultural diversity; the expansion of the dual award system; a
massive increase in international, regional and sub-regional courses of various types, summer schools
and study trips, a marked attention to language training as an obligatory component of degree
programmes, the advent of regional Doctors degree and co-tutored doctoral programmes, the creation
of regional faculties, institutions or centres within universities; the continuing evolution of regional
programmes already in existence, like the European BRITE and COMETT, towards new domains and
the better knowledge of these experiences in other regions; the support of initiatives like that of UMAP
(University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific Programme) which aims at promoting student mobility at
undergraduate level and others.
While internationalisation is intended to overcome barriers of isolation, prejudice and
parochialism, the educational task is to tear down the walls that divide preserving separate identities,
to create understanding and nurture empathy, preserving at the same time cultural differences.
Although the university is at the apex of the national effort to foster an awareness of particular cultures
and languages, an educational challenge for a new era is to integrate the base of a developed
understanding of national interests with an international dimension. The charge to higher education in
this new era is to provide higher learning that maintains separate identity and yet draws that identity
into a larger, more encompassing whole, honouring both particular cultures and a multicultural
environment. In the future higher education institutions will think of themselves as being at the
crossroads between local and wider identities and elaborate on their peculiar ideological position.
higher education institutions should also make special efforts to promote integrated programmes
aimed at seeking appropriate solutions to the major problems of the progressive evolution of a culture
of peace and the promotion of sustainable development oriented towards reducing hunger and
protecting the environment. Such programmes should build on the fruits of social research and be
designed to the promotion of research, the strengthening of expertise and consultancy services.
New approaches and topics in higher education
Genuinely interdisciplinary research spawns the new disciplines of tomorrow, and is more likely to be
relevant to industrial opportunities and the resolution of industrial or societal problems. One challenge
is how to stimulate interdisciplinary research proactively when institutions are normally organised on
discipline-based departments, and when much external evaluation reinforces this, by itself reviewing
disciplines and implicitly discouraging interdisciplinary connections The rigid disciplinary boundaries
between the hard sciences and the social sciences and the humanities that limited the
comprehension of the fundamental processes of nature and society are already breaking down in
some fields. There must be a stimulus to the creation of interdisciplinary programmes, and resources
must be ensured for collaborative research among different disciplines and involving groups around
thematic projects A further issue is the extent to which higher education institutions perceive
themselves as having the optimum range of disciplines for their likely future needs. An individual
institution may seek solution to its problem through strategic alliances with other institutions or with
companies, through amalgamation with other institutions, or by growing its new specialisms itself.

14

Many experts see the need for renewal of teaching and learning approaches and contents.
They emphasise that higher education institutions must be more responsive in meeting the needs of
employers and adapting to the generation of new knowledge in the various academic disciplines It is
important and urgent to carry out a series of case studies in the different regions on regional priorities,
in which higher education institutions should play an important role. The exercise prepared by the CRE
for the Palermo European Regional Meeting with 20 institutional case studies from European higher
education institutions is worthwhile looking into. In the case of Africa, case studies proposed in the
Action Plan (1997) include: the type of leadership to be promoted, strategic management and
planning, systemic interactions between primary, secondary, tertiary and continuing education,
revision of programmes of education and training, the relative importance and feasibility of face-to-face
and distance teaching programmes, strategies for ensuring improved participation of women in
education and in decision making bodies, town and country planning, measures against the security
problems of Africa (such as poverty, displaced populations, the trauma of war). In connection with
relevance, the Action Plan for Latin America proposes to elaborate projects on the problems of
widening access to HE, design of integrated educational systems and lifelong education for all
throughout life.
Appropriate emphasis needs to be placed on renewal of curriculum; new approaches to both
classroom and distance education curriculum, which traditionally focused on academic disciplines in
arts and sciences and training for elite professions, now put considerable emphasis on applied science
and technology, business and management studies, and professional training in such fields as
engineering, accounting, and computer science Frequently new programmes are begun within the
framework of the international UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs, and form students on different subjects,
such as the resolution of conflicts, regional development and the social integration of marginalised
groups, including refugees who constitute a grave problem in the African region. These formal
initiatives must be complemented by community sensitivity activities such as public conferences and
the creation of relevant groups such as those of NGOs and diplomatic and co-operation staff.
To overcome the limitations of higher education institutions, in the European university case
studies some strategic issues and tensions as well as directions for action are proposed:

limited development of new fields of multidisciplinary study from the stimulation of synergy
between existing foci (Basel: ecological studies), especially where these correspond to market
opportunities. This is seen as a means of sustaining critical masses in key subject areas;
the addition of new disciplines perceived as critical to the universitys contribution to society -a
form of horizontal diversification (Jagiellonian University of Cracow, University College of South
Stockholm);
accessing wider learning networks, through strategic alliances with other universities with
complementary disciplines (Catalonia) or extensive use of Internet arrangements (Copenhagen
Business School);
the possibility of institutional mergers over the next decade to facilitate the creation of critical
mass, as a natural regional consequence of the foregoing. The Australian experience has already
been mentioned above;
accessing the knowledge base of industry, especially where professional/vocational training is a
core element in institutional mission (Pau, Porto, Sheffield Hallam).

Advancement of knowledge by research

To fulfil its mission to society, ideally every system of higher education should have the capacity to
carry out research and have staff who are actively involved in research activities. At a minimum, this is
desirable to support regular teaching activities and the staff development needs of academics, as well
as to provide expertise in accessing the international body of research knowledge and assisting in
technology transfer to local industry. At the same time, in many countries it is now recognised widely
that not all higher education institutions need to be involved in research and not all academics need to
be undertaking research activities on a regular basis in order to provide high quality teaching,
especially at more junior levels. The World Bank has advised developing and newly industrialised
countries, in the interests of economic efficiency, to strictly limit the establishment of new research
universities and the number of students enrolled in them, and to provide cheaper and more cost
effective alternatives, such as junior colleges, technological institutes, and short cycle institutions, to
cater for a large proportion of the student population

15

Because of pressures on resources, in some countries research funding has been reduced
over the past decade, but in others research funding has increased appreciably and special efforts
have been made to establish new research centres and build additional links between universities and
industry. A major policy dilemma for higher education systems and research universities is how scarce
research resources should be distributed and what mechanisms should be employed to do this. A
common trend is the allocation of research funds to institutions and individuals on a competitive basis
depending on the research funds they have already attracted, publication output, and the number of
research higher degree completions. There is a policy debate about whether research and research
infrastructure funds should be concentrated to a greater degree in order to develop a small group of
stronger internationally recognised research universities, or whether the current method of competition
will ensure a sufficient degree of concentration. Another policy dilemma relates to the balance
between basic and applied research. While effective applied research needs to be supported by basic
research, the actual mix of basic and applied within a higher education system varies greatly,
depending on government and institutional priorities, and the respective roles in research of higher
education and industry within the country. In China, the policy of the State Education Commission is
that scientific research should be oriented to the economy, that training people and developing
science and technology should be combined and complement each other, and that different types of
institutions should conduct scientific and technical activities in different ways It seems that there is a
growing feeling that the distinction between basic, strategic and applied research is breaking down in
the higher education institution which is genuinely oriented towards economic regeneration and
societal modernisation. How this synthesis is accelerated and planned for is a genuine agenda item for
the next century.
There is an exponential growth in knowledge, with very little direct contribution from some
regions, among them the African region, as a consequence of insufficient attention to, and insufficient
resources for research, as well as lack of a long-term vision in the planning and management of
teaching and research activities. Institutions of higher education in Africa should make special efforts
to develop scientific and technological programmes to help meet the demands of the accelerated
development of new technologies, especially new information and communication technologies. These
programmes should be supported by intensive research activities, from which will emerge the critical
mass of the expertise needed for the regions development as it faces the pressures of globalisation.
Existing potentials of information and communications technologies should be boosted to give rise to
virtual universities, which could considerably improve access, while at the same time proving worldclass educational resources. Research should be made to bear a closer relation to the needs of
African societies, so that basic research can be more closely linked with applied and developmentoriented research stressing genuine partnerships with public and private institutions and the civil
society. This would be one way of ensuring the active involvement of higher institutions in societal
development efforts
Responsibilities to other educational levels
One area where there is consensus that universities can make a major contribution that will have
direct benefits in the longer term for higher education is direct involvement in the training of school
teachers and staff development activities for teachers. The University of Campinas in Brazil is a good
example of this, with a large responsibility in teacher training at the national level parallel to its
concentration on research. Strengthening the quality of teaching in schools will lead in time to better
prepared university students, who can become agents of their own education; promoting socioeducational research into such problems as early school drop-outs and students repeating courses;
and ensuring its contribution to the design of State policies in the field of education. . It is widely
recognised that higher education has an important contribution to make in community service and in
assisting other education sectors in society. However, in some contexts there is some measure of
disappointment with performance, especially with that of more traditional universities. This is
unfortunate, since close links with the community and the other education sectors can do a great deal
for universities in building wide community and political support, achieving renewal of the curriculum,
and sometimes generating new forms of financial support. The last point is particularly important since
in the current environment of financial constraint there is often a strong tendency for universities to
decrease or abandon much of their more traditional community service.

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Recommendations
The specific aim in connection with the topic of Pertinence of higher education, is to mobilise the
responsible actors from the different domains, including politics, university, science, technology,
industry, and business, building up a strong coalition of all actors concerned, and to establish a
permanent dialogue with the ministries of finance and other sources of funding. Recommendations
and proposals should be elaborated about:
1. the relationship of higher education with the national development model, contributions to its
design and improvement;
2. how can higher education contribute to the consolidation of a culture of peace, the preservation of
national identity, regional integration and human development?
3. relevance as the result of scientific-technological research and its integration in the process of
global development, the necessary articulation, proposals to guarantee it;
4. relevance as response to real needs; how to achieve it?
5. relevance as support of the formation of human resources, articulation with the productive sector
of goods and services and the economic-employment system, collaboration with civil society and
organised communities at the local level and as support of the permanent modernisation of the
State, political co-operation.
Government policy
Governments must promote education systems and institutions which are open, flexible and capable
of efficiently adapting to changes in the social, economic or physical environment. There is a strong
need for a clear definition of overall priorities and development policies, and of the role that higher
education institutions and training must play within those policies. Countries should create
observatories to monitor changes in the labour market in order to facilitate the elaboration of national
educational plans and to improve the capacity of higher education institutions to align their policies
with national priorities. Special attention needs to be given to career prospects and job conditions of
students in course areas of high skills such as engineering and technology for long term development.
Responsibility of higher education towards other education levels
Higher education must act on its responsibility and role towards other levels of education. This is
needed not only to ensure that students are better prepared for HE, but also to bring to bear the
resources and expertise of the higher education community to the tasks of teacher training, socioeconomic research on such education variables as school retention and repetition, appropriate
pedagogies, and educational policy alternatives, thereby improving education at all levels).
Regional integration
Higher education institutions must promote processes aimed at regional integration. Cultural and
educational integration should be the bases for political and economic integration. In a global
environment, higher education institutions must approach their studies on regional integration in the
light of the specific economic, social, cultural, ecological and political aspects involved. Greater
emphasis should be given to the regionalisation of specific disciplines, through programmes which
target specific needs that will generate employment. In addition, more industry-based projects and
new paradigm of university-industry partnership must be instituted, specially in developing countries.
UNESCO, UNIDO, UNDP, World Bank, regional development banks and other funding agencies must
be sought in these activities.
Access
Governments must expand and diversify opportunities for every citizen to benefit from higher-level
skills, training, knowledge and information which are the qualifications for entry into the world of work.
Serious efforts should be made to increase participation rates in HE. Appropriate strategies should be
taken for increasing the participation of disadvantaged groups, including women, who must be
encouraged to undertake higher degrees and enter academic and graduate employment. Similar
efforts are also needed to encourage the participation of ethnic minorities.

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Stake-holder involvement in higher education

Stake-holder involvement in teaching and learning has to go much beyond rhetoric. The situation
varies a great deal with country and institution. Relatively few universities admit of systematic stakeholder involvement in course design, or in giving strategic advice on programme developments.
Current evidence, however, holds some clues to developments that may be expected over the next
few years:
stable alliances between universities, companies, regional and city governments in strategically
conceived programmes of regional development;
in-company education programmes -undergraduate and postgraduate;
Accreditation of prior experience/learning and competency-based education;
university degrees with a range of in-company components;
company involvement in course design, course review and student assessment;
international networking between leading universities in co-operation with the multinational
companies in the provision of international programmes.
Teaching and learning
There is need for improved staff recruitment methods and improved pre-service and in-service training
at all levels. It is also necessary to have higher professional recognition and opportunities to improve
career prospects. Local needs should be addressed to and curricula be adapted to employment
needs; it is desirable that higher education learning be open to the professional environment and
make use of resources from the private sector. Modularization appears as one of the most interesting
innovations recently incorporated in the teaching-learning processes, as an alternative to traditional
programmes which: sub-contracts some subjects to the faculties of general education (basic sciences,
law, etc.); offers the students a large range of courses; and opens some modules to continuing
education. To support inter-institutional arrangements for specialisations and facilitate the sharing of
information (scientific, technical or pedagogic issues) as well as exchange of teachers and students.
To promote systems and structures which allow staff flexibility among higher education, research and
extension activities. To actively promote participatory teaching methods using case studies, problemsolving methods, group working and interdisciplinary approaches. To promote regular reviews of
curricula and systematic feedback from employers and former graduates. To place increased
emphasis on the development of distance learning approaches. Special consideration in most
developing countries needs to be paid to rural youth, particularly young women, to assist them in
qualifying for admittance at higher education.
The contributions of new communications technologies
Recent developments in communications technology offer exciting possibilities for new approaches to
packaging information and to course delivery, and for rethinking traditional approaches to teaching
and learning. Many institutions are experimenting with the use of multi-media, CD-ROM and the
Internet for the delivery of course materials, while for distance education programmes e-mail, voicemail and interactive video are being used for interaction between students and their lecturers.
Advances in connectivity, computing hardware, multimedia, and tele-operation will help meet new
demands in higher education, especially in the areas of lifelong and distance learning. Connectivity
places at the learners disposal resources from around the globe fostering independent researchoriented learning, and the bettering of electronic interactivity is enabling and facilitating peer-to-peer
learning. The time has come where technologies will co-evolve with teaching and learning. Not only
will technologies be used as a productivity tool, but new needs are bound to be discovered as
communications technology transforms our educational systems. The Virtual University technology is
still not mature, and research and development must continue. Technologies must attain an inviting
quality to help universities in their transition to the next generation of education. At the same time, use
of the new technologies means that overseas universities can more readily offer degree programs
within the countries of the other regions, especially by use of the Internet. Multi-national
TV/communications companies are showing interest in moving into the higher education area and this
could challenge the monopoly enjoyed by universities and colleges in particular countries.

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The world of work

Among the issues that will have to be tackled in the future are the following:

how will higher education institutions relate constructively in education and training to the world of
SMEs which are much more difficult to grapple with than larger corporations?

how systematic and sophisticated are companies and public bodies in identifying their training and
education needs which can be used as a basis for university provision?

what accommodations may have to be generated in terms of control of the curriculum, and
responsibility for standards between the various partners? As constructive alliances develop, what
redistribution of responsibility and authority may be desirable? In short, it is clear that the
traditional domains of higher education and productive and public sectors are overlapping, with
each moving into each others territory. In many cases, companies have a resource base clearly
superior to that of universities, which raises fundamental questions over division of labour and
interrelationships, and the future evolution of their respective roles. Higher education institutions
should promote continuous and interactive partnerships with the productive sector using both
reactive and proactive approaches. Also, they must help shape the labour market by identifying,
independently of conjunctural interests of enterprises, new local and regional needs, and also by
designing mechanisms for retaining and career-switching.

Greater attention should be given to the particular design and structuring of programmes to
give special learning experience of use to students and employers. These include courses in
entrepreneurial skills; company-building/incubator development; creation of self-employment
possibilities; enterprise in higher education; work experience as part of the assessed degree
programme; the incorporation of a diploma stage within a degree, with possibilities of employment on
its completion or progression to a degree; action learning and project work in industry as the basis for
assessed work and theses; virtual professional environments. Also interesting to disseminate are the
examples of co-operative education and undergraduate or postgraduate degree programmes which
are carried out in corporate classrooms and jointly staffed by university and company personnel, as
well as co-operative doctoral training contracts. Although there are higher education institutions
exploring some of these possibilities, many institutions are still at a relatively underdeveloped stage in
each of these categories and, for them, the next decades will be an important period. Half-hearted
acceptance or rejection of changes is possible, enhancing the likelihood that industry and big
employers will seek their own solutions either with other universities or through their own efforts.
To make the changes feasible and sustain the projects envisaged in the long term, purposive
dedicated organisational infrastructures and roles are needed, and are clearly being developed,
although efforts must be more systematic and encompassing. They include: organs within the
university to manage particular relevant functions, such as continuous education offices, co-operative
education bureaux, distance learning centres, consulting and employment offices, enterprises and
industrial affairs offices, research liaison units, technological creation centres or incubators; stakeholder-university joint policy/advisory boards. These multilateral bodies are clearly no substitute for
productive relationships with particular companies, but they are clearly invaluable in mobilising whole
regions to concerted action with higher education institutions, especially if linked to city and regional
councils and venture capitalists.
Research
There must be effective research personnel policies, for dealing with problems such as: providing
inspiring research leadership through active hiring policies and provision of good working conditions
and competitive salaries in newer higher education institutions where the reward mechanisms have
traditionally not been for good research performance; improving the age-profile of many higher
education institutions whose research personnel is in the 40-55 age bracket, with a dearth of
opportunities for promotion of younger researchers; providing good staff research training, especially
at postdoctoral level, together with a creative career structure for researchers and contract staff;
reducing the current disparity between industry and universities in salaries for good researchers.
A rationalisation of research activities must stimulate countries and higher education
institutions to co-ordinate in an effective manner their research programmes, sometimes excessively
fragmented. Thus, in most countries special attention needs to be paid to the identification of foci for
interdisciplinary centres of excellence, for reasons such as: the recognition that few higher education

19

institutions are likely to be excellent across the board; the development of critical mass in fields of
major potential/actual importance to industry; the needs for a graduate school focus for clusters of
Masters, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers; clout in the international market place for funds and
personnel. It is also fair to point out a dilemma as to whether groups of this kind are likely to assist
humanities research, which has tended to be more individualistic in nature. Brain-storming and thinktank processes may facilitate the above developments.
In an age where technical specialization is rampant, universities have an obligation to produce
young people who can generate new ideas and who have a wide enough range of knowledge to
respond quickly to new challenges. Disciplines have many faces. From the point of view of educational
administration, promoting interdisciplinarity (based as it is upon established disciplines) is an
inexpensive way to explore new configurations of knowledge. Invoking interdisciplinarity to free the
research degree from the bonds of curriculum, one would not seek to privilege instruction for the
advancement of learning over instruction for the professions. Universities are assemblies of separate
colleges and faculties with particular missions, many of which relate directly to professional
certification. But even as rather esoteric disciplines change form, so change is affecting professional
corporations. Health-care delivery and medical certifications are in flux, and traditional fields of
technology -like civil engineering and electrical engineering-are being transformed almost beyond
recognition. Interdisciplinarity can infuse new blood into tired veins.
Institutional change
External conditions are a constantly changing mosaic of different pressures and possibilities
which, whilst it may render detailed planning rather difficult, nonetheless calls on institutions to develop
alternative scenarios as a basis for mapping strategic directions. The agendas of institutional change,
in terms of facilitating the adaptation process of higher education to new world conditions, will probably
include the following: the development of a more entrepreneurial behaviour culture in universities,
particularly in terms of speed of action, both individually and institutionally; well articulated policy (on
both sides) on intellectual property and patenting; the university as a regional focus for Internet
activity; the imaginative use of Ph.Ds for industrial research and the broadening of the conception of
doctorates (especially so-called professional doctorates). Organisational change will be so profound
as to involve the parallel development of strategy, culture, process and structure.
In many systems, it is clear that to enable higher education institutions to be adaptive,
governments need to revise substantially the regulatory framework which governs personnel policy in
practice. Otherwise, the chances of dealing with the above elements constructively are vastly reduced.
In the current decade, seven countries in Latin America, to mention one region, have approved new
education laws: Argentina (1995), Colombia (1992), El Salvador (1995), Nicaragua (1990), Panama
(1995) and Paraguay (1993). Most of the remaining countries have drafts of law, some of them at a
quite advanced stage and others that have not been duly discussed. The fundamental changes sought
with the new legislation are oriented to aspects such as emphasis in evaluation and accreditation,
widening coordination instances towards the private and non-university sectors, and freedom for
public institutions to decide about student enrolment and fees, in the cases where these prerogatives
did not exist. Among the areas that would seem to constitute the main foci of attention for policy
formation are: systematic staff appraisal and development, development of new professional
administrative centres, renewable contracts rather than permanent tenure, effective and attractive
salary packages, including allowances for intellectual property considerations; equal opportunities;
recruitment of a genuinely international faculty; career shifts and competencies across teaching,
research and administrative domains.
Many universities have taken the first basic steps towards modularization/ unitization/
creditization of the curriculum, in varying degrees of sophistication in terms of credit tariffs, a
supporting or dominating regulatory framework and the recasting of university power structure. Among
the motivations are: opening up university course for access to purposed and interrupted study,
encouraging student choice -both in terms of combined studies/double majors, and more eclectic
combinations across disciplines; facilitating credit for work-related activities or study -so-called
accreditation of prior experience/learning; assisting students interchange and mobility, especially
across international boundaries and within regional networks. It will be a challenge for the next
generation to realize these and other possibilities in a manner which is creative, flexible and low-cost
without sacrificing the entrepreneurial motivation on the altar of bureaucratic regulation.

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Autonomy and accountability

Responsible institutional autonomy should be stimulated. This principle upholds the freedom to select
staff and students, to determine the conditions under which they remain in the university and select
research topics. Freedom to determine the curriculum and degree standards and to allocate funds
(with the amounts available) across different categories of expenditures are other aspects to be
respected. In connection with this there is an advance of market philosophies towards HE, and global
budgeting according to performance budgeting. Governments and other social actors propose new
work patterns to universities. This is a good thing but it is not exempt from risks. For universities to
avoid becoming mere arms of the State, it is prudential to keep a strategic distance accepting a
larger social participation and division of tasks with other higher education institutions better enabled
to absorb part of the new social demands could be the golden rule. To become more responsive to the
needs of society, and in order to acquire greater financial autonomy, higher education institutions
should create structures for the development and management of consultancy activities, which are an
essential part of their missions. For this to happen, higher institutions should develop an
entrepreneurial spirit as a means of strengthening their service functions which are in themselves
complementary to their teaching and research functions.
The topic of evaluation is crucial to accountability. Although it is being dealt with more
specifically elsewhere, here is may be said that relevance cannot be achieved at the expense of
quality, but quality itself has other social dimensions besides the internal technical ones of traditional
academic evaluation and these dimensions need to be taken into account since the mission of higher
education is basically a public one. The university curriculum will increasingly be cast in terms of not
only the cognitive mastery of disciplines, assessed through conventional examination processes, but
skills and competencies beyond the traditional ones of analysis and independent thinking, irrespective
of the discipline: seeking and processing information; discerning the essential from the inessential;
ability to operate in different cultures; ability to manage change in a variety of settings; creativity;
ethical skills; ability to work in and manage multidisciplinary project teams and problem-solving.
To the extent that academic autonomy and scientific aperture within the republic of science
decline as internal regulatory mechanisms of the organised knowledge production in society, aperture
as external relationship aimed to society increases and acquires importance and urgency. It is a
serious challenge that requires an honest and frank institutionalised pattern of information exchange
about issues of legitimate public concern. In this domain there is ample space for individual and
collective responsibility. Besides, aperture in this sense is not only compatible with new demands to
knowledge institutions but becomes unavoidable if universities and other institutions of higher learning
will overcome the growing social mistrust on the face of the results of new knowledge, not only
scientific and technological but also social and humanistic. It is in the self-interest of higher education
research to expand its responsibility working towards a public base of greater trust. Knowledge
aperture will thus survive in a broader, more democratic and urgent, sense.
Maintenance of momentum
Governments, in their role as client and supervisor should try to establish policies of continual search
for improvement. Systems that have remained unchanged for a long period of time tend to perceive
demands for reform as a disruption, rather than as part of the normal pattern of governance to keep
the system up-to-date. The experiences of Southern Asia underline this fact. Adaptation and
acceptance of change will be an increasingly critical factor in institutional efficiency in the twenty-first
century. Various strategies can be used to assist institutions more effectively with society and client
groups. These include mechanisms to identify and collect information from client groups, mechanisms
for consultation on curriculum design and renewal with employers and professions, and studies of the
experiences of graduates in the work place. Strategies must be different for the different segments of
HE. Non-university higher education institutions should maintain or reach adequate levels of quality
attending to new training demands. A major consequence of some of the above themes is the
enhanced need of higher education institutions to cultivate networks. Networks may be connected with
international research benchmarking or the mobility of researchers in international teams; or they may
be a prerequisite for accessing international research income.

21

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23

Principios bsicos que deben guiar el diseo de las polticas en la educacin superior

Prof. Carlos Tnnermann Bernheim

Miembro del Comit Asesor en Educacin Superior del Director General de la UNESCO

Muchas gracias, seor Presidente.

En mi calidad de facilitador de esta sesin consagrada a examinar los principios bsicos que
deberan guiar el diseo de las polticas referidas a la educacin superior, quisiera someter a la
consideracin de la Comisin, los principios siguientes, algunos de los cuales fueron identificados en
una de las reuniones de trabajo del Steering Committee de esta Conferencia:
El conocimiento y la formacin superior representan un bien social generado, transmitido y
recreado, en beneficio de la sociedad, en las instituciones de educacin superior. De conformidad
con este principio, toda poltica en este nivel educativo, debera partir del reconocimiento de que
cualquiera que sea su fuente de financiamiento, la educacin superior es un servicio pblico. Por lo
tanto, las instituciones de educacin superior, as sean pblicas o privadas, deben asumir un
compromiso pblico, es decir, un compromiso con los intereses generales de la sociedad en la que
estn insertas. Si la educacin superior es un bien social, an cuando convenga diversificar sus
fuentes de financiamiento en seal del apoyo que le brinda la sociedad, el Estado no puede declinar
la responsabilidad de financiarla. Estas consideraciones, quizs la Comisin las quiera examinar a la
luz del hecho real de la declinacin o restriccin del gasto pblico en educacin superior en varias
regiones del mundo.
Un principio bsico en el diseo de las polticas de educacin superior, en lo que concierne al
acceso a la misma, es partir de lo que establece la Declaracin Universal de los Derechos Humanos
(1948), que garantiza el acceso a este nivel igual para todos, en funcin de los mritos respectivos.
Mas, no basta con garantizar el acceso. La igualdad de oportunidades debe hacerse extensiva a las
posibilidades de permanencia y xito en la educacin superior. La Comisin podra debatir sobre
cmo lograr que la equidad inspire las polticas de acceso a la educacin superior y de permanencia
en ella, a fin de propiciar realmente el trnsito de la lite al mrito.
Otro principio seala que las polticas en educacin superior deberan partir del
reconocimiento de que en la sociedad contempornea sta asume funciones cada vez ms
complejas, susceptibles de dar nuevas dimensiones a su cometido esencial de bsqueda de la
verdad. No slo en lo que concierne al adelanto, transmisin y difusin del saber, sino tambin como
centro de pensamiento crtico, como una especie de poder intelectual que la sociedad necesita para
que la ayude a reflexionar, comprender y actuar, al decir del Informe Delors. Esta funcin crtica o
cvica debe ser ejercida, por cierto, con rigor cientfico, responsabilidad intelectual, imparcialidad y
apego a principios ticos. La Comisin podra reflexionar sobre la tensin que puede generar la doble
funcin de servir a la sociedad y, a la vez, ser sede del pensamiento crtico. Deben las instituciones
de educacin superior impartir una formacin para adaptase a las necesidades de la sociedad o para
propiciar su transformacin y mejoramiento? Cmo lograr el adecuado equilibrio entre ambas
funciones?
La dimensin tica de la educacin superior es otro principio que la Comisin quizs quiera
examinar, ya que ella, en palabras del Director General de la UNESCO, Profesor Federico Mayor,
cobra especial relieve ahora, en los albores de un nuevo siglo, en esta poca de rpidas
transformaciones que afectan casi todos los rdenes de la vida individual y colectiva, y que amenazan
con borrar los puntos de referencia, con deshacer los asideros morales que permitiran a las nuevas
generaciones construir el porvenir.
Otra funcin que convendra tambin analizar es la funcin prospectiva y anticipatoria. Se
dice que las universidades deben dirigir tambin su anlisis crtico a los escenarios futuros y a la
formulacin de propuestas alternativas de desarrollo. En otras palabras, que deben contribuir a crear
el futuro; no slo a preverlo, sino a configurarlo, anticipndose a los acontecimientos para orientarlos,
darles sentido y no simplemente dejarse conducir por ellos. Deben las instituciones de educacin

24

superior disear sus programas para atender las demandas presentes, o deben, como se ha dicho,
tener la osada de preparar el mundo del maana?
Volcadas al futuro, pero sin olvidar el pasado ni el legado de las generaciones precedentes,
hay otro punto que merecera ser debatido. Se refiere a la misin cultural que las instituciones de
educacin superior tienen tambin que cumplir. Esta misin adquiere hoy da singular importancia
ante el fenmeno de la globalizacin, que amenaza con imponernos una empobrecedora
homogeneidad cultural si los pueblos no fortalecen su propia identidad y valores. El cultivo y difusin
de estos valores culturales es tambin parte esencial de las tareas de la educacin superior, que
debe vincularse estrechamente con su comunidad local, regional y nacional para, desde ese
enraizamiento, abrirse al mundo y, con una visin universal, forjar ciudadanos del mundo, capaces
de comprometerse con la problemtica global, de apreciar y valorar la diversidad cultural como fuente
de enriquecimiento del patrimonio de la humanidad. La Comisin quizs quiera examinar este punto
y debatir sobre las maneras de conciliar lo universal con lo local en el quehacer de las instituciones de
educacin superior.
No puede estar ausente en las polticas de educacin superior el tema de la creciente
importancia de su dimensin internacional. Como todos sabemos, las universidades, desde sus
orgenes medievales, muestran una vocacin internacional que hoy da se ve reforzada por la
universalidad del conocimiento contemporneo y, en cierta forma, tambin del mundo laboral. Esto
nos lleva a reconocer el rol que juega la cooperacin internacional en el mundo acadmico, como
pieza clave en las polticas de educacin superior. La Comisin podra examinar, como un principio
orientador de las polticas, la necesidad de promover un nuevo estilo de cooperacin que, sobre la
base de la solidaridad y el mutuo respeto, supere las asimetras existentes, propicie el fortalecimiento
de las comunidades acadmicas y cientficas de los pases menos avanzados y revierta la tendencia
a la fuga de competencias.
Nuestra Comisin est consagrada al estudio de la pertinencia. Quizs convenga tener
presente en el debate, que la sociedad contempornea espera cada vez ms de la educacin
superior, cuya funcin social consiste en que a ella acude la sociedad en busca de inspiracin,
conocimiento, informacin, propuestas y soluciones. De ah que cuando se examina la pertinencia de
la educacin superior es preciso referirla al amplio concepto de pertinencia social. A veces existe la
tendencia a reducir el concepto de pertinencia a la respuesta que sta debe dar a las demandas de la
economa o del sector laboral. Sin duda, la educacin superior tiene la obligacin de atender
adecuadamente estas demandas, pero su pertinencia las trasciende y debe analizarse desde una
perspectiva ms amplia, que tenga en cuenta los desafos, los retos y demandas que al sistema de
educacin superior impone la sociedad en su conjunto, y particularmente, los sectores ms
desfavorecidos.
Vinculado a lo anterior, tambin corresponde examinar el punto referente a la relacin con el
mundo del trabajo, que hoy se haya signada por la naturaleza cambiante de los empleos y su
dimensin internacional, que demandan conocimientos, dominio de idiomas extranjeros y destrezas
en constante renovacin y evolucin. La educacin superior deber afinar los instrumentos que
permitan analizar la evolucin del mundo del trabajo, a fin de tomarla en cuenta en la revisin de sus
programas, adelantndose en la determinacin de las nuevas competencias y calificaciones que los
cambios en los perfiles laborales demandarn. Este es otro principio bsico, orientador de las
polticas referidas al nivel terciario, que la Comisin podra debatir.
El Steering Committee de esta Conferencia estim que hoy da una de las misiones
principales de las instituciones de educacin superior es la educacin, la formacin de ciudadanos
conscientes y responsables, de ciudadanos para el siglo XXI, crticos, participativos y solidarios. La
formacin de ciudadanos, hombres y mujeres, en un marco de igualdad de gneros. Esta es la
primera gran tarea, sobre la cual debe edificarse la preparacin de tcnicos, profesionales,
investigadores y acadmicos competentes, forjados interdisciplinariamente, con una slida formacin
general y especializada, terica y prctica, capaces de seguirse formando por s mismos, de trabajar
en equipos multidisciplinarios, y de adaptarse a los constantes cambios del mercado laboral y a las
demandas de la economa y la sociedad. Para lograr todo esto, deber promoverse el principio del
adecuado equilibrio entre las funciones bsicas de la educacin superior, de suerte que docencia,
investigacin y extensin se enriquezcan mutuamente, como elementos integrantes del proceso
educativo.

25

Otro principio, que no puede estar ausente a la hora de disear las polticas, se refiere a la
necesidad de promover el desplazamiento del nfasis de los procesos de enseanza a los de
aprendizaje, centrndolos en el estudiante, cuyas necesidades y aspiraciones deben ser el leit motiv
de las instituciones de educacin superior. Los profesores deberan ser co-aprendices con sus
alumnos y diseadores de ambientes de aprendizajes. Deberan esforzarse por inculcar en ellos la
aficin al estudio y los hbitos mentales que incentiven el autoaprendizaje (aprender a aprender), el
espritu crtico, creativo e indagador, de suerte de propiciar el aprendizaje de por vida, la educacin
permanente. Pero, adems, deber estimularse en ellos el espritu emprendedor, que les lleve a
actuar proactivamente en la generacin de nuevas oportunidades de empleo (aprender a
emprender). En ltima instancia, las instituciones de educacin superior deberan constituirse en
centros de educacin permanente para todos durante toda la vida, en funcin del mrito respectivo.
La Comisin podra debatir sobre las transformaciones que ser necesario introducir en las
estructuras acadmicas y mtodos de trabajo de las instituciones de educacin superior si asumen la
perspectiva de la educacin permanente.
Adems, ser preciso evolucionar hacia la integracin de los sistemas nacionales de
educacin postsecundaria, como estrategia clave en las polticas de educacin superior. Slo as se
podr estar en capacidad de atender los mltiples requerimientos de la educacin permanente, que
se desprenden de la evolucin constante del conocimiento y de la estructura cambiante de las
profesiones, asi como de la necesidad de ofrecer una amplsima gama de aprendizajes, ms all de
los que han constitudo la tarea tradicional de la educacin superior. Para que sea realmente un
sistema se requiere que sea un todo coherente, que articule racionalmente sus diferentes
modalidades. Deberan as preverse las necesarias articulaciones horizontales y verticales entre las
distintas modalidades para facilitar las transferencias, las posibles salidas al mundo del trabajo y las
reincorporaciones al sistema educativo. Ningn estudiante debera tener la impresin de que el
camino que ha escogido es irremediable y que, por lo tanto, le podra conducir a un callejn sin
salida.
Un punto clave en el debate de los principios, se refiere a la libertad que deben disfrutar las
instituciones de educacin superior para el cabal cumplimiento de sus altos cometidos. Desde sus
orgenes, las universidades han demandado autonoma frente a los poderes polticos, civiles o
eclesisticos. La autonoma debe darse no slo frente al Estado, sino tambin frente a otras fuerzas
sociales, polticas o ideolgicas que pretendan avasallarlas. La autonoma institucional y la libertad
acadmica constituyen la atmsfera natural de las instituciones de educacin superior. La autonoma
se refiere a las relaciones con el Estado y la sociedad; la libertad de ctedra a la vida interna de la
institucin, y es la manifestacin, en su seno, del derecho humano a la libertad de pensamiento y
expresin. La mejor garanta de la libertad de ctedra y de investigacin en una amplia autonoma
institucional. Pero la autonoma implica serias responsabilidades para la universidad. Duea de su
destino, debe responder por lo que haga en el uso y disfrute de su libertad y en el cumplimiento de su
misin propia. De ah que en el actual debate, y lo vemos as plasmado en las Declaraciones de
principios aprobadas en las consultas regionales preparatorias de esta Conferencia, la autonoma se
concibe como una autonoma responsable, que no excluye ni dificulta la rendicin de cuentas a la
sociedad (accountability), concepto que va ms all de la simple rendicin contable de cuentas y se
refiere a la rendicin social de cuentas, es decir, al resultado global del quehacer institucional. Es
importante que esa rendicin social de cuentas sea lo ms transparente posible y demuestre el
esmero en el uso sano y razonable de los recursos puestos a disposicin de la educacin superior por
la sociedad y el Estado.
Otro principio orientador se refiere a las responsabilidades de la educacin superior con la
educacin en general y, particularmente, con los niveles precedentes del sistema educativo, del cual
debe ser cabeza y no simple corona. Tal responsabilidad tiene que ver no slo con la formacin del
personal docente de los niveles precedentes, sino tambin con la incorporacin en su agenda de la
investigacin socio educativa, el anlisis de los problemas ms agudos que aquejan a los sistemas
educativos y las propuestas para mejorar su calidad y mtodos de enseanza, incluyendo el estudio
de las posibilidades que ofrecen las nuevas tecnologas de la informacin y la comunicacin, cuyo
acceso no debera generar una nueva forma de desigualdad o exclusin. Las instituciones de
educacin superior deberan asumir el liderazgo para propiciar que la cultura de calidad y evaluacin
impregne todo el sistema educativo.

26

Finalmente, la Comisin podra discutir la propuesta de la UNESCO acerca de la necesidad

de disear, de cara al prximo siglo, una educacin superior pro-activa y dinmica, que demanda
para su xito una poltica de Estado, una estrategia consensuada con todos los actores sociales, de
largo aliento, que trascienda el mbito temporal de los gobiernos, un nuevo pacto social, o contrato
moral, como lo llama el Informe Delors, donde cada sector interesado comprometa recursos y
esfuerzos para hacer realidad las transformaciones. Quizs debemos retar la imaginacin y
replantearnos los objetivos, la misin y las funciones de las instituciones de educacin superior para
que estn a la altura de las circunstancias actuales y del nuevo milenio, que ya alborea. Una
educacin superior impregnada de valores, los valores asociados a la promocin de la libertad, la
tolerancia, la justicia, el respeto a los derechos humanos, la preservacin del medio ambiente, la
solidaridad y la Cultura de Paz, como la nica cultura asociada a la vida y dignidad del ser humano.
La educacin superior contempornea debe asimilar, de manera creativa e interdisciplinaria, los
fundamentos de la Cultura de Paz, del aprender a vivir juntos, imprescindibles para el futuro de la
humanidad y el desarrollo sostenible de los pueblos.
Muchas gracias.

27

Higher Education Relevance in the 21st Century

Prof. Michael Gibbons

Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities
Text presented by William Saint

I find myself today in the awkward position of presenting a paper which is not mine, while the
author sits in the audience and listens, hopefully with some amusement. Yet I am pleased to do so,
because this paper is an extraordinary tour de force. If you only read one of the papers from this
conference, it should be this one. The author is Prof. Michael Gibbons, Secretary General of the
Association of Commonwealth Universities.
Tertiary level education is unique in that it not only transmits knowledge through teaching, but
it also produces new knowledge through research. Until the mid-20th century, tertiary institutions
enjoyed a near monopoly on research and knowledge production. But as we approach the 21st
century, substantial changes are occurring in the ways that knowledge is produced in the world.
These changes are eroding the traditional monopoly of higher education institutions in the realm of
knowledge production, as many competing institutional and organizational forms emerge. What are
these changes? What implications will they have for universities, as we now know them, in the 21st
century?
Prof. Gibbons answers these questions, and he does so brilliantly. He places the process of
knowledge generation and transmission, which has mainly been the function of universities, within the
larger context of an emerging global techno-economy. He argues convincingly that the imperatives of
international competition have increased the importance of knowledge and of information in the
innovation process, thereby prompting efforts to create more competitive approaches. With
considerable insight, Prof. Gibbons analyzes the growing prevalence of knowledge production, its
social and economic dynamics, and the new organizational relationships that are emerging to support
the knowledge production process. The role and mission of universities--indeed the very practice of
teaching and research--are being transformed. Old notions of university autonomy and academic
freedom are being replaced by concerns with social accountability and market responsiveness.
Teaching and research become increasingly de-linked even as they become increasingly integrated.
The idea of pure science is becoming an antiquated abstraction as a strong problem-solving
orientation defines research agendas, erases disciplinary boundaries, and re-shapes the criteria for
educational quality and relevance.
If the rules for the production of knowledge--which is the very definition of science--are
changing, then the criteria for relevance will shift accordingly. Three main criteria are appearing:

Public and social accountability -- the contribution of higher education to national

economic performance and to an enhanced quality of life.

Market sensitivity and demand-induced activities -- a premium on innovation and on

problem-solving.

Connectivity -- the capacity to network, to forge linkages, and to establish partnerships.

Finally, the fundamental occupation of universities is being transformed. Future outputs will
emphasize not only knowledge production, but also knowledge processing and configuration. As this
happens, individually acclaimed disciplinary scholars will give way to innovative, participatory,
communicative teams of knowledge workers.
Prof. Gibbons intentions in this paper are clearly stated. So are his assumptions. I believe he
succeeds magnificently in arguing that traditional universities, which have weathered social storms
and political tempests for five centuries, are now becoming obsolete. With equal clarity, he identifies
and explains key elements of the knowledge production system that is replacing them.

28

Prof. Gibbons thought-provoking paper contains immediate implications for all of us who
labor to enhance the quality and relevance of tertiary education. Let me suggest some of them in the
form of the following questions:
1. Are we right in our higher education development efforts to place so much emphasis on
increasing enrolments in science and technology? Or should we instead be emphasizing curriculum
reform to develop the skills needed for effective knowledge production under the new paradigm: teambuilding, creativity, information management, problem-definition, networking, communication skills,
and social sensitivity?
2. Should we not be giving much more attention to building capacities for problem-solving
research, and particularly for research management, and less attention to improving the inputs for
university teaching?
3. Should we not recognize the fundamental role now played by communications technology
in the process of knowledge production? Consequently, should we not be more aggressive in
promoting investment in electronic communication systems, which enable university communities in
developing countries to link up with sister institutions and to access global reservoirs of knowledge and
information?
4. Should we not be giving less attention to the development of national policy frameworks
for tertiary education, and much more attention to the development of national innovation policies?
5. Finally, all of us here are products of the traditional university paradigm, and we work on a
daily basis with the vested interests concerned with university preservation. How, then, can we
possibly play the role of change agents in the field of higher education?

29

Diversification and organizational development of higher education: a typology of trends in the

North America region and the periphery

Prof. Eduardo Aponte

Puerto Rico Council on Higher Education

Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of economic restructuring and development plans in higher education
institutions in terms of diversification and differentiation in the North America region and the periphery.
A typology of trends was developed to determine the nature and scope of institutional change and
organizational development.

1.0

Introduction

The emerging knowledge society requires a response to differentiated needs and to growing
diverse demands for quality and relevance, and also entails differentiation between institutions and
diversification within institutions. In this new context, competence and performance are increasingly
based on knowledge and sophisticated skills regardless of where and how they have been acquired.
Anticipating and responding to new education needs under financial constraints is determining and
defining both quality and relevance of higher education institutions. It is estimated that two thirds of
the new created jobs in the dynamic sectors (production and services) of the economy of the
developed countries will require post-secondary training and higher education in order to meet the
demand for the next decade and beyond (Twig & Oblinger, 1996). Diversification and access to higher
education will be crucial for the distribution of economic and political power in developed and
developing countries.

2.0

The new context

After the Second World War, the expansion of the North American economy promoted the
massification of the higher education system. Two phases of growth and diversification related to
economic restructuring, growth, and international hegemony during the Cold War period, can be
delineated: (1) from 1950s to 1970s expansion and institutional diversification, (2) from 1970s to the
1980s massification and vertical/horizontal diversification of higher and post-secondary institutions;
and (3) in the 1990s, a third process of selective diversification and differentiation in a new
contradictory context of expansion with contraction of the post-secondary and higher education
institutions (growth of some institutions while other are down-sizing programmes). These expansion
processes: the massification-diversification phase was determined by different factors:
industrialization, urbanization, new economic and social demands; state development strategies,
access funding policies and, more recently, the selective diversification and differentiation is being
determined by neo-liberal economic policy, post-industrial restructuring, regional integration, the
impact of the technological revolution and global competitiveness.
Higher education administrators, state officials, and governing boards have accepted the
proposition that higher education institutions are entering a new stage of organizational development
that will be determined by state new priorities (neo-liberal economic policy) and limited financial
resources (recurrent structural fiscal crisis). Paradoxically, higher education systems are entering a
prolonged financial crisis at a time when industry, business leaders, and government officials are
increasingly demanding that the higher education institutions expand and diversify their roles in new
workforce skills, the commercialization of research, (economic value of different types of knowledge,
i.e. useful knowledge) applied social policy, (market value of social and cultural knowledge) the
internationalization of the curriculum and other activities related to the economic restructuring towards
post industrialism, regional integration, and global competition.
The concern with new workforce skills, technological innovation, and the relevance of
education has moved higher to the forefront of national debates about economic policy and societal
development. In responding to this dilemma, strategic institutional development plans are being

30

directed (selectiveness) to new priorities: 1) the education of a new workforce with increasingly
sophisticated skills (conceptual symbolic skills such as quantitative-qualitative research, and problem
solving skills; oral-written interpretative-communication interpersonal skills.); 2) to provide research,
development, useful knowledge, and technical assistance to government and industry; 3) collaborate
in public-private partnerships with industry, business, and government agencies. Policy measures
such as performance budgeting, and evaluations "down-sizing" and accountability accreditation,
among others, are some of the policy instruments that are restructuring the higher education
institutions.
While concerns with technological change, innovations, quality, and the new relevance of
higher education have preoccupied stakeholders for many years, it is the recurrent fiscal crisis that has
provided the wedge for injecting these concerns into the higher education community. The institutional
orientation to market demand and the entrepreneurial organization development trends have rekindled
the old debate between proprietor and non-profit institutions around the purpose of investment in
education as private business or industry in relation to societal development and the public interest.
Policy makers and administrators are adopting reform strategies designed to slow expenditure growth
and reallocating resources into programmes and research areas that will increase business and
government support for higher education by redefining it as a social investment. Hence, the
contradictory imperative that institutions do more with less is catalyzing a wave of strategic planning,
resource reallocation, performance budgeting, accountability evaluations, and restructuring that is
moving higher education to a new paradigm of organizational development (H. Simsek & K. Seashore,
1994, E. Aponte, 1996) i.e. the new selective diversification-differentiation trend.
3.0

Diversification trends

Within this context, institutions will sharpen their education focus on specialized areas of
institutional strength or on areas of high student demand. Many higher education institutions will
depend on specialization and differentiation in their mission and will emphasize specialized
differences, as opposed to their previous comprehensiveness, by developing well core-business that
appeals to a well-defined niche market or new societal demands. Institutions are focusing
development on programmes that enhance their quality and competitiveness eliminating or reducing
programmes that do not support the new mission of the institution while at the same time are funding
innovative partnerships (interinstitutional collaborative efforts) to develop new programmes. This
institutional development approach has also been called the market oriented university in Canada
(J. Newson & H. Buchbinder, 1993) and in USA the corporate or consumer-centric model university
(Barrow, 1997) (Twigg & Oblinger, 1996)); while the organizational redesign to transform the
institutions has been called the `entrepreneurial university (Clark, 1995; Simsek & Seashore, 1994).
As a result of neo-liberal policies and economic restructuring, concerns with the new workforce
requirements, relevant quality and global competitiveness, various studies and policy documents
evidence seven interrelated structural organizational reforms in higher education institutions in the
North America region and the developing periphery (WICHE, 1992; Barrow, 1997; Didriksson, 1997;
Aponte, 1996; Clark, 1995) that entails (Simsek & Seashore, 1994) an organizational paradigm shift:
1) multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies (problem centered and policy action
research),
2) an accelerated movement toward shifting research away from departments into centers
and institutes,
3) a shift from basic research to applied research and development (specialized useful
knowledge),
4) incorporation of learning technologies and virtual academic programmes,
5) a shift from teaching to the learning paradigm, (student centered-continuos learning
organizations),
6) a shift from vertically structure bureaucratic-normative institutions to horizontally, flexibleadaptable innovative organizations,
7) consortium-collaborative efforts and inter-institutional, regional, and international academic
programmes.

31

4.0

Typology of diversification trends

Recent policy efforts to transform higher education in the new context of societal development
(at the center and the periphery) like national development strategies; science and technology policies
are changing the institutions. The transformation can be demonstrated using a typology of trends
using five change criteria to describe the 1990s selective diversification-differentiation trends as shown
in figure 1.
Figure 1
TYPOLOGY OF CHANGES BEHIND THE SELECTIVE DIVERSIFICATION-DIFFERENTIATION
TRENDS

From

To

1. Governance and mission

-decentralized multicampus institutions

-differentiated missions-student demand, and market

oriented institutions

-decentralized co-ordinated unit comprehensive

institution

-centralized differentiated planned system with

market-science/technology priorities>dynamic sectors
demand

-urban city campus

-metropolitan universities focused on economic

sectors and population groups>diversity

-community colleges

-colleges focused on specialized knowledge,

economic sectors, population groups, and
professional needs

-post-secondary institutions

-technology-oriented institutions focused on

professional needs, industry and business demands;
regional and local population groups

-traditional research/teaching in institutions

-entrepreneurial (new organizational culture) research

/learning institutions (paradigm shift)

-polytechnic institutions

-specialized technological institutes-business-industry

partnership higher education programmes
-innovative and virtual programs/universities

2. Funding
-public, private philanthropy and alumni

-public, private sector (industry, business, and

philanthropy), international funding, and capital
investments selective funding sources

-proportionate allocations and priority funding

-to performance and strategic budgeting

3. Knowledge
-general basic scientific/social research
-general and specialized knowledge
-specialized international studies

applied scientific, technological, and applied social

research
-useful and multi-specialized knowledge production
and diffusion
-internationalization of the curriculum and
regional/integration projects

32

From

To

4. Organization development
-academic departments and professional units

-departments by knowledge disciplines (degrees)

-teaching and learning in classrooms

-exchange and internship programmes

-non-degree continuous education
-tenured institutions

-entrepreneurial and consumer centric

(organizational culture) learning, flexible-adaptable
innovative organizations (paradigm shift)
-interdisciplinary clusters or centers and flexible
curriculum
-research/learning and doing in other settings, at a
distance, internships, communities and work outside
the institution
-academic degree consortium between institutions
and abroad
-degree oriented continuous education
-nontenured autonomous institutions

5. Evaluation policy
- self-study accreditation and voluntary
accreditation evaluation
-national regional accreditation

5.0

-accountability performance continuous self

evaluation and external audit systems on based
process-added value-outcomes
-cross-country regional accreditation policy
agreements

Concluding remarks

Several factors will determine the outcomes of the selective diversification-differentiation

trends. Among them: national/state development strategies, economic policy, access policy funding,
science and technology policies; institutional innovation projects, student and faculty resistance and
higher education employee unions; international aid programmes, economic regional integration
projects and quality assurance institutional accountability measures and state evaluation policies, to
name a few. Market oriented and entrepreneurial institutions as well as private colleges, the new
virtual universities, specialized knowledge higher education and post-secondary institutions will
continue to transform and restructure in this new context. Institutions with more resources, funding,
and innovative approaches will steer the transformation process more effectively making the new
change forces an opportunity for institutional renewal and development.
The emerging knowledge society, global competition, regional integration, and the funding
crisis will continue to determine and define the selective diversification-differentiation process for the
next years in North America and the periphery. An institutional comparative research agenda of
higher education change trends at the international level must be undertaken in order to anticipate
future developments of higher education systems on a worldwide scale.

6.0

Selected references

Aponte, E. (1998) New Directions in Higher Education: A Typology of Transformation Trends paper
to be delivered at International Council for Innovation in Higher Education Annual Conference
Transforming Higher Education for the Next Millenium, Los Angeles, California, USA, Nov. 1-5.
Aponte, E. (1996) Educacin Superior, Trabajo y la Integracin del Merconorte (Puerto Rico) Higher
Education Forum. CHE Bulletin, Vol. 1 No. 3.
Barrow, C. (1997) La Estrategia de la Excelencia Selectiva: redisear la educacin superior para la
competencia global en una sociedad industrial. Perfiles Educativos (Mxico) Vol. XIX. No. 7677.
Buchbinder, H. & Newson J. (1993) The market oriented university: corporate university links in
Canada (Canada) Higher Education Vol. 20.

33

Clark, B. (1995) Places of Inquiry: Research and Advance Education in Modern Universities. Berkeley
and Los Angeles California University Press.
Didriksson, A. (1997) Educacin Superior, Mercado de Trabajo e Integracin Econmica del
Merconorte: el caso de Mxico. Perfiles Educativos (Mxico) Vol. XIX. No. 76-77.
Simsek & Seashore, L. (1994) Organizational Change as a Paradigm Shift. (Ohio University Press,
USA) Journal of Higher Education, vol. 65 No. 6 (Nov-Dec).
Twigg, C. & Oblinger, D. G. (1996) The Virtual University (Washington, D. C., USA) A Report
EDUCOM/IBM Round Table, Interuniversity Communications Council, Inc. November 5-6.
WICHE (1992) Meeting Economic and Social Challenges: A Strategic Agenda for Higher Education
(Colorado, USA) Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education: Policy Document.

34

Diversification of Higher Education

Jerzy Woznicki
Rector of Warsaw University of Technology
Poland

General introduction
When confronted with hot topics in higher education, we have to carefully select the priorities for
discussion. I shall try to answer the question why the diversification of higher education is worth being
discussed.
The diversification of the forms and substance of higher education is a fact that has been observed for
centuries. Starting from philosophy in the ancient Greece, through trivium and quadrivium in the
Middle Ages, we have arrived at the number of higher education specialities that require a
considerable volume to be listed. But this is not the only dimension of diversification that we have
faced recently, and probably even not the most important one. The other ones are as follows:
the strong tendency towards specialization has been balanced by a counter-tendency towards
reintegration of traditionally separated domains;
the rapid increase of the number of students in all civilized societies has provoked the demand for
greater diversification of the levels and forms of higher education, reflecting the diversification of
educational goals and talents of larger populations of students;
the revolutionary development of information technologies inspired various techniques of distance
and virtual teaching;
the accelerated development of science and technology has provoked a demand for continuous
and life-long learning.
Many other dimensions of the diversification could be mentioned and discussed here: the
geographical and cultural diversification, organization-related and the results-related diversification - in
particular. Our discussion will probably contribute to their enumeration and systematization. The
fundamental question is, however, what are the positive and negative implications of the diversification
of higher education. The profound analysis of the process of higher education diversification requires
also many more detailed questions to be answered, e.g.:
what are the objective and subjective moving forces of higher education diversification?
what are the reasonable limits of further diversification of higher education?
how to deal with diversification of higher education at the institutional level?
In my short introduction to the debate, I would like to comment only on this last question. I think that
diversification of higher education is a natural and positive response to diversification of the needs of
contemporary societies, and - consequently - we should not oppose it but rather look for appropriate
forms and structures to be able to control it in such a way as to diminish its negative effects and profit
on its advantages. One of the possible ways to do so is to make our systems of study more flexible
without loosing adherence to some internationally recognized standards of higher education, and - at
the same time - meeting some efficiency requirements.

Flexibility of a system of study

Flexibility of a system of study means, in general, that each student has a lot of freedom in designing
his/her education path. To be flexible, the system must offer the student a variety of opportunities. To
be feasible it must be supported by a computer-based organizational infrastructure. Essential features
of a diverse and flexible system of study include:

Wide offer of programmes

The programmes of study and continuing education are designed to meet as effectively as possible
the needs of intended students, i.e. the students are allowed to design education paths of different
duration, leading to different diplomas or certificates. There are programs suitable for full-time students

35

and part-time students with different educational background (high school graduates, 2-year college
graduates, B.S. holders, and M.Sc. holders).

Possibility to decide on the length of education path in the course of study:

The students can decide on the length of their education paths in the course of study, taking into
account their capabilities, financial status, and other relevant factors, without being required to make
difficult and restrictive choices at the time when they apply for admission or at the very beginning of
the period of study.

Possibility to choose one (or two - in special cases) of many available specializations:
The students admitted to the institution are offered a wide range of specializations to choose from.
However, they are not required to commit to any specific area at the very beginning of their
programme; instead, they are provided with an opportunity to select the field of study and,
subsequently, the area of concentration, as they become more acquainted with the discipline.

Possibility to pursue an interdisciplinary programme:

The students admitted to the institution are allowed to pursue interdisciplinary programmes by taking
for full credit courses offered by other departments within the same institution or even courses offered
by other institutions. Clearly, to offer interdisciplinary studies, a credit transfer system must be adopted
by the institution.

Large, diversified and well-structured course offer:

The students are provided with a large and diversified offer of courses. Some courses intended for a
large number of students are offered in two or more versions that differ slightly with regard to the
range of topics covered and also, possibly, with regard to the student load (number of credit points).
The course offer is well-structured, i.e. courses are classified into some number of subject areas; this
makes it easier for the students and their advisors to review the course offer when designing individual
programs of study.

Freedom in design of an individual programme of study (course selection):

The curriculum requirements are formulated so that, regardless of the selected area of concentration,
a certain number of restricted elective courses or free elective courses could be included in the
individual programme of study. This would allow the student to design a programme of study that well
matches his/her individual interests, preferences, and professional career objectives.

Possibility to adjust the pace of studying to individual capabilities and preferences:

A full-time student is allowed, within certain limits, to decide on his/her workload (the number of
courses taken) each term. This makes it possible for better students to complete their programmes
ahead of schedule. On the other hand, weaker students and those who take part-time employment are
more likely to complete their programs, instead of being dismissed for inadequate progress or inferior
performance in the courses taken. A fast track is accessible for extremely talented and/or extremely
motivated students enabling them to obtain the Ph.D. degree after 6-7 years from the date of entering
the university. On the other hand, the part-time option of the programme is available for the students
whose individual capabilities or life conditions make them prefer less intensive studies.

Practical example
As an exemplification of the flexibility, I would like to outline a modern two-level system of study
offering the students the following options:
the five-year programme leading to the Master's degree;
the sequence of two programmes: 3.5-4-year undergraduate programme leading to the Bachelor's
degree and 1.5-2-year graduate programme leading to the Master's degree.
This system may be considered as a "linear combination" of two traditional systems of study,
controlled by a parameter being the ratio of the numbers of students following each of the options. The
values of this parameter may be set differently at various organizational units (faculties, departments)
of a university. Consequently, it may be used as a convenient tool for implementing academic policies

36

at the unit management, enabling - in particular - some organizational units to implement only one
option of the system.
The general structure of this system, supplemented with the third-level studies leading to the Doctor's
degree, is shown in Fig. 1. A student admitted to the undergraduate (first-level) studies, after 2 years
of learning mathematics, science, basic electronics and computer engineering, selects his/her area of
concentration. The third year is intended as an introduction to this area of concentration. During the
last, fourth year of the first-level studies, specialization-oriented courses are taken, followed by a
comprehensive final design project. The graduate (second-level) studies are also specialisationoriented, but include in addition advanced applied mathematics and science courses, as well as
individual reading and research courses. The last semester is devoted solely to the preparation of the
Master's thesis.

Ph.D. degree

M.S. degree

B.S. degree

certificate of
basic education
in engineering
first-level
studies

admission
procedure

third-level
studies

second-level
studies

admission
procedure
candidates from
outside the Faculty

entrance
examination
candidates
Fig. 1. Standard three-level system of study

Taking into account that the fast track and part-time forms of studies are included in the presented
system of study, it can be seen that the system offers the student a lot of flexibility in designing his/her
education path, and - consequently - a lot of flexibility in modelling his/her future professional career.

Final remark
st

The diversification of higher education may become a valuable feature of the society of the 21
century provided it is properly handled. Otherwise, it may produce some undesirable differentiation in
the quality of educational services offered by various higher education institutions. One of the
emerging instruments to deal with this problem is standardization in higher education.

World Conference on Higher Education

Discussion Note

Relevance in Higher Education

Viewpoints:

Venezuela, Nicaragua, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Poland

Reference Document: Pertinence

Prof. Hebe Vessuri
Department of Social Studies
Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research
Website address for all documents:
http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/

Summary of the Issue

Defining Relevance
In a rapidly changing social and natural environment, higher education is called upon to play a varied
and complex role in development. Relevance is a key factor in this regard and this term has been
used to refer to the fit or the match between what higher education institutions do and what society
expects of them. This concerns the role and place of higher education in society, but it also covers
access and participation, teaching and learning, the research function of the universities, the
responsibility of higher education to other sectors of society, the world of work and the community
service function of higher education.
Factors Affecting Relevance in Higher Education Systems and Institutions
These are:

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

the role of Government in higher education

population growth and population education
globalization, regionalization and sub-regionalization
rapid scientific progress
access and participation
increased cultural sensitivity and pressure for democracy and peace
the need to cater for more diverse clienteles and changing labour market needs
new instructional methods resulting from the application of new technologies
funding constraints and privatization
reorganization of systems and diversification of structures.

Improving Relevance
Important challenges include: constructive partnerships between government and institutional
leadership, demonstrating the impact of higher education in development, correcting provision
imbalances on the national/regional/subregional levels (including rural/urban provision), promoting
institutional diversification as well as innovative curriculum and pedagogy, preserving cultural
identities, advancing knowledge through research, and linkages to the whole education system.
Recommendations
The specific aim of Relevance in higher education is to mobilize the responsible actors from the different
domains, including politics, universities, science, technology, industry, and business, to build up a strong
coalition of all actors concerned, and to establish a permanent dialogue with ministries of finance and
other sources of funding.

Recommendations and proposals should address:

38

the relationship of higher education to the national development model, contributions to its design and
improvement;
how higher education can contribute to the consolidation of a culture of peace, the preservation of
national identity, regional integration and human development;
relevance as the result of scientific/technological research and its integration in the process of global
development, and the articulation of proposals to guarantee this;
relevance as response to real social needs and how to achieve this;
relevance as a support for human resource development; as articulation with the productive sector of
goods and services and the economic/employment sectors; as collaboration with civil society and
organized communities at the local level; and as support for the modernization of the State and for
political co-operation.

Regional Viewpoints

Basic Principles for Relevance Prof. Carlos Tnnermann Bernheim (Nicaragua)

The following concepts relate to the relevance of higher education and should guide national policy-makers in
their reforms:
-

higher education is a public good; as such it serves society and merits a strong commitment from
governments;
access on merit is a fundamental human right;
higher education has and should maintain its function as social critic;
its prospective and anticipatory role is unique;
through its cultural mission, it educates responsible citizens who are aware of global issues;
higher education institutions have a duty to be socially accountable.

Finally, by concluding a moral pact with governments to promote social development, institutions will help
construct a culture of peace based on the principle of learning to live together.

Changing Patterns of Knowledge Production

Prof. Michael Gibbons (Association of Commonwealth Universities) United Kingdom

The rules for the production of knowledge are changing and have three new criteria:
#
#
#

public and social accountability - the contribution of higher education to national economic performance and to
an enhanced quality of life;
market sensitivity and demand-induced activities - a premium on innovation and on problem-solving;
connectivity - the capacity to network, to forge linkages, and to establish partnerships.

As the fundamental occupation of universities is being transformed, important questions are:

1. Are we right in our higher education development efforts to place so much emphasis on increasing enrolments in
science and technology? Or should we instead be emphasizing curriculum reform to develop the skills needed for
effective knowledge production under the new paradigm: team-building, creativity, information management,
problem-definition, networking, communication skills, and social sensitivity?
2. Should we not be giving much more attention to building capacities for problem-solving research, and particularly
for research management, and less attention to improving the inputs for university teaching?
3. Should we not recognize the fundamental role now played by communication technologies in the process of
knowledge production? Consequently, should we not be more aggressive in promoting investment in electronic
communication systems, which enable university communities in developing countries to link up with sister
institutions and to access global reservoirs of knowledge and information?
4. Should we not be giving less attention to the development of national policy frameworks for tertiary education,
and much more attention to the development of national innovation policies?
5. Finally, all of us are products of the traditional university paradigm, and we work on a daily basis with the vested
interests concerned with university preservation. How, then, can we possibly play the role of change agents in the
field of higher education?

39

Diversification : Flexible Systems of Study

Prof. Jerzy Woznicki (Rector of Warsaw University of Technology) - Poland

A flexible system offers the student a variety of opportunities and must be supported by a computer-based
organizational infrastructure.
Practical example
#
#

the five-year programme leading to the Master's degree;

the sequence of two programmes: 3.5-4-year undergraduate programme leading to the Bachelor's degree and
1.5-2-year graduate programme leading to the Master's degree.
Ph.D. degree

M.S. degree
B.S. degree
certificate of
basic education
in engineering
first-level
studies

third-level
studies

admission
procedure
second-level
studies
admission
procedure
candidates from
outside the Faculty

entrance
examination
candidates

Standard three-level system of study

Diversification: A Typology of Trends in the North America Region and the Periphery
Prof. Eduardo Aponte (Puerto Rico Council on Higher Education)

Recent policy efforts to transform higher education in the new context of societal development can be
demonstrated by the following selected examples:
From

To

1. Governance and mission

-decentralized, multi-campus institutions

-differentiated missions to meet student demand,

and market-oriented institutions

-community colleges

-colleges focused on specialized knowledge, the

economic sector, population groups and
professional needs

-traditional research/teaching in institutions

-entrepreneurial institutions with modernized

management and innovative teaching/learning/
research methods

From

To

2. Funding
-public, private, philanthropic and alumni

-public, private and international funding, capital

investments from various funding sources

-proportionate allocations and priority funding

-performance and strategic budgeting

3. Knowledge
-basic scientific/social research

-applied research (scientific, technological and

social)

-general and specialized knowledge

-production and diffusion of useful and multispecialized knowledge

-specialized international studies

-internationalized curriculum and projects for

regional integration

4. Organization development
-academic departments and professional units

-organizations which are:

entrepreneurial and consumer-centred
flexible and innovative

-departments/degrees organized by
disciplines

-interdisciplinary clusters or centres and

flexible curriculum

-teaching and learning in classrooms

-research/learning experiences in other

settings (e.g. internships and community
projects)

5. Evaluation policy
-accreditation based on national norms

-accountability, performance, continuous self

evaluation, external audit systems based on
results

-national/regional accreditation

-transnational/regional accreditation
agreements

Points for Further Reflection in Different Contexts

What are the priority national needs which should be met by higher education?

What indicators can be established to measure the current and desired relevance of higher
education?

What are the consequences of increased demand for higher education in a given context?

What are the major problems faced by students and learners?

Can higher education be further diversified to meet demand? (i.e. greater variety of post-secondary
provision)

Can current resourcing problems be better resolved?

What major obstacles are preventing the transformation of higher education to meet the needs of the
st
21 century?

How can relevance and capacity-building for citizenship be harmonized and made complementary?