higher education

Page 6 of 15
1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 15

Philippines: Recasting higher education

Noticias

Asia/ Philippines/ 30.07.2019/ Source: www.philstar.com.

In 1994, the Philippine government signed into law Republic Act (RA) 7722, a law that resolved to “protect, foster and promote the right of all citizens to affordable quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to ensure that education shall be accessible to all.”

Back then, only 22 percent of all Filipino youth had a shot at getting a college degree.

Twenty-five years after, this aspiration remains true for many Filipinos. In AmBisyon 2040, the government’s midterm development blueprint, about 73 percent of Filipino families answered that they want their children to be college-educated. Indeed, a college degree remains centerpiece in any family’s aspiration, seen as the key to a better life.

Today, college participation is at 28 percent and with many cards stacked in our favor for the years ahead: there are now more Filipinos completing high school than ever before, and the recently passed RA 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act provides unprecedented support to Filipino youth intending to pursue higher education.

Not everyone, however, has an equal shot at making it to college.

In our project, YouthWorks PH — co-implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) — we engage youth who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and have learned much from them. In the past year, we have seen firsthand how many of our youth are not in college because of three factors: family obligations, either to take care of a parent or a sibling; the need to work; or their lack of interest in what is being taught in school.

This means rethinking how classes are organized and taught, from the rigid 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. class schedules, to more inclusive modes such as online learning and work-based training. This is the promise of the Philippine Qualifications Framework, passed into law in January 2018.

Today, the Philippines finds itself in a demographic window: a phase when the country’s working-age population will be proportionately larger than its dependents or those who are either too young or too old to work.

However, reaping this demographic dividend requires that we enable our youth to reach their highest potential through education, and that in parallel, we create quality jobs and provide routes for entrepreneurship. This comes hand in hand.

Looking ahead, the future holds much promise, but to get there, we must abandon traditional notions of how “college” looks like, and innovate on how and where learning can happen. This way, we can make higher education more inclusive for our youth.

Source of the notice: https://www.philstar.com/other-sections/education-and-home/2019/07/28/1938563/recasting-higher-education

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

David Cohen: The fall of ‘higher’ education?

David Cohen Cohen

By: David Cohen.

 We live in memorable academic times. Higher education in New Zealand is on a definite downward roll

Ministry of Education figures just released show the number of domestic students has taken a significant dip, with just 8.6 percent of adult New Zealanders enrolled in tertiary education last year compared with 12.5 percent 10 years ago and around 11 percent at the turn of the century.

The biggest demographic decline has been among men, whose numbers in tertiary education have gone down from 11.3 percent in 2009 to 7 percent last year.

It wasn’t supposed to pan out like this. For the better part of 20 years now successive governments have aggressively promoted higher education as a way of improving the country’s intellectual capital and seizing the international momentum for discovering and applying new technologies.

‘It’s the knowledge economy, stupid’ or so one academic leader quipped at the time of the much-ballyhooed Knowledge Wave conference in 2001.

The trend was also not seen as being exclusively about students. Institutions of higher learning in New Zealand – especially the eight universities – have long struggled to keep their best scholars from decamping to loftier campuses in Australia, Britain and the United States. The new policy emphasis would put paid to that, too.

No caption

University of Otago Photo: 123rf

Alas, the signs that all has not quite proceeded to plan have been in evidence for some time. Much of the new activity of recent years was about hauling in more and more new, foreign, fee-paying students rather than young locals who in any event would appear to have more of an eye these days for pursuing a trade than a degree.

And why not? A report commissioned last year by the Industry Training Federation showed apprentices earn more, buy houses and contribute to KiwiSaver earlier than their peers with bachelor’s degrees.

What’s more, according to the research from Business and Economic Research Limited, or BERL, those who enter the trades are, on average, in a better financial position for most of their lives.

Another survey conducted seven years ago suggested New Zealand degrees were among the most valueless in the OECD – a reckoning that would particularly apply, one assumes, to qualifications in many of the social sciences and media-related courses.

Embarrassing international comparisons may only be part of the story behind the latest figures. Higher education itself isn’t all it once was for employers, either.

In the United States an increasing number of companies – including IBM, Apple and Google – are now offering well-paying jobs to those with non-traditional education, which is to say, people without degrees.

Partly the move has to do with skyrocketing tuition fees but organisations are also making a point about the need for having different voices and minds rather than just those who have a conventionally dependable educational experience.

«When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings,» Google’s former SVP of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, told The New York Times a few years ago.

«And we should do everything we can to find those people.»

In Britain, one of the country’s biggest graduate recruiters, accountancy firm Ernst and Young, has entirely eliminated a degree classification from its hiring programmes. The firm says it has found «no evidence» of a correlation between university success and acing it as an accountant.

Will New Zealand employers follow suit? And how will academic institutions respond to the broader trend? Where will the intellectual culture be in another few years?

It sounds like something somebody should be doing a thesis on.

Source of the article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/394522/david-cohen-the-fall-of-higher-education

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Higher education challenges in South Asia

Muhammad Murtaza Noor

By: Muhammad Murtaza Noor.

 

The southern region of the Asian continent is highly populated, diverse in nature and homeland for almost a quarter of the world population. Geographically diversity led to a variety of educational system based on national priorities. The Hollings Centre for International Dialogue assembled over fifty senior higher education leaders in Istanbul, Turkey, to comprehend the higher education dynamics of this highly populated region of the world. Importantly, delegates attending this meeting were both from South Asia as well as across the globe. The intended outcomes of four days deliberations and discussions were comprehending the higher education landscape in the region and how global partners can assist in a variety of areas related to the higher educational development of this region. The primary focus of this group was on curriculum development and reform, quality assurance, accreditation, e-learning, distance education, and building external relations with various stakeholders. The writer had an opportunity to participate in this group of academician as a member of Pakistani delegation and also shared ongoing efforts of Pakistani higher education in the areas selected for deliberations.

There was a consensus among the participants about the commonality of challenges in higher education sector not only in the South Asian region but also globally. These challenges need immediate attention, effective strategy, and collaborations inside and outside the countries. Exchange of ideas, expertise, and learning from best practices in the higher education sector, can be much helpful in addressing these common challenges in a more effective way.

South Asia is the most populous and the most densely populated geographical region in the world, with more than 1.891 billion people. It has a bulging youth population with more than 600 million under 18 years and accounts for around 25% of the world’s population and is one of the world’s fastest growing region, with growth rates approaching 7.0 percent in 2019. On average, one million people are added to the workforce each month, and the expected trend is escalating almost in the next decade. Collectively more than 1,375 higher education institutions exist in the region. Also, South Asia‘s industry and service sector are growing and creating jobs that require skilled human resources. To meet these growing challenges corroborating with population growth, there is dire need to strengthen higher education sector through increasing financial allocations, facilitating innovations, equipping youth with knowledge & essential skills and bringing higher education sector at par with international standards.

The delegates felt a need for a well-established, properly-regulated tertiary education system supported by technology like Open Educational Resources (OERs) and distance education modalities could increase access, equity, quality, and relevance, and narrow the gap between what is taught at tertiary education institutions and what economies and societies demand. The provision of tertiary education should be progressively free, in line with existing international agreements.

The speakers and panelists emphasized the student-centric higher education policies. They were of the view that universities should provide quality education, required institutional resources, incentives, and facilities for active participation in extra-curricular activities to the students at the campuses. The students also need to be equipped with essential skills of leadership, teamwork, communication, critical thinking as well as problem-solving so that they may come up to the expectations of the community, society, and industry. The importance of role of universities was also highlighted in peace-building within the country and across the region.

The higher education institutions of the Southern Asia region should ensure a systematic approach for providing accessible and effective programs and services designed to provide opportunities for enrolled students to be successful in achieving their educational goals. The institutions should offer student services, including physical and mental health services, appropriate to their mission and the needs and intended purposes of their students.

It was also discussed that being hub of ideas, innovation, and knowledge-creation, universities’ vital role need to be reinforced in inculcating the values of responsible citizenship, leadership, peace, tolerance, harmony, pluralism, and co-existence among the youth. It will only be possible through ensuring academic, financial, administrative autonomy of the universities and academic freedom at the university campuses. Too much regulation has also adversely affected innovations and creatively in the higher education sector of South Asia. The concerned higher education bodies should play a facilitative and supportive role towards universities instead of becoming intrusive one. Following the best international practices, there is also dire need to separate the functions of quality assurance, ranking, and funding in the higher education sector. Accreditation process in South Asian higher education sector, should not be complicated, lengthy, and time-consuming. The higher education quality assurance and accreditation bodies should be autonomous so that these critical bodies may perform their functions independently without any external interference. To increase access to higher education, which is still very low as compared to even other Asian countries, South Asian countries need to encourage the role of the private sector and public-private sector partnerships.

Another critical common issue which was identified by the participants was employability challenge which is being faced by a large number of graduates of most South Asian higher education institutions due to a mismatch between the market & universities and disparity within and among the universities. It was suggested that close liaison should be created between academia & industry, and necessary modifications should be made in the curriculum along with equipping the students with essential soft skills.

The role of qualified and trained faculty was highlighted in effective functioning of universities. It was recommended that maximum investment should be made in the area of faculty development and pre-service as well as in-service trainings should be made mandatory in order to train the faculty in modern teaching and research techniques.

Under the 17 Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations (UN), now it is the responsibility of the respective countries to ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education including universities. In this regard, South Asian countries would have to take immediate effective steps through prioritizing education and providing required funds & support for equipping youth with required knowledge and skills. At the same time, they also need to learn from regional/ international experiences and best practices in higher education sector through creating close collaborations and exchange of faculty/higher education leadership.

Source of the article: https://nation.com.pk/18-Jun-2019/higher-education-challenges-in-south-asia

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Education as an instrument for China’s soft power

Alfred Marleku

By: Alfred Marleku.

 

China is lavishing scholarships on foreign students and opening up institutions around the world as it looks to exert influence and serve the national interest in a different way.

Alongside its rapid economic development and increasing political impact in the world, China is making significant progress in building up soft power capacities by using education as the key instrument to boost its influence abroad.

The concept of soft power in the field of international relations started to be used by the well-known scholar Joseph Nye. He argues that soft power involves culture, values, and ways to disperse impact and build an image. All this, according to him, aims to facilitate state cooperation, administration and a race to distribute influence, values and ideology to other states.

In recent years, China has significantly increased its influence abroad by using education as a source and instrument of soft power. This has been done by using two main approaches.

Firstly, by establishing Chinese educational institutions in different countries of the world. Second, by offering attractive programmes and support through scholarships for students from around the world to study at Chinese universities.

For this reason, in 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a formal document stating that the purpose of their education reform initiative at international level is to make it possible for Chinese soft power to serve the national interest.

One of the main Chinese educational instruments, which is estimated to have an annual value of around $10 billion, is the establishment and operation of the Confucius Institutes, which operate in around 120 countries around the world through about 500 centres.

These institutes are established by the state and their main purpose is to familiarise foreigners with the Chinese ideological approach and its culture by offering them various services such as Mandarin language courses or training in cooking Chinese food, calligraphy etc.

However, the impact for China’s soft power has not remained only at the institutional or individual student level, but has also extended to influential politicians. In 2013, after a visit to China, former British prime minister, David Cameron stated that Britain should look beyond traditional principles where students are offered only German and French as a foreign languages and should focus on learning Mandarin.

It does not seem casual that, a few years later, Cameron was engaged to lead an investment fund in UK, worth about $1 billion, which aimed at backing China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

On the other hand, China has invested steadily in increasing its universities’ capacities in order to compete globally with world-class institutions through two initiatives, known as Project 211 and Project 985. These educational platforms aim to create opportunities for foreign students to study Chinese language and culture and, at the same time, encourage Chinese students to study abroad.

It is estimated that nearly half a million foreign students are studying in China. According to official statistics, in 2017, these students attended 935 higher education institutions. As far as the Asian continent is concerned, China is considered to be the most popular and attractive destination for international students. Most of them come from South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, the US, Russia, and Japan.

To attract as many foreign students as possible, the Chinese government allocates more than 10,000 scholarships to students from countries interested in pursuing studies in China through the Silk Road Scholarship programme. The largest number of these scholarships are dedicated to countries impacted by the Belt Road, making up about 65 percent. But Europe is not left behind in this regard. The Chinese government has recently launched the Chinese Ambassador Scholarship programme dedicated to students from Romania.

In fact, it is considered normal practice and is very common for powerful states, as part of their strategy to extend their impact in the international arena, to apply soft power by launching various scholarship programmes. Around a century ago, the United Kingdom implemented the Rhodes Scholarship programme, which aimed at promoting British imperialist values in the world.

On the other hand, in 1946, the United States launched the Fulbright Programwhich aims to disseminate American values abroad. Whereas, the former Soviet Union in 1961 created Patrice Lumumba University in order to teach the principles of socialism to students coming from the so-called third world countries.

Similarly, China uses higher education to increase its impact of soft power in the world, especially in countries stretching along the One Belt One Road initiative.

Education for some countries is considered an industry, while for others it is seen more as a political tool. While in developed countries such as the UK, US or Australia, foreign students are welcomed because universities, by offering them study opportunities, charge them with tuition fees that usually are much higher than payments of domestic students, in China foreign students enjoy generous financial support through scholarships and advanced study conditions. For this reason, in 2018, the Chinese Foreign Ministry increased the budget by 16 percent compared to 2017.

This is a well-planned strategic move. As the British weekly The Economistpoints out, rich countries sell their education and China is using it to buy influence.

 

Source of the article: https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/education-as-an-instrument-for-china-s-soft-power-25699

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

The Guardian view on higher education: humans need the humanities

The Guardian

By: The Guardian.

The subjects of least obvious use may prove to be of ultimate value

 

The authoritarian and populist government of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil is guilty of many crimes. Some, like the assault on the rainforest, will damage the whole world. Others will only damage Brazil: the latest example is the announcement that the government is considering withdrawing funding from university teaching of philosophy and sociology. Higher education may not seem a top priority in a country where a third of the adult population is functionally illiterate. The government’s education policy is already eccentric. The most recently sacked education minister, a former philosophy professor, had demanded that schools film their pupils singing the national anthem and listening to Mr Bolsonaro’s election slogan. But this is serious.

Sociology and philosophy are subjects which seem to their enemies to produce nothing but querulous unemployables fluent in sophistry and subversion. (Mr Bolsonaro has thundered about the need to “combat Marxist rubbish” in educational institutions.) Authoritarians promote a rigid society in which there is room for only a few guides and philosophers at the top. They need to know what there is to know about humanity and society, but everyone else need only know their place. This was certainly the model against which the great 19th- and 20th-century movements for workers’ emancipation rebelled. There is a strong democratic tradition of self-improvement for moral purposes running through socialism and some forms of Christianity before it. All these people understood philosophy and clear thought more generally as a threat to the pretensions of authority and a tool for a more just and better society.

Sociology is a special case of such an instrument of self-improvement. By helping people to think about their own societies, and to engage with what has been thought before, it can make for better citizens as well as better people. To understand the motives of others is to some extent to understand our own. Sociology and philosophy are not vocational subjects. They are the subjects that inform our understanding of any vocation. What happens when powerful people think that common sense can substitute for the disciplines of the humanities is obvious in the horrible consequences of social networks built by young men who understand computer code profoundly but everything else superficially if at all. The philosopher Karl Popper taught that subjects of inquiry could be divided into clouds and clocks: those whose boundaries and workings, however complicated, worked according to clear and explicit rules, and those where this couldn’t be done. Thinking about problems which are by their nature cloudy and cannot be reduced to clockworks is an essential skill in today’s world, as it has always been.

It is not, however, one which is always demanded by employers. Political authoritarians are not the only enemies of humanities. There is also the crude view that higher education is merely the servant of the markets, although any educated person can see that this is precisely the wrong way round. When Mr Bolsonaro praises subjects that generate “immediate return” for the taxpayer, it is a convenient justification for his ideological drive. Others actually mean it.

The principles of liberal democracy are threatened by thuggery, but also by some forms of intellectual assault. If they are to be defended, and their practice improved, we need more philosophers and sociologists. It is the subjects of least obvious use that may prove of ultimate value.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/30/the-guardian-view-on-higher-education-humans-need-the-humanities

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Ethiopia: Planning for a differentiated higher education system

Noticias

Africa/ Ethiopia/ 24.04.2019/ Source: qswownews.com.

 

The Ethiopian higher education landscape is in a critical need for distinction and an ideal opportunity has emerged with the establishment of the Education Development Roadmap (2018-30), which acknowledges the benefiting of driving quality and competitiveness with reference to programme offerings, functional focus, institutional status and student composition, combined with the nation’s fifth Education Sector Development Programme or ESDP V (2015/16-2019/20). However, strategies are essential as to how this can be realised.

Despite of the two decades of change and transformation, the higher education framework in Ethiopia still comply with similar patterns and trends. There is limited differentiation among public universities in their missions, visions, governance structure, student admission policies, core activities and the disciplinary mix which characterises their programme. The resemblance also include research engagement and output.

The residential framework remains the prevalent design across the public sector. Further, regardless of their differences in resources and capacities, public and private universities are required to deliver the fundamental undertakings of teaching, research and community services.

The primary justification for this similar scope is due to the fact that the development of the Ethiopian HE system over the last two decades is not supported by the features of an individuated system, even with early calls for such a system.

However, the present advancements both at national and institutional levels demonstrates the sector’s keenness to take on board a new frontier of a more distinguished HE system. Among the most distinctive remarks of this readiness are the strategies integrated in the nation’s fifth ESDP V and the recently established Education Development Roadmap.

Ethiopia’s new Education Roadmap has acknowledged the values and need for a distinguished HE system. Further to recognising the perks of  advocating institutional quality and competitiveness, the roadmap illustrates the need for planning multiple directions of “differentiation” based on programme offerings, functional focus, institutional status, student composition etc without implementing regulations on the paths to be sought after. This policy can be deemed as a critical initial move towards nationwide planning and institutional actions.

However, no distinctive strategy or system is implemented to regulate such a system. The new Education Roadmap fails to demonstrate what course the differentiation should take, how and when. Given the demand for such a system, the next move should place emphasis on detailed planning by looking into both international and local experiences that can result in effective lectures.

Several practical proposals have been made since before the early 2000s, towards the development of a unique system in Ethiopia. At present, Ethiopia desires to become a middle income country by 2025 and hopes to leverage on higher education to reduce poverty and develop its economy. The shift in its agriculture-led economy to an industrial one is therefore dependent on the existence of an educated workforce that can contribute predominantly in technology transfer and knowledge creation.

All in all, a differentiated HE system should be undertaken to meet the overall national vision of improving local development and initiating an internationally competitive labour force that supports in the present shift towards the development of a knowledge society.

The corresponding growth and experiences attained over the last two decades illustrate the alignment of Ethiopia’s development strategies with the tenacious growth of its higher education sector urge for a holistic vision and strategy that should lead the future advancement of institutions, their systematic deployment and utilisation.

The option of a detailed national subsystem of differentiation should not place emphasis on certain institutions; but rather on how all institutions within the system are classified and utilised to react to nationally-envisaged goals and to regional and international positioning.

The project requires in-depth review of current institutions, their related strengths, aspirations, institutional cultures, resource and location advantages and the significance of a differentiated system. The task demands expert knowledge, long-term vision and the engagement of relevant stakeholders.

Regardless of the choice of execution, the system’s achievement would be dependent on its primary objective, that is the smooth integration of the components of access and excellence.

Source of the noticie: https://qswownews.com/planning-for-a-differentiated-higher-education-system/

 

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Fighting oppression with education

Reseñas

North America/ Canada/ 03.04.2019/ Source: www.winnipegfreepress.com.

Museum explores plight of Baha’i believers studying underground in Iran

When university-age Baha’i believers in Iran want to protest how that country oppresses members of their religion, they go to school.

They don’t go to regular state-supported universities and colleges — they are banned from those by the government because of their beliefs. They attend «underground» classes run by Baha’i professors, where they study a variety of subjects.

When Clint Curle, a senior adviser at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, heard about the issue, «I became immediately interested in the story, and how the Baha’i community in Iran is responding.»

For Curle, the issue touches on two fundamental human rights of interest to the Winnipeg museum: education and freedom of religion and conscience. It also shows how oppressed communities can creatively respond to having their rights denied.

«It’s a brilliant, non-violent response to oppression, an inspiring story deeply rooted in the Baha’i faith,» he said.

On March 26, the museum will focus on the issue with a public event titled: Persecution, Protection and Resilience: Canada and the Baha’is of Iran.

The free event, co-sponsored by the Baha’i Community of Canada and the local Baha’i assembly, will feature a presentation by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was working for Newsweek in 2009, when he was accused of being a spy and imprisoned by the Iranian government.

Following his release, Bahari wrote the memoir Then They Came for Me: a Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, which was adapted for the big screen (Rosewater) in 2014 by former Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

In an interview from his home in London, England, Bahari, 52, said he is «dedicated to pursuing freedom of conscience in Iran.»

This includes speaking up on behalf of Baha’is, even though he is not a member of the religion — he calls himself a «non-practising Muslim.»

Bahari said opposition to the religion in Iran is rooted in «hatred by the clergy» in that country, where they are considered heretics. As a result, he said, «they are treated as second-class citizens.»

He spoke admiringly of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, the «underground» school that offers 38 university-level programs in science, engineering, business and management, the humanities and the social sciences. Students meet in homes, offices and other clandestine locations.

The institute’s courses are recognized by almost 100 universities around the world, including the University of Manitoba.

«It shows the best kind of peaceful response,» Bahari said of how the institute continues to offer programs despite periodic raids, confiscation of equipment, general harassment and imprisonment of faculty members.

It’s also «an educational miracle. They are fighting a brutal regime with education and creativity. It is instructive for the world.»

For Payam Towfigh, a Winnipeg Baha’i who came to Canada 30 years ago from Iran as a refugee, the event is a chance to «shine a light» on persecution in that country, and to explore ways Winnipeggers can collaborate with local Baha’is and others «to end this injustice.»

Source of the review: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/faith/fighting-oppression-with-education-507503292.html

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »
Page 6 of 15
1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 15