Higher Education in the Age of Globalisation The need for a new regulatory framework for recognition, quality assurance and accreditation Dirk Van Damme Ghent University - VLIR (B) UNESCO Expert Meeting Paris, September 2001

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme2 Structure Globalisation The impact of globalisation on higher education –new exigencies on higher education –increasing demand for higher education –erosion of national regulatory frameworks –emerging borderless higher education market The need for a new regulatory framework –regulation of new & transnational providers –recognition of qualifications and credits –international quality assurance and accreditation

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme3 Globalisation =Still unclear, much debated concept, but useful as a heuristic tool to understand the interrelated tendencies that define the contemporary environment for higher education: The rise of the network society: technological innovation, strategic importance of information and communication, the Internet

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme4 Globalisation The restructuring of the world economic system: transformation to post-industrial knowledge economy, new industrial nations, new forms of dependency in developing countries, integration of world economy with liberalised trade, etc. The political reshaping of the post-Cold War world order: strategic shifts in power balances, emergence of new hegemonic regions, increasing global insecurity, regional and local conflicts

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme5 Globalisation The growing real but also virtual mobility of people, capital and knowledge, but also new mass migrations by poor and refugees The erosion of the nation-state and its capacity to master the economic and political transformations, weakness of international community, growing gap between economic activity and poltical regulation Complex cultural developments with homogeneisation as well as differentiation

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme6 Impact on higher education 1New important demands and exigencies towards universities as ‘knowledge centres’ –strategic importance of knowledge and information, scientific research, development and technology –internationalisation of research, mobility of academic profession, international market in research personnel –international benchmarking of ‘research universities’ –new forms of knowledge production and application –competition from other ‘knowledge centres’

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme7 Impact on higher education 2Worldwide increase in demand for higher education –more highly qualified knowledge workers in developed c. –massification of demand, growth of unmet demand among upper and middle classes in many countries because of budgetary and capacity limits of public sector –diversification of demand because of LLL and more flexible delivery modes þhigher education as booming global market, massification of demand not matched by growth of public provision, leading to increase in private, commercial supply and severe problems of equity and access

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme8 Impact on higher education 3Erosion of national regulatory frameworks –increasing contradiction between national policy frameworks and international environment (liberalised global market, globalised professions, international market for researchers, brain drain, competition by foreign providers, etc.) –deregulation and institutional autonomy weaken dependence of institutions from national policy frameworks –internationalisation strategies of institutions: from cooperation to competition, increase in for-profit internationalisation

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme9 Impact on higher education 3Erosion of national regulatory frameworks (cont’d) –development of international references and policies: harmonisation and congruence (e.g. Bologna, generalisation of bachelor/master-degree systems, English as lingua franca of scientific research and higher learning, consensus on core curricula, etc.), but also differentiation –national policies will not be annihilated completely, but it is an illusion to resist globalisation and marketisation by identifying ‘public good’ with ‘national’

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme10 Impact on higher education 4Emerging borderless higher education market –profitable environment for growth of private and transnational supply of educational services –varied ‘businesses of borderless education’ –challenging academic identity and threatening market position of ‘traditional’ universities in specific niches –real problems of diploma mills, but also exagerated protectionist reactions of national administrations –access, equity and quality

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme11 Need for new regulatory framework þneed for a new international regulatory framework to (counter)balance the impact of globalisation –transcending old notions of ‘public’ versus ‘private’, but affirming the public functions and responsibilities of higher education while recognising its market possibilities –based on self-regulation but in a comprehensive partner- ship with national states, international organisations, student unions, professions, other stakeholders –defending the interests of learners worldwide, the international higher education community and the global ‘general interest’ in access, equity and quality

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme12 Need for new regulatory framework Price/risk of not developing such a framework –liberalisation without constraints, ‘academic capitalism’ –no transparency but chaos for learners & ‘consumers’ –rogue providers, charlatans, etc. –more protectionist approaches by national authorities, limiting international mobility of skilled labour –higher education loosing grip on qualifications & degrees –global professions and industries defining their own standards on skills & competences outside qualifications & degrees

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme13 Need for new regulatory framework 1Regulation of private & transnational providers 2Recognition of qualifications & credits 3International quality assurance & accreditation

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme14 1. Regulation of new providers Problem: –huge differences in dealing with private & transnational providers; increase in protectionist approaches –limits of purily ‘national’ & ‘public’ regulation of higher education market –blurring of the concepts ‘public’ and ‘private’; also ‘private’ & non-national institutions can fulfill ‘public’ functions –GATS: liberalisation of higher education services –no need for bureaucratic ‘recognition’ procedures

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme15 1. Regulation of new providers þneed for international regulatory framework for dealing with private & transnational providers, including: –an international glossary of common concepts, definitions and terminology, –some basic rules to grant providers the 'licence to teach', –an internationally standardised procedure of registration (including identification of who is in control and who can be held accountable)

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme16 1. Regulation of new providers –some rules concerning the correct use of the basic labels, –the removal of existing barriers to mobility of students and staff, not dealt with in international trade agreements, –some basic elements of a professional code of good practice (building further on work done by UNESCO, Council of Europe a.o.) –a basic arrangement of the intellectual property issues associated with private higher education, and –an agreement on issues of consumer protection and rights of complaint.

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme17 1. Regulation of new providers In self-interest of private & transnational providers And: self-regulation of higher education sector in order to build trust and esteem as respectable service sector Need for representative international associations of public and private institutions

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme18 2. Recognition of qualifications/credits Problem: –context of increased global mobility of skilled labour and globalisation of professions –complicated bureaucratic procedures of ‘equivalence’ of foreign/private degrees and qualifications are conservative and protectionist –the educational sector is circumvened by policies concerning professional mobility and by court decisions, but it is the public responsibility of the higher education sector to solve this issue itself at the risk of loosing grip on the essential raison d’être of higher education!

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme19 2. Recognition of qualifications/credits –increasing importance of credits as units of validation of learning experiences leads to issues of recognition and transferability/accumulation of credits –importance of informal learning and its validation: outcome- and competence-oriented approaches are gaining importance, but no radical abstraction of formal & institutional components of educational process to be expected –international accreditation cannot be expected to provide the solution to these problems of recognition of qualifications and credits

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme20 2. Recognition of qualifications/credits þStrong need for a new ambitious international initiative in recognition of qualifications & credits –leading to more or less automatic recognition and international transferability of foreign qualifications and credits within ‘harmonised’ higher education areas –including a flexible ‘recognition’ system for qualifications and credits delivered by private institutions –including internationally accepted procedures for validation of informal and experiential learning and for accumulation in a lifelong learning perspective

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme21 3. International QA & accreditation Problem: –development of national quality assurance schemes in 90s: domestic functions, not covering e-learning & transnational delivery, limited international benchmarking, not ‘readable’ to outsiders –development of national accreditation schemes: various models and functions, often to control domestic supply side –very limited development of international accreditation, inability of HE sector to develop its own accreditation system internationally

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme22 3. International QA & accreditation –but: growth of international professional accreditation, import of foreign accreditors, etc., ‘multiple accreditation’ Huge differences of opinion regarding international accreditation strategies: –improving communication and exchange between national schemes leading to benchmarking and mutual recognition –‘soft’ international validation of trustworthy QA and accreditation schemes via agreement on standards –‘real’ international accreditation: problem of legitimacy –international accreditation agency: costly & bureaucratic

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme23 3. International QA & accreditation My conviction is that development of global higher education market has to be accompanied by development of own trustworthy forms of international ‘accreditation’, seen as self-regulation on minimal quality standards, in order to establish international HE as a respectable and accountable service sector

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme24 3. International QA & accreditation Steps that can be taken: –an agreement on a common set of definitions and a glossary of concepts; –an agreement on a basic set of principles, a.o. that quality assurance and accreditation primarily are a kind of self-regulation, owned by the higher education community and guaranteeing academic values, that accreditation is only possible on the basis of existing quality assurance experiences, that international accreditation must respect institutional autonomy and cultural diversity, and promote innovation and improvement

UNESCO Expert Meeting, Paris, September 2001 Dirk Van Damme25 3. International QA & accreditation –an initiative to convince the international higher education community that it has to do it itself, at the risk of giving away the initiative in this crucial issue; –an initiative to national authorities to convince them to approach accreditation internationally; –an initiative to seek the cooperation of the internationally organised professions, students and other stakeholders; –start of work by experts on standards, criteria and benchmarking procedures, in order to investigate the possibility of the definition of internationally agreed minimum quality standards.