International Organizations and Higher Education Policy

Thinking Globally, Acting Locally?

Roberta Malee Bassett,Alma Maldonado-Maldonado

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781135854362
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Higher Education operates in an increasingly global context, and yet the examination of what drives and moves the field has remained largely focused on domestic campus leaders, national governments and institutional actors. International Organizations and Higher Education Policy expands the analysis to include the global drivers behind higher education policy, including a full array of influential organizations such as the World Bank, UNESCO, OECD, WTO, bilateral aid agencies and major private foundations. The significance of these organizations is especially pronounced in the developing world, where the expansion of higher education is happening in conjunction with the broadening influence of globalization.

International Organizations and Higher Education Policy critically analyses the impact that these influential organizations have at different levels of policy development and implementation around the world. It examines their role in higher education institutions, examines the strength of these relationships, and exposes both the positive and negative implications.

This edited volume is composed of scholars and members of these organizations from around the world. They address:

• 
  
  

• How international organizations represent the interests of the developed world and subsequently have an impact on the developing world.

• 
  
  

• How these organizations drive and shape the global agenda for higher education

• 
  
  

• How higher education as an international industry is subject to a myriad of influences, from the international to the regional level

• 
  
  

• What ethical issues emerge when international organizations intervene in national policy-making processes.

I
International Organizations and the Field of Higher Education

1
Higher Education

An Emerging Field of Research and Policy

PHILIP G. ALTBACH

Higher education has become a vast twenty-first century enterprise, central to postindustrial globalized economies everywhere. More than 100 million students study in at least 36,000 postsecondary institutions worldwide. In most countries, higher education has become a large, complex enterprise, comprising large academic systems, nonprofit and for-profit private institutions, and an array of specialized schools. As universities and other postsecondary institutions have grown, they acquire elaborate administrative structures in need of major expenditures of public and, often, private funds.

Moreover, higher education has become big business. Academic institutions employ thousands of people and educate tens of thousands—or in some cases hundreds of thousands. Degrees in a multiplicity of specialties from ancient history to biotechnology are offered. In 1971 Eric Ashby characterized the American academic system as offering “any person, any study,” in describing its diversity and scope. Martin Trow analyzed the progression of higher education from elite to mass and finally to universal access (2006). In the industrialized nations, at least, mass access has been achieved, and a few countries—first the United States and Canada and, recently, South Korea, Finland, Japan, and many others—enroll upwards of 70 percent of the relevant age group. Many others, mainly in Europe and the Pacific Rim, educate half or more of the age group. Developing countries lag behind, and the main growth in the coming decades will be in this part of the world (World Bank 2000).

Higher Education in the Knowledge Economy

There is universal recognition that higher education is a central element in the knowledge economy. This is a significant change from the past. A consensus among many experts concerned with developing countries was that investments were better placed in primary education and literacy rather than on more advanced education. In the industrialized nations, state support was generally provided for the small proportion of the age group going to universities. Overall, public investment in higher education was modest. There were a few exceptions to this rule, such as the United States, where a combination of public and private funds supported a large higher education system. The universal recognition of the centrality of higher education has, however, not always been accompanied by public funds to support expansion. Nonetheless, the significance of the academic enterprise has earned recognition leading to an understanding that expertise, data, and some research about higher education are necessary.

As a result, unprecedented, although perhaps inconsistent, support for higher education research and training is now evident. The sources are varied. Government departments and ministries in some countries have established higher education divisions that collect and analyze data, advise policy makers, and sometimes participate in decision making. Most universities have offices of institutional research or planning that produce data and sometimes research and analysis. National and regional associations of universities and other post-secondary institutions increasingly sponsor research and analysis. International organizations, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have become somewhat engaged in higher education research. The new agencies involved in ranking and evaluating—including magazines and journals, private-sector firms, universities, and government agencies—carry out some research to conduct their work. Philanthropic foundations sometimes support higher education research. A small number of nongovernmental research and policy organizations focus on higher education and produce valuable research and analysis. Few of these sources of funding and interest are especially stable in their long-term commitment to higher education. However, it is clear that there is greater interest in the philanthropic and policy communities in the field, reflecting a recognition of the importance of universities in the knowledge economy and for development.

Competition especially among research universities worldwide has contributed to the need for research about higher education in general and on how to strengthen research capacity in particular. The growing importance of the international rankings of universities reflects this competition (Sadlak and Liu 2007; Ranking and league tables 2002; Ranking systems and methodologies 2005). The two main international rankings of universities, one by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and the other by the Times Higher Education in the United Kingdom, have attracted considerable interest worldwide, as an influential source of data concerning research productivity and comparison, particularly among the research universities. There are many other rankings done on a national basis by research institutes and especially by magazines and other media outlets.

An International Higher Education Research Infrastructure

The Internationalization of Higher Education

The internationalization of higher education has itself led to the emergence of a professional specialty serving the various elements of university international programs and a research area, as well. Internationalization requires academic institutions to have staff members to assist with, among other things, the admission of international students, managing exchange programs, policy making for international initiatives, student services for international students (including visas, legal arrangements, on-campus housing, and other factors), the design and implementation of cross-border programs, and services for visiting scholars and professors, among other roles.

Countries have specific needs. For example, European Union nations have been concerned with the various EU initiatives such as ERASMUS and intra-European student mobility. American universities and colleges that have an international program have been concerned with providing undergraduate students an opportunity for studying abroad, and with recruiting and supporting the more than 582,000 international students studying in the United States. With the number of international students now more than 2.5 million worldwide, many academic institutions have support services for this growing population (Gürüz 2008). The Institute of International Education’s Open Doors provides annual statistics concerning international study in the United States, and similar publications by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and some national agencies in a few other major “sending” countries provide annual updates, although there is no international survey of student flows. The United Kingdom and Australia have seen internationalization as a way of earning income for their universities—and have required staff to market their universities globally as well as to manage their growing numbers of international students as well as branch campuses and other programs.

Hans de Wit and Jane Knight have analyzed internationalization trends in the United States and Europe (de Wit 2002; de Wit et al. 2005). Globalization has concerned higher education as defined by the increasing use of English for communication and teaching worldwide, academic institutions from one country being established in another nation, the role of the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Trade in Services in higher education, and other factors (Altbach 2004). The European Union’s Bologna Accord is the most important European initiative in internationalization and will harmonize European academic systems and increase intra-European mobility, international study, and international students (Reinalda and Kulesza 2005; Adelman 2008). International student exchange remains a key theme of internationalization (Davis 2003; Altbach et al. 1985).

The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE), cosponsored by the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Universities UK, is a membership-based organization that explores all aspects of the internationalization of higher education—branch campuses, twinning and partnership programs, and international students. OBHE reports discuss the growing commercialization of international higher education as well as more traditional approaches.

Institutions and countries have been internationalizing in many areas, and these many efforts have required expertise and skills, as well as a new knowledge base (Knight 2006). Organizations that serve the international higher education community, such as NAFSA: Association of International Educators, have grown significantly. US-based NAFSA, which now has a membership of 10,000, serves professionals who are engaged in international higher education services. The European Association of International Education, with a membership of 1,800, JAFSA in Japan, the new African Network for International Education, among others, provide networks and services. The Journal of Studies in International Education, now in its eleventh year of publication and sponsored by a consortium of international higher education organizations worldwide, shows the growing research interest in the field.

Government Higher Education Institutes

Governments require national data and research for planning, allocating funds, institutional accountability, and related purposes. In some countries, national research institutes have been established with funding made available for higher education research and data collection. In some places, government-sponsored agencies assist with higher education reform and innovation. These agencies have responsibility for collecting statistical information on higher education, and some have a research mission as well. Research institutes vary greatly in size, purpose, and orientation. Some are linked with academic institutions, while others are attached to ministries of education.

State planning and coordinating agencies have been established in many countries, and these organizations sometimes sponsor research and collect statistics to assist their work. Some of these agencies were established in the 1960s and others more recently—during the period of expansion of higher education—to meet the need for relevant information and analysis. Not surprisingly, the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, with their centrally planned economies, established large higher education research agencies to provide the data needed for planning and development, as well as for coordination with other economic and political entities; most of these agencies have either been scaled back or abolished.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England is the governmental body responsible in that country for allocating funds to academic institutions and also conducts limited research. Scotland has a similar agency. In the United States, most state governments have coordinating bodies for state-supported higher education, and in some cases these agencies collect and publish research as well. The US federal government, through such agencies as the National Center for Educational Statistics, collects and publishes data relating to postsecondary education.

The Chinese Ministry of Higher Education has regulatory, financial, and coordinating responsibility for higher education institutions affiliated to the central government and has a research and data-collection function as well. The Chinese provinces also have a major role in higher education. The Indian University Grants Commission has a research function as well as responsibility for allocating some research and other funds from the national government to higher educational institutions. The semi-governmental Korean Council on University Education has funding and coordinating responsibilities and also sponsors some research.

The arrangements for the collection of national statistical information and for the allocation of public funds to higher education vary considerably around the world—the expansion of the higher education enterprise has led to the growth of agencies responsible for coordination, the allocation of funds, and to some extent research.

Other National Higher Education Organizations

In addition to government agencies, a wide variety of organizations at the national and regional levels within countries have a role in higher education research and publication. ANUIES, the Mexican federation of universities, publishes a journal as well as other publications and sometimes commissions research. The Research Institute on University and Education at UNAM also produces research studies and publishes a journal. Other countries have similar agencies and organizations.

University associations in many countries engage in research domestically and to some extent internationally. In the United States, a large number of nongovernmental organizations, many representing segments of the higher education system, sponsor research and disseminate publications and analysis. Among these are the American Council on Education, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, the Council of Graduate Schools, the American Association of University Professors, to name only a few. The German Hochschulrektorenkonferenz sponsors publications and supports some research. The Association of Indian Universities publishes books and journals and supports some research. Universities UK, which represents all of the British universities, does some research. These are just a few examples of university-sponsored organizations that conduct research and analysis as well as representing the interests of academic institutions to government and the public.

International Organizations

Several international organizations have been active in higher education. Most notable is the World Bank, which lends funding for higher education in developing countries. It is important to note that the World Bank and its affiliates paid little attention to higher education for several decades, although recently interest and lending has increased. The regional development banks that are affiliated with the World Bank in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are also involved in higher education. In addition to its lending activities, the World Bank has sponsored research about higher education and occasionally provides analysis of higher education developments with a special focus on developing countries. While much of its research concerns World Bank loans and projects and thus is unavailable to the public, a growing number of studies has been published and now constitute some of the best sources for research on higher education in developing countries (Saint 1992; Salmi and Verspoor 1994). Some parts of the world (e.g., Southeast Asia) do not have active regional organizations, while others (e.g., Latin America) have a range of research-based groups.

UNESCO, mentioned earlier, like the World Bank, largely ignored higher education for 20 years or more but has recently taken more interest in the field and is now a forum for discussion and occasional producer of research and statistics. The recent UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research, and Knowledge produced several publications and projects. Initiatives on accreditation and quality assurance and other themes have brought together an international audience.

Several international nongovernmental organizations are also active in higher education. The International Association of Universities, for example, is a membership...