IIEP Policy Forum 2009

Tertiary education in small states. Planning in the context of globalization.
2 and 3 July 2009

Discussions

The Forum was opened by the Assistant Director General of UNESCO, Mr Nicholas Burnett, the Director of the UNESCO Division for Higher Education, Mr Georges Haddad and the IIEP Director, Mr Mark Bray.

Presentations and discussions centered on the following issues:

• The impact of the new global environment on tertiary education in small states, where special reference was made to the current international economic crisis and how it may affect tertiary education systems in small states.
• Cross-cutting planning issues such as the design of sustainable funding policies for tertiary education, linking tertiary education with the local and increasingly international labour market requirements, and developing cost-effective solutions for quality assurance.
• Organizational models for tertiary education such as the regional university model, community colleges and the development of the national university where already innovative technology based models were presented.

The Policy Forum brought to light a number of trends which provide both opportunities and challenges to the development of tertiary education systems in the small states:

• Many small states are acknowledging the importance of expanding the local tertiary education provision. Some have developed ambitious enrolment targets (such as 20 % gross enrolment rate to be reached in 2020 for the CARICOM region), either at the national or the regional levels.
• Regional universities remain one of the strategies to provide cost-effective access to the tertiary education in small states. The two main regional universities, i.e. the University of the West Indies and the University of the South Pacific, currently serve some 27 small states. They are thus main players in the organization of tertiary education in the small states despite a continuous tension with regard to an equal sharing of benefits of campus and non-campus countries.  
• Given the fact that many of the small states have also continuously developed their domestic tertiary education provision for human resource development needs, and more recently set up community colleges or national universities, the regional universities tend to assume new functions, such as capacity development of the local provision, organizing a flexible on-line learning provision for the non-campus country, organizing articulations of the local and the regional tertiary education offer, and providing quality assurance for the local tertiary education provision organized in the non-campus countries.
• Many small countries over the past decade have developed their own national universities generally from an amalgamation of already existing tertiary education institutions. These national universities commonly offer a wide variety of both sub-degree and degree level courses. Many participants stressed the importance to assess national universities not only from a cost-effectiveness point of view, but also from the political angle such as their contributions to nation-building.
• While small states have a longstanding tradition of linking up with international providers of tertiary education, the growth of cross-border distance education, franchised course and off-shore medical campuses is most striking in the small states. This brings to the fore issues such as quality assurance and qualifications frameworks, as a means to protect students and their families from fraudulous providers and integrate an ever more diverse provision of tertiary education.    

The following four policy imperatives were identified as an immediate outcome of the Policy Forum.

• Widen access at a time when both the knowledge economy requires major attention to advanced human resource development, and when social demand for tertiary education is increasing as a consequence of increased access at the secondary level.
• Enhance research and analytical capabilities with a view to enabling small states to take a stronger role in regional and international forums
• Strengthen the capacities for the regulation and integration (recognition) of an ever more diversified tertiary education offer. This means the development of special coordination structures, as well as the enhancement of policy-making and planning capabilities within ministries or buffer bodies.   
• Multiply opportunities for exchange, collaboration and strengthened partnership among small states in the area of tertiary education.

In a final session, participants of the Policy Forum expressed their appreciation of the event, in terms of its usefulness as a Forum that was an occasion to discuss strategies for the development of their tertiary education systems and also helped to re-emphasise the specific challenges of small states in the international arena.
Rajesh Chandra, the current Vice-chancellor of the University of the South Pacific said : “The Policy Forum was very beneficial to me. The network is excellent and I hope to keep in touch. I am returning to USP with a more positive view on recent development and perhaps with greater awareness of the need for us to take more leadership in educational debate within a supportive and positive framework.”