UNESCO's World Conference on Higher Education

It became clear to us that we are indeed in the middle of an almost unprecedented revolution in higher education -- not just small changes around the edges, but fundamental changes. And our job in the trend report -- and I think in this conference as well -- is to try to understand and then deal with, in constructive ways, the nature of this revolution. It’s different, ladies and gentlemen, from what’s gone on before.

Phil Altbach, quoted in Inside Higher Education

UNESCO is hosting a second World Conference on Higher Education this week, the first having taken place a decade ago in 1998.  A pre-conference press release by UNESCO summed up very well some of the issues facing higher education today.  Among the issues raised in that release are:
•    the number of tertiary students worldwide grew by 50% from 2000 to 2007
•    globally, the number of university aged people who enrolled in higher education increased from 19% in 2000 to 26% in 2007, but enormous geographic differences in participation exist. Women now are a small majority of enrolled students worldwide.
•    higher education is increasingly seen as an engine of economic development, but governments worldwide are overwhelmed with the costs associated with widening access
•    as a consequence, public institutions worldwide increasingly are required to find non-governmental sources of funds to cover some portion of their costs.  This has led to increasing fees, and a variety of entrepreneurial activities that sometimes risk to conflict with mission.
•    private higher education has increased rapidly around the globe, often in response to inability of the public system to meet increasing demand. Private higher education now accounts for 30% of global enrollment.  
•    globalization has produced an explosion of institutions and programs that act across national borders. Countries are becoming international education hubs, regions are developing common educational standards and brand.  Distance learning via the internet in increasingly popular.
•    as a consequence of these changes, improving quality assurance and methods to compare institutions and degrees from different countries become critically important.  The focus of these efforts has become outcomes of student learning and skills rather than traditional measures of input.

There is a nice report of the early part of the Conference in Inside Higher Education, and University World News is providing continuing coverage, as well as a number of articles focusing of specific aspects of the Conference.   A communique will be published at the end of the conference.  A draft of that communique is already available, but will be modified based on events.

Comments

[PLACE exam]

Its really a good news for students. hoping to have some beter results of this conference.