Challenges facing higher education

A country that can meet its labour needs with a well-prepared workforce is a secure nation... the income difference between those with higher education experience and those without has more than doubled in the last 20 years... the wages of workers with post-secondary education have increased... in the future, the livelihood of the individual will largely depend on skills and education... [in the US]. In 1950, 80 per cent of jobs were classified as unskilled. Now, an estimated 85 per cent of jobs are classified as skilled requiring education beyond high school. At the same time, 60 per cent of future jobs will require training that only 20 per cent of today's workers possess." (Building a Nation of Learners - Business-Higher Education Forum 2002).

Higher education institutions across the world are at the crossroads of change and innovation. Challenged by ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and market forces, higher education institutions are soul-searching for a defined path that would take our young generations into more secure and profitable futures.

The link between education and economy and industry market forces is increasingly becoming the new partnership that education must forge constructively and independently from ideology. What is then the importance of higher education to a country's development?

Challenges

In one of his many celebrated speeches on higher education, C. Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges Washington DC, speaks about eight challenges facing higher education today in the context of a country's development.

The first is the economic interconnectedness among nations. No country can live independently, but must seek structures to enhance its interdependency. The proliferation of multinational corporations, whose loyalty is tied to shareholders and not nation states, dictate the future of many people around the world.

The second challenge is the world shift towards democracy and market mechanisms, as opposed to command and control of economic structures. The trend to empower local governments and strengthen the principle of subsidiarity is a sign of the times in which power must be shared to achieve excellence.

The third challenge for higher education is the increasing emergence of consumerism. Based on the operative philosophy that the individual comes first, there is worldwide interest towards consumers' needs. Repercussions against providers who do not provide are dictated by consumers. Higher education institutions, particularly established institutions, which do not provide the education and training that their students and the market need, will face inevitable repercussions.

The fourth challenge is decentralisation. Whether in international organisations or in government, restructuring is characterised by decentralisation in which those at the top are obliged to provide strategic guidelines. Those in management are required to provide implementation and those at the support level, actualisation.

Micro-management here comes very handy as that concept which defines the self defeating penetration from governance into the mechanisms of management lowering self-esteem, staff morale and ultimately jeopardising students needs and expectations.

The fifth challenge comes from the need to create flatter, rather than hierarchical, organisations. This will empower individuals and groups, and encourage people to work independently on the grounds that this is less bureaucratic and more efficient. Creativity is too often blocked by rigid hierarchical lines. While this is happening in huge corporations, is it happening in our higher education institutions?

The sixth challenge is related to the air we breathe and the water we drink. To what extent are our higher education institutions conscious of the physical and biological contexts that we live in? The physical facilities that exist within higher education institutions should be of the highest standards. How else could one teach excellence in run down or appalling institutions?

The seventh challenge is related to the emergence of global multicultural values. While ethnic and racial tensions might not preoccupy leaders in our country, yet with Malta part of the European Union, higher education must seek to promote multicultural values to advance its mission of equality and opportunity across social, cultural, economic and political borders. Other sectors, such as sports, tourism, aviation and entertainment, have long been based on such a conceptual framework.

The final factor encompasses all others and this is the challenge of information and communication technology or the digital age. Although the keyboard will not replace human interaction, it is conditioning it. The explosion in information is challenging higher education institutions. According to Peter Lyman (2001) people generate an estimated two billion gigabytes of information each year.

This massive amount of information represents the aggregate total of all new printed, film, optical, magnetic and Internet media. Divided among the world's six billion people, this averages approximately 250 megabytes of new data per person per year. What's more, 93 per cent of new information is stored digitally.

If all of this information were to be placed onto standard floppy discs, the stack would reach two million miles high! This will inevitably challenge the purpose and raison d'etre of education and training.

What do these challenges or factors imply for our higher education institutions?

Implications

First and foremost they imply that we must plan the right higher education based on the civic, cultural and economic needs of the country. The second is that knowledge is increasingly becoming the major driver of economic development and therefore it is extremely important to impart knowledge that will serve economic purposes, particularly attitudes towards flexibility and lifelong learning.

Thirdly, there is the appearance of new providers of higher education, other than the traditional universities and/or colleges, implying that such institutions are becoming border-less competitors rather than collaborators.

The fourth is the transformation of modes of delivery and organisational patterns in tertiary education as a result of ICT challenging traditional pedagogy. The rise of market forces will inevitably force higher education to cater for change. The state must encourage, rather than control, higher education institutions to be more innovative, more responsive to the needs of a competitive knowledge-based economy and to the changing labour markets.

These implications can be summed up in Darwin's prophecy that "it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change". In many higher education institutions there is the feeling that the knowledge-society of the future will be dynamic, inquisitive, demanding but also based on equality, excellence and elegance.

Future institutions of higher education will have to be attractive and relevant at the same time if they are to last. Education cannot remain a marginalised sector of development where everything goes and where piecemeal arrangements are tolerated.

Nor will institutions other than the traditional universities afford to be second best, as if societies were divided between "individuals of a lesser god" and "individuals of a higher god"! Higher education institutions must represent the future - like prophets, they must predict the contexts of tomorrow and prepare young and older generations to meet these challenges.

Change and innovation

An African proverb can serve to guide the way forward - Do not look behind you with regret, nor ahead with fear. Rather look around yourself with awareness. Many educators, particularly those across the Atlantic, are calling for a redesign of education, aligning its standards with the challenges of the so-called knowledge societies. Furthermore, there is also common agreement that institutions in higher education should work corporately and not fragmented into separate institutes that encourage the building of "academic empires" and unbridled autonomy.

The examples of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the planned Yangpu University in Shanghai (which embraces three Universities: Finance University, the Lung University and the Fudan University) bear evidence to this pragmatic and cost-effective approach.

The Hub "Massing" Concept in higher education allows flexibility and sharing of resources. It lends itself to the provision in the same area of centres within a university village, such as a University Expo and Exhibition Conference Centre, a Media Tech Centre, a Sports Recreation Centre and retail outlets and entertainment.

In Malta, MCAST embraces this concept on a much smaller scale, but equally compatible with the hub "massing" concept. If strategically planned and adequately financed over a period of five to ten years (the time taken to build from the foundations - structurally and academically - the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), the Corradino area itself can one day become a university/college village embracing facilities that would serve vocational education.

Although hallmarks of speeches and reports on higher education; planning, change and innovation have rarely been considered as the driving forces of higher education institutions, particularly and paradoxically in small states where resources are limited. On the other hand, tradition, hierarchical structures, micro-management and centralisation have dictated the operational frameworks of higher education institutions manifesting themselves in piecemeal 'educational reforms and counter-reforms'.

The World Bank and UNESCO 2000 Report of the Task Force on Higher Education and Society sums up this reality in the following statement: "Problems of quality and lack of resources are compounded by the realities faced by higher education, as higher education institutions battle to cope with ever-increasing student numbers.

"Responding to this demand without further diluting quality is an especially daunting challenge... Expansion, public and private, has been unbridled, unplanned and often chaotic. The results - deterioration in average quality, continued interregional, intercountry and intracountry inequalities and increased for-profit provision of higher education - could all have serious consequences."

Building a nation of lifelong learners

The objective of higher education is to build a nation of lifelong learners. Whether we are educating future accountants, teachers, architects, mechanics, hairdressers, lawyers, interior designers, secretaries, chief mates, computer specialists, medical doctors, interpreters, engineers, tile layers, plasterers or any other profession, the quality of higher education will be measured by:

¤ a person's disposition to learn when formal education finishes; and

¤ the learning opportunities that higher education institutions continue to offer to a country's workforce.

Malta's higher education is also at the crossroads of development.

According to The World Bank's Report (2002) on higher education, "tertiary education development strategy needs to reflect a comprehensive approach that integrates all the elements that constitute a diversified system into a coherent, long-term vision of the mission of tertiary education as a whole and of the respective roles of the type of institution".

In the case of small states, the World Bank recommends regional partnerships, strategically focused tertiary education institutions that address the nation's critical human skill requirements, negotiated franchise partnerships between the national government and external providers of tertiary education to offer specialised services and government-negotiated provision of tertiary distance education by a recognised international supplier.

On a lower scale, Malta's higher education needs further streamlining, cost-effective use of resources and complementarity in provision and accreditation between our two major higher education institutions.

Dr Calleja is Malta's Representative on the Socrates EU Sub-Committee on Higher Education.