GLOBAL: The changing concerns of higher education

The problems of access and equity are often considered jointly in World Bank publications, and the implication is that one directly affects the other. In order to address the problem of inequality in higher education, it may be beneficial to view it as a two-step process. Improving access will bring more applicants to the higher education system, and improving equity will bring a larger number and greater diversity of enrollees in the system.

There are dozens of potential solutions to eliminating inequality in a particular system, but deciding on the most constructive strategy must come from understanding the nature of the problem. Still, in several World Bank publications a few overarching solutions are identified that can help to increase access and equity in all cases.

Some access and equity solutions

First, the Bank advocates a focus on access to financial support for disadvantaged students. Students from wealthier families simply have more resources at their disposal, giving them an advantage when pursuing higher education.

These patterns can be particularly degenerative in countries where there are high numbers of high quality private secondary schools. Students who are able to attend these schools are usually from families with higher income and are often better prepared for public university entrance exams.

This leads to the second recommendation that the Bank makes: improved primary and secondary education for all classes, genders and groups.

Often, when a student from a disadvantaged minority is facing admission to a university, the system has already failed her or him. It's a harsh reality that many of these interventions "come too late to assist the vast majority of disadvantaged students, who have already suffered institutionalised discrimination in access to primary and secondary education".

Therefore, the Bank argues that improvements at the lower levels of education will improve students' chances when pursuing higher education.

The last general solution that the Bank mentions is adapting admissions criteria and imposing admissions quotas. 'Admissions quotas' eventually evolved into the practice of affirmative action, which is discussed at length in the 2004 New Challenges report. The authors define affirmative action as "preferential treatment of minorities and disadvantaged groups".

To be clear, while this practice is mentioned in more than one Bank publication, the Bank does not fully advocate the use of affirmative action. The authors of the 1994 Higher Education: Lessons of experience report concede that this is often the most direct way to increase representation of minorities in higher education, but cautions that it is "fraught with difficulties".

While it is important to ensure that admissions processes are fair and just, the integrity of the university cannot be compromised. "Merit criteria cannot be relaxed. Awarding degrees or certificates to people who do not deserve them cannot be in the public interest".

Quality, autonomy and relevance

This leads to the issue of quality.

"Today, more than ever before in human history, the wealth - or poverty - of nations depends on the quality of higher education." This quote from Malcolm Gillis, President of Rice University, is prominently displayed atop the first page of the introduction to the 2000 report Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and promise. Gillis expresses the weight of this issue so succinctly, and Bank publications underscore the importance of higher education quality in the developing world.

The authors of the Lessons of Experience report state from the start that higher education is in a "state of crisis", and go on to discuss the effect that expansion has had on higher education systems. The crisis is "most acute" in the developing world, as higher education is the fastest growing segment of education, but responses to the growth have resulted in "fiscally unsustainable enrolments growth and a sharp decline in quality".

The issue of expansion is also addressed in the Peril and Promise report. As systems grow and enrolment rates continue to increase, existing resources are stretched thin. It's a daunting task for universities and higher education systems to respond to the new phenomena, while maintaining quality.

New Challenges also addresses the issue of quality: "Many universities operate with overcrowded and deteriorating physical facilities, limited and obsolete library resources, insufficient equipment and instructional materials, outdated curricula, unqualified teaching staff, poorly prepared secondary students, and an absence of academic rigour and systematic evaluation of performance".

This last point is of particular note, as regulation and accreditation have emerged as central aspects of quality control and assurance. The procedure of establishing external bodies to review and ensure quality is advocated repeatedly by the World Bank, and happily, most transition and developing countries have supported this practice fully.

Furthermore, the Bank has continually stressed that a successful higher education system needs government involvement. However, it has also been consistent in its support of institutional autonomy.

In 1994, the World Bank stated that "greater institutional autonomy is the key to the successful reform of public higher education, especially reform aimed at more efficient use of resources". Later, the Bank established a direct correlation between lack of autonomy and an institution's ability to stay relevant.

When there is too much pressure for a national system to expand, more resources are put towards expansion and personnel costs, and less is earmarked for research. Without the ability to conduct research, universities can no longer serve as relevant reference points for the rest of the knowledge society.

When universities are heavily dependent on government funds, often the result is a line-item budget that reflects the needs of the state, rather than the institution. This can have a stifling effect on research when there are funds allotted for it.

When the state is providing the funding for research, the topics and issues are frequently defined by the state. Research institutions are left with the uncomfortable choice of rejecting state funding, or giving up their autonomy to do research that the state sees as relevant. The Bank recognises and maintains that "autonomy remains largely an empty concept as long as institutions are dependent on a single government funding source".

New Challenges presents institutional autonomy as an essential part of the successful transformation of public systems. "Autonomous institutions are more responsive to incentives for quality improvement, resource diversification, and efficient use of available resources. Tertiary education institutions must be in a position to exercise meaningful control over the principal factors affecting the quality and costs of their own programmes".

It is important for institutions to have the ability to make swift changes in response to changing needs and circumstances. The ability to make decisions and react quickly to one's own unique circumstances will make an institution a stronger and more relevant part of the whole system.

The issue of relevance is a newer theme in World Bank publications, and is a key issue along with those discussed above. However, relevance has not simply been added to this list, but has in effect become a key element of quality.

Eventually, "'relevance' in general will be translated into a nest of performance objectives related to teaching quality and research performance, among others", according to Michael Gibbons, author of the 1998 World Bank report Higher Education Relevance in the 21st Century.

In reading the Bank's recent publications on higher education, it becomes clear that relevance has quickly become an essential issue in higher education reform. In fact, New Challenges has a full section devoted to the matter of quality and relevance.

Conversely, Lessons has just one short paragraph mentioning relevance, and only in the context of ensuring "that institutions' enrolment patterns and curricula reflect local skill requirements". International relevance is not mentioned at all.

Brain drain

Another new issue addressed by the World Bank is that of 'brain drain'. A major obstacle in curbing the harmful effects of brain drain is that it is a global issue, and not one that can be dealt with by one national government or administration.

It is this aspect of the problem that puts the World Bank and other global organisations in a unique and influential position. The goal is not to hinder movement and internationalisation, but to foster it in a mutually beneficial way. In other words, it is alright to have skilled people headed out of a country for schooling and employment, as long as there are comparable numbers of skilled people coming in as well.

The Bank has set out a few recommendations for dealing with 'brain drain' that serve to improve the situation in developing countries. Joint degrees, scholarships, increased funding for up-to-date equipment, allocation of funds for travel to supplement knowledge, and specialisations in a particular field are among the suggestions that are offered.

Peril and Promise does not offer specific strategies for combating 'brain drain', but rather outlines what the conditions should be to attract gifted individuals to a nation. "The retention of top-level talent in developing countries requires improved governance in higher education institutions, greater intellectual opportunities, higher professional salaries and better working conditions", it states.

Mixed record of success

The World Bank has acknowledged its mixed record of success in higher education investment. As a result, with the publication of Lessons in 1994, the Bank sought to make its investment in higher education more equitable and cost-effective, and "to support countries' efforts to adopt policy reforms that will allow the sub-sector to operate more efficiently and at lower public cost".

Eight years later, the authors of New Challenges echoed this concern that the Bank had not been entirely successful in its response to the needs of higher education. However, this time the criticism was that the Bank's lending had not "matched the growing importance of tertiary education for economic and social development".

Once again we see that the changing global environment has steered the role of primary players. In 1994 the concluded goal was to assist higher education systems in using their existing funds to operate more efficiently, and in 2002 the presented goal was to engage the international community in a dialogue about investment in higher education.

The Bank can act as a 'bridge-builder', and bring together stakeholders from across the education sectors. It is no longer enough to work only with government officials. The reform of higher education affects every level and sub-section of the system, and representatives are needed from each level to make any change possible and productive.

It is also clear that basic education and higher education are no longer mutually exclusive. The quality of higher education directly affects the quality of primary and secondary education through training of teachers and administrators, and the quality of secondary school graduates has a direct influence on the quality of the higher institutions.

In the earlier years of World Bank involvement, higher education was a relatively low priority in many developing nations, pushed to the side in favour of investment in basic education. The idea was perpetuated that investment in higher education yielded far lower returns than investments in primary and secondary education. The result of this misleading, but generally accepted idea is that higher education systems in developing countries were under a tremendous strain.

Currently, the link between higher education and basic education is recognised and is a key component of education investment. New Challenges goes so far as to say "it is doubtful that any developing country could make significant progress toward achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for education - universal enrolment in primary education and elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education - without a strong tertiary education system".

Conclusion

The World Bank has been a consistent actor in the field of international education, and while there have been varying degrees of success over the course of its involvement, the Bank has learned from experience, and shared those lessons.

After studying the Bank's major publications over the past 15 years, it seems that there is a commitment to self-evaluation and a willingness to adapt as needed.

The World Bank will be involved in the development and support of higher education in developing and developed countries for a long time to come, and with every project and investment, there will be lessons to learn and knowledge to share.

* Amy Ewen is pursuing the International Masters Programme in Higher Education Research and Development in the International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER-Kassel) at the University of Kassel in Germany. She is an assistant researcher in the international collaborative research project "Changes in Networks in Higher Education and Knowledge Societies", and a member of the Organisation for Higher Education, Cooperation, Research and Development.

* This is an edited version of her article, "The Changing Concerns of Higher Education. Examining the World Bank's papers on higher education since 1994", which appears on the website of the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI). The article is republished with permission.