The first Foundation Day of the Kerala State Higher Education Council was celebrated after three years of its inception in the Senate Chamber, Kerala University Campus, Thiruvananthapuram on 12th July 2010. The Day was celebrated through a Foundation Day Lecture on the theme ‘The Global Academic Revolution: Implications for India. It was delivered by Prof. Philip G. Altbach, (Monan University Professor of Higher Education & Director, Center for International Higher Education (CIHE), Boston College, USA)
Dr. Philip G. Altbach’s well argued lecture was at the time of registration made available to all in a printed booklet. So the audience had only to cross check the illustrations given by Dr. Philip during his lecture. What follows is a series of quotes from the lecture after which essential points will be presented from the printed booklet.
There is a new academic revolution and and India’s Higher Education needs to catch up in the global knowledge economy. Unfortunately no Indian institutions comes in the top 500 top rated educational institutions in the world.
Massification is inevitable. Higher education is no longer a privilege of the elite. In terms of enrolment for Higher Education, China leads followed by USA and India. And significantly enough only China has abstained from cutting the Higher Education budget.
What exists now is not the old style cold war… But a kind of neo-colonialism which essentially springs from deep inequalities which spring from the kind of education that the private sector now offers.
What we require today is an autonomy. To choose ones own area of research…. A competitive academic environment within universities, among universities and globally.
Today in the USA, there is an attempt at privatization of the Public Sector. One unique case in point is the California State University(?) which was once a state funded university, which later became state supported university and is now a state located university!
Universities too require accountability… they are not factories and they require freedom too. They have to find out what the students are actually learning, what the outcome of teaching is. This means salary incentive and promotion should be based on evaluation.
It is now found that in the USA, 20% of the students complete their degrees in 4 years, 40% in 5 years and there is a significant number of dropouts.
A shift in policy is needed. Let the top five universities be identified and let there be a competition among universities to excel for more funding.
But all said and done, the fact remains that mass access requires differentiation in some way.
It is also a fact that the more private education universities, the less you will have research universities.
It is essential to find a workable solution to the funding problem of Universities.
Student loan programmes are of course popular but getting effective committed teachers is not. It has been found that contract employees which universities hire to cope with lack of proper funding, results in less committed teachers.
A Boston college study on the academic salaries, found that China and India pays low salaries compared to the highest paid salary to lecturers and professors in Saudi Arabia, America and Canada. This has resulted in a kind of ‘Brain Drain’ which has begun to worry even the European Union.
Many university professors have now found that while working in private institutions, ‘moonlighting’ becomes essential.
It should also be noted that in some countries the average qualification for a teaching position has fallen from the Masters degree to the Bachelor’s degree.
We seldom have people assuming posts of Vice Chancellor or Dean with a training in administration and what usually happens is that many learn in the job. And the result is that we have poor leaders.
To be internationally minded the practice of sending Indian teachers abroad and inviting foreign teachers to India for short or long term becomes essential.
The twinning programmes and the franchising programmes are two other alternatives now followed in most universities. But the fact remains that in some cases it can be problematic resulting in a lowering of the university’s image or in other cases quite effective.
From the comments and queries after the lecture:
It is not possible to take workable decisions regarding Higher Education, unless, school education and issues related to quality is properly addressed.
Academic ranking of universities may not be scientifically done and most universities may be functioning particularly well in terms of local standards though not necessarily in terms of global standards. Sometimes, ranking is based on the research done, the number of Nobel Prize winners who actually studied in the university, the articles published in recognized journals and the impact it has and the access to the faculty of quality journals. (Interestingly at this stage it was pointed out that it has often happened that many top rated articles have initially been rejected by certain journals when originally submitted simply because they do not subscribe to the objectives and vision the particular journal has)
Is it possible to measure the performance of academic work in a democratic fashion?… Well yes, to a certain extent because you have students, parents, the public, the Dean, the Provost and President… all evaluating the performance of a teacher and institution.
It is essential to have two types of institutions- some which specializes and has teaching the thrust area and others which focus on research as the thrust area. Opening up all institutions for research can result in the growth of mediocre research.
There is also a type of knowledge which is more secretive in nature as in the pharmaceutical industry
Extract from the well documented and researched paper made available as a Printed booklet: [Based on Philip G.Altbach, Liz Reisberg, and Laura E. Rumbley; Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution. A Report Prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education .Paris:UNESCO, 2009)
* In our view, four fundamental and interrelated forces have impelled the current academic revolution-mass higher education, globalization, the advent of the knowledge society and the importance of research universities in it, and information technology. These forces have in turn created additional changes such as the rise of the private sector and privatization, the accountability movement including today’s stress on measuring he outcomes of higher education, distance education, and others.
* Higher education has become a competitive enterprise… While competition has always been a force in academe and can help produce excellence, it can also contribute to a decline, in a sense of academic community, mission, and traditional values.
* Central to the reality of higher education in the 21st century is massification…There are now more than 150.6 million tertiary students globally, roughly a 53 percent increase over 2000.
* In 2008, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development identified several key demographic trends for the period to 2030: ..Student participation will continue to expand…Women will form the majority of student populations ..The mix of the student population will become more varied… The social base in higher education will continue to broaden ..The activities and roles of the academic profession will be more diversified and specialized and subject to varied employment contracts.
* Globalization, a key reality of the 21st century, has profoundly affected higher education…. Internationalization which includes sending students to study abroad, setting up a branch campus overseas is now the norm.. IT has created a universal means of instantaneous contact and simplified scientific communication…
* There are also other things which need attention. These include: Inequality in Access, Problems related to Quality assurance, Accountability and Qualification frameworks, Debate about financing Higher Education and the Public Good/Private Good.
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