Which tertiary education institutions in times of accelerated technical change A system approach tow

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Which tertiary education institutions in times
of accelerated technical change? A system
approach towards knowledge networks and enhanced
societal trust
OECD/France conference on the Future of Higher
Education Paris, 8-9 December, 2008

• Manuel Heitor
• Secretary of State for Science, Technology and
  Higher Education
• Portugal

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Technical Change materials Source Michael
Ashby (1998) see also, IPTS(1999)
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The main argument

• Strengthening the knowledge dimension and
  external societal links (i.e., system linkages)
  are critical in making the institutional changes
  required for tertiary education institutions,
  TEIs, to be agents of change and meet the needs
  of global competition and the knowledge economy.

This requires strengthening the institutional
integrity of TEIs, while entering into a myriad
of entrepreneurial relations, as well as to
establish long term relations with specific and
specialized actors build societal trust!
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The structure of the talk

• improved funding and equity for enlarged
  participation rates
• strengthening knowledge production and
  internalization for improved knowledge networks
• fostering diversified systems for improved
  knowledge transmission and learning
• strengthening systems linkages, together with
  institutional integrity
• Summary strengthen societal trust on tertiary
  education institutions, TEIs

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• 1. improved funding and equity for enlarged
  participation rates

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The issue Large differences in societal engament!
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Policy contraints and challenges
Proposition 1
Students matter!...and we need to enlarge access
to TE

• Diversify, diversify, diversify
• (access - new publics institutions
  incentives)

• The hidden barriers basic secondary
  education
• the need to open students paths and choices!

• Which economics for tertiary education?
• How to raise private funding?
• and how to guarantee a better share of public
  and private funding?
• Which share of institutional and competitive
  funding sources?

• Free education to all students, by guaranteeing
  graduates to share the costs? (Nick Barr, LSE)
• but, which share of grants/loans?...

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OECD Education at a Glance Student support
schemes and levels
Source.
Public subsidies for education to households and
other private entities as a percentage of total
public expenditure on education, by type of
subsidy OECD (2007). Reference Year 2004
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Example 1 Opening-up Tertiary Education in
Portugal
Some key measures and results (2006-2008) Access

• THE BOLOGNA PROCESS dynamic and on-going
• - 98 of initial educational programs in 2008.

and beyond

• NEW ACCESS REGIME FOR ADULTS
• - 11.773 new adults entered Tertiary Education
  in 2007-2008
• - 10.850 in 2006-2007
• (while, just 900 in 2005-2006)
• NEW LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR SHORT VOCATIONAL CYCLES
  - (CETs)
• - More than 4.800 admitted students in 2008
• - Around 250 CETs in Tertiary Education
  Institutions
• NEW STUDENT LOANS SYSTEM
• - 3.650 loans contracted in the period November
  2007 November 2008

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Example 1 Student loans with mutual guarantee
Extended Guarantee Triangular Relationship
Banks
Students (both undergraduate and postgraduate)
Bank loan (3)
Guarantee Sheme
Source SPGM, 2008
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Which policy implications?

• 1. Which policy criteria to foster student
  enrolment?
• horizontally equitable schemes, with good value
  for students
• financially sustainable at higher volumes of
  student take-up
• low risk for government and financial
  institutions
• minimum additional administrative infrastructure.

• 2. Does debt aversion augments social
  inequalities?
• which share of grants/loans?...how to evolve
  with loan schemes?

• 3. Which new funding mechanisms ?
• What have we learnt about experiences with loan
  systems, venture capital, risk capital and tax
  incentives?

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• 2. strengthening knowledge production and
  internationalization for improved knowledge
  networks

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The issueand even larger differences in
performance at leading reference levels
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• If ability, and not the circumstances of family
  fortune, determines who shall receive higher
  education, then we shall be assured of constantly
  improving quality at every level of scientific
  activity.
• Vannevar Bush to President Harry Truman
• July 5, 1945

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Policy contraints and challenges
Proposition 2
The top of the system matters!...and we need to
foster the internationalization of research
universities and their specialization. But
competition also matters!

• Clarification of the unique roles of the private
  and public incentives to support science and
  technology, ST

• The hidden barriers
• gender how to foster women engagement in ST?
• the appropriation of ST culture by society.

• The nature of science as a complex whole (John
  Ziman, 1968, 1978, 2000), ...and science is
  social, referring to the whole network of
  social and epistemic practices where scientific
  beliefs actually emerge and are sustained.

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Which policy implications?

• a better understanding of the way private
  funding complements (not replaces) public
  expenditure on academic research
• to keep the proper balance between open science
  and commercially oriented RD based upon
  proprietary information.

• But, always, people, knowledge and ideas
• how to attract more human resources for
  knowledge intensive activities?

• A better link between research training and
  research strengths.
• Can Europe emulate the US Graduate schools?
• Can we rely in traditional departments? How to
  ensure that graduate schools permit better
  employability of their graduates? Can the skills
  be transferable?

• the conditions able to strengthen institutions
  and the necessary critical masses to compete at
  the highest international level

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Example 2 Opening-up Tertiary Education in
Portugal
Some key measures and results (2006-2008)
Commitment to Science

• NEW CONTRACTS FOR PhD RESEARCHERS/TEACHERS
• - At least 1.000 new contracts supported until
  2009
• DOCTORATE AND POST-DOCTORATE GRANTS
• - Doubling new PhD grants/year
• - Increasing about 50 new Post-Doctorate
  grants
• INTERNATIONALIZATION - PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE
  FUTURE
• RD CONSORTIA WITH POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMS

- MIT-PORTUGAL RD, 4 new PhDs and 3
Professional Masters in Engineering Systems
(Energy, Transports, Advanced Manufacturing and
Bioengineering) - CMU-PORTUGAL RD, 6 new
PhDs and 4 Professional Masters in ICTs -
UTAustin-PORTUGAL RD and a PhD in Digital
Media. Also, Advanced Computing and Mathematics
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• 3. fostering diversified systems for improved
  knowledge transmission and learning

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The issue How people learn?
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Issues in the European landscale Bologna a
sucessful story Why ?

• a process

• voluntary, but driven by a large consensus that
  has been formed about the great challenges and
  opportunities facing higher education systems in
  EU, namely against those in US.

• Understanding the relationship between Bologna
  reforms and the social and national contexts in
  which they take place and expanding the European
  policy dialogue in higher education to include
  more issues, remain significant challenges in the
  current process

• It is also clear that higher education systems
  will continue to be concerned with quality!

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Policy contraints and challenges
Proposition 3
how people learn? matters and require
diversified institutions and learning systems

• beyond RD RT and, above all, RL (Research
  and Learning)

• education at all levels must consider that
  learning a new practice requires moving through
  discovery, invention, and production not once,
  but many times, in different contexts and
  different combinations.

• But we also need to reduce drop-out (failure)
  rates in tertiary education
• and to involve students in research activities
  since their early stages at our institutions.

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Which policy implications?

• Moving along student autonomy?
• ...to allow students to determine their own
  learning paths and trajectories, namely along
  education cycles, but also across institutions in
  our different regions and countries.

• The conditions to foster effective international
  TEIs

• Taking stock of the diversity and evolution of
  concrete student-centred parameters.

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• 4. strengthening systems linkages, together with
  institutional integrity

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Policy contraints and challenges
Proposition 4
We need to promote dynamic and responsive
institutions, at the same time we need to
preserve the institutional integrity of TEIs

• Raising the level of autonomy for TEIs, is one
  of the main objectives of sector reforms across
  different countries in recent years getting to
  entrepreneurial institutions?

• Look at students education, besides offering a
  specific qualification, should ensure the
  assimilation of learning skills.

Economic competition omitting information as a
competition tool Proprietary knowledge
ignoring and depleting the science commons
hindering the fostering of new knowledge multipl
e objectives should not be pursued at the cost of
compromising learning and research environments
for students.
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Policy Implications for EU institutions
Notably there is clear evidence that success in
improving quality within institutions is directly
correlated with the degree of institutional
autonomy. () At the same time, the role of
leadership within universities is also critical.
EUAs Trends IV, 2005
Patterns of convergence strengthened autonomy
The underlying motivations for introducing
greater autonomy, in a nutshell, it is to improve
the responsiveness of HEIs to an expanded set of
national and societal demands. This
responsiveness can be improved through enhanced
capacity for strategic thinking and taking
advantage of emerging opportunities in a dynamic
way.
Patterns of convergence strengthened regulatory
regimes The second orientation is to strengthen
the regulatory regime so that a more autonomous
HEI sector responds more effectively to the
requirements of public interest. This may be seen
as a contradictory trend of constraining
institutional autonomy through more indirect
mechanisms.
Which way to Independent legal status (ILS) and
university foundations?
it requires a common EU perspective for
strengthening TE institutions!
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Example 3 Opening-up Tertiary Education in
Portugal
Some key measures and results (2006-2007) Legal
Reform

• The New Legal Regime of Higher Education
  Institutions (RJIES)
• Diversity of governance systems and increased
  autonomy
• Setting up Governing Boards with external
  participation
• Possibility of independent legal status for
  public institutions namely as public foundations
• Establishment of consortia among institutions
• Recognition of research centres as part of
  University management framework.
• The creation of conditions to foster the
  national and international mobility of students
  and graduates
• New Regulations on Arrangements for Changes of
  Study Programmes, Transfers and Return to Higher
  Education
• New legal framework for the recognition of
  foreign degrees, which simplifies the system for
  recognizing foreign degrees in Portugal.

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Which policy implications?

• How far university networks can effectively
  contribute to foster basic university goals and
  preserve institutional integrity?

many university clusters (LERU, IDEA CLUSTER,
) have been particularly focus on corporate
matters and we argue that there is a need for a
platform of the various clusters and associations
of research universities, notably for stimulating
the political debate among the various
stakeholders at international level and for
assisting in the networking of national
constituencies fostering integrity in tertiary
education.
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Policy contraints and challenges

• creating new institutions that have gained
  societal trust

• the public understanding of ST and of the role
  TEIs on scientific and technical development

5th and Final Proposition umbrella
Accelerate reform of TEIs by strengthening
external societal links and system linkages

• To cope with such a variety of demands and with
  a continuously changing environment, we all know
  that the tertiary education systems, in
  particular, needs to be diversified.

• new leaderships for our institutions attention
  should be given to the need to promote an
  international market of excellence for university
  leaders, as also a critical path to attract our
  best researchers to take the lead of our
  universities.

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Which tertiary education institutions in times
of accelerated technical change? A system
approach towards knowledge networks and enhanced
societal trust
OECD/France conference on the Future of Higher
Education Paris, 8-9 December, 2008
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The Rationale - 1 what is changing?

• The nature of knowledge production and usage is
  changing innovation is more open, more global
  and involves a growing range of players.
• Networking and cooperation are becoming more
  important for successful innovation users and
  suppliers play a growing role (e.g., Eric Von
  Hippel, 2005).
• This also affects the financing of ST and
  technical change a greater range of instruments
  and policies are emerging, markets and
  intermediaries are evolving rapidly.

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The Rationale - 2
1. A large consensus The accelerated rate of
technical change has fostered an increasingly
need to promote the capacity to learn!
2. This requires a better understanding of the
institutional framework and the structure of
incentives in higher education, as well as going
beyond the institutional context, and consider
the substance of teaching/learning the
class-room as a living laboratory!
3. But this implies strengthening governance
structures and institutional leadership, in a way
that contributes to strengthen the social
constituency for science and technology and a
learning society ...
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The Rationale - 3

• An underlying assumption (Rosenberg, 2002)
• The university as an economic institution!
• and university leaders as fund raisers!

2. The US university system as a role model for
its fast rate of responsiveness to the economic
changes and contribution to the creation of
wealth.
3. This perception is leading to an institutional
convergence between what universities do (and are
supposed to do) and what firms and other agents
do. Much remains to learn about the
Entrepreneurial University in a reducionist
view, it is a potential threat to the
institutional integrity of the university and the
future of scientific research due to the
commoditization of knowledge?
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• what is best about American higher education
  we create opportunity. That is our mission. That
  is our business. That is first and foremost what
  society expects of us.
• Charles Vest, in The American Research
  University,
• Univ. of California Press, 2007