Accessibility of higher education: challenges for transition countries Presentation by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Johann W. Gerlach Freie Universit

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Accessibility of higher education challenges
for transition countriesPresentation by Prof.
Dr. Dr. h.c. Johann W. Gerlach Freie Universität
Berlin / Germanye-mail jgerlach_at_zedat.fu-berlin.
de

• International conference Accessibility of Higher
  Education
• Challenges for Transitional Economies
• Moscow, Russian FederationJune 29-30 2004

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First of all I would like to thank you for the
invitation to come here, and introduce myself.I
am a professor of law and was for many years
President of the Freie Universität Berlin, an
internationally oriented high-ranking
state-funded research university, which was
founded in 1948 in the west part of Berlin the
university is and was dedicated to freedom in
research, teaching and studies, hence its name
Freie Universität.
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For some years now I have been working at a
national and international level on questions of
university development (structural planning,
administration and decision-making systems,
quality management, evaluation and accreditation,
the Bologna Process), in particular in Europe and
Latin America, and also in East Asia. Last year I
participated in the institutional evaluation of
the Kaliningrad / Königsberg State
University.These activities have given me the
opportunity to view and compare many aspects of
the university sector and changes within it in
many countries of the world and in Russia.
However, every country has its very own
university system, based on its own ideas and
reflecting national conditions, and expressing
concepts of its own. The following remarks are
therefore only intended as a possible point of
departure for further considerations and not as
strictly laid-down recommendations.I will begin
by considering the international context.
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1.The international contexta) The world is
today also global in the universities.
Practically all countries now face the same
challenges solutions vary from country to
country, dependant on the political, societal and
economic stage of development each country finds
itself in.In this sense all countries are now
transition countries. This should prompt us to
exchange our experiences and learn from one
another. As the proverb puts it, Other peoples
experience is valuable, ones own experience is
simply expensive.
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At the same time international competition for
the best development perspectives and for the
best brains in research, in teaching and
learning is increasing, culminating in the brain
drain in some areas. This competition is
becoming more abrasive in the university sector
as well, although an atmosphere of cooperation is
still mostly met with. However, it is evident
that the divide between the rich and the poor
countries is increasing, and only a small number
of the so-called threshold countries have the
political and economic resources to achieve
meaningful development.
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b) As world-wide transition takes place to what
has come to be called the information and
knowledge society the best possible levels of
subject-based and scientific qualification for as
many people as possible becomes more and more
important. The human perspective of personal
development and qualification at the individual
level is challenged however by the pressure of
international competition in the production of
goods, in trade, and in services.
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2.Access to universities and the challenges
involveda)The problems sketched out so far also
become evident in the process of university
access with continually increasing demand for
places in tertiary education coupled with
continuing inadequate funding. The number of
universities, their size and infrastructure are
no longer adequate for task they are expected to
fulfil, i.e. to further as many qualified
applicants and students as possible and, at the
same time, to maintain the equality of
opportunity for all strata of society.
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It is here that we perceive a gulf between the
developed and the less developed nations. Only
the economically developed countries have at
least partially functional systems of tertiary
education and research institutes and at the same
time a sufficiently large class or group within
their societies capable of supporting the
education and training of their children by
providing private or family funding
support.Even these developed countries however
are now having problems in funding and
maintaining quality whereas 50 years ago only 5
10 of each age cohort took up university
studies, today more than 40, or even more than
50, do this.
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This can be illustrated very clearly by
considering the countries in the western part of
the European continent including Scandinavia.
Here the responsibility for maintaining the
universities just as for the schools falls
first and foremost to the state, it is a public
responsibility. In the course of the years in
most of these countries the universities in
particular have gradually become under-financed.
For this reason tuition fees are being
introducing at many levels in higher education,
although so far these have been relatively
modest. A symptom of these developments is the
ever more popular distinction between education
for the broad masses of students and education
for the elites.
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There is here a fundamental difference between
Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries such as
Great Britain, the United States of America and
Australia, which for historical reasons all have
a different understanding of the role of the
state and which mainly view education and
training as a private good within the domain of
responsibility of the individual citizen. Hence
tuition fees have to be paid everywhere,
including at state-run universities. And there
are many excellent private universities and
colleges (and some that are not quite so
excellent).
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b)These conflicts of interest become particularly
clear in the transition countries in East and
South Europe, and naturally also in Russia. In
Russia, as was the case in the former Soviet
Union, quality goals in scientific training are
high, especially at the state universities, but
there is at the same time an extreme shortage of
funding. So additional money is needed, mainly
coming from private sources, including tuition
fees.
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c) One problem of fundamental importance, which
is not included in the conference programme, is
the quality of education at the secondary school
level as a factor of rights of access to tertiary
education. If the state-run school system does
not provide adequate high-quality education
options, most school-leavers will only be able to
fulfil entrance requirements - sometimes in the
form of entrance examinations - laid down by
universities by taking part in privately financed
preparatory courses, especially when they want to
be admitted to the best universities.This
however can easily result in the disadvantaging
of bright school-leavers from less prosperous
families and compromise the principle of social
justice. Only adequate state bursaries, provided
at the right time, and similar support
programmes, can help here.
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3.Differentiation in tertiary education and the
goals and priorities informing the expansion of
access to tertiary educationa)This question has
come into sharp focus in Europe in particular
with the implementation of the so-called Bologna
process, in which among other things courses
of studies which have hitherto taken a
comparatively long time to complete are to be
split up according to the consecutive model of BA
and MA courses. The issue is of much wider import
and has world-wide significance.Particularly in
continental Europe degree courses at universities
have been in the main tied to the academic ideal
of the interpenetration of research and teaching.
The emergence of the so-called mass university
has meant that this model and this goal have
become unreal in todays universities.
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b) On the basis of their personal motivation,
interests and abilities, most applicants for
admission to university, and students already
engaged in their studies, show less interest in a
broadly-based academic education (in the sense of
general education) than in academically based
vocational education and training (in the sense
of selective higher professional education).
The latter is not a less desirable
qualification, it is simply a different form of
qualification, for which a specific demand exists
within society, the state, and the economy, and
which offers appropriate professional
perspectives.
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There is no meaningful reason for wanting to
restrict the expansion of accessibility to
tertiary education, and the process cannot be
reversed anyway. It is a response to the desire
on the part of individuals to achieve adequate
qualifications, on the one hand, and it
corresponds to the need, on the other hand, for
such qualified individuals in order to provide
the foundation for solid and broadly based
economic development.However, at this point the
question of differentiation must be raised and
given sober, careful consideration, since among
other things state resources are limited, and
not every university, professor, or student body
can be given the same level of funding.
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c) The differentiation envisaged here should not
however only begin with the degree courses and
their structures, it should begin with the
institutions themselves. As everybody knows,
there already are universities / faculties /
individuals with more emphasis on research, and
other universities etc. which give more priority
to teaching.In Germany, for instance, a
relatively small proportion of the universities
receives the largest share of public funding
handed out on a competitive basis by the German
Research Council. And in the research-oriented
universities this funding is usually concentrated
on a few faculties / departments, and in these on
a small number of researchers / research groups.
The same applies for doctoral scholarships and
the promotion of younger academics.
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All this can - and must - lead to further
measures. Researchers with a proven outstanding
research record, for example, should only be
given a restricted number of hours of teaching,
whereas others should have to do more teaching.
Support for research offered in this way must
not however lead to a devaluation of teaching,
which for its part should also be given
recognition and appropriate rewards if of
demonstrated high quality. (Removing research
activities out of the universities and locating
them in outside institutions is likely in the
long run to be highly counterproductive for
scientific productivity).
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In this way the highest levels of funding can be
steered towards persons and locations producing
the highest levels of achievement, and where
these can be expected in the future. This applies
to the institutions as well as to the persons
involved, both the professors and the students.
This stimulates academic competition and the
development of an individual academic profile.
For the system to remain dynamic, changes in both
directions must be possible.
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4.State and private funding (cost-sharing)Funding
questions are to be the focus of the following
sessions, so at this point I will restrict my
remarks to the consideration of more fundamental
and structural issues.a)In continental Europe
the education system, including the tertiary
sector, are seen to be a responsibility resting
with the res publica, so that in the main the
state and the government will be responsible for
providing funding. Tertiary qualifications
provide the individual however with enhanced
prospects in terms of choice of profession and
above-average levels of prospective income. For
this reason, i.e. for the personal advantages
tertiary qualifications offer, university studies
are also not only a public good but also a
private, i.e. non-public good.
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This means that asking students and their parents
to contribute to the costs of degrees is in broad
terms politically justifiable and necessary. In
this sense it is appropriate for the state in
general only to provide the university
infrastructure and the teaching, while the
students and their parents have to bear all other
costs, in particular living costs.
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b)Tuition fees however make the question of
social justice even more urgent. This applies
first and foremost for students from less
prosperous families, but increasingly students
from the so-called middle class are involved.
It is only for students from more wealthy
families that the costs of university study, and
therefore also of tuition fees, do not mean a
serious burden, which could exclude them from
tertiary education.
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The only way therefore to regulate the whole
question of financing tertiary education,
including the issue of tuition fees, in an
equitable way is to provide adequate scholarship
support for all properly qualified applicants and
students from needy families (and not just for
the few best candidates). In Europe, it seems
very unlikely that this path will ever be
implemented, neither by the state nor by the
universities themselves. (Only rich private
universities, especially in the USA, offer
adequate scholarship funding.)
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c) It has to be recognised that the introduction
of tuition fees without an adequate system of
scholarships is no more than an emergency
measure, whereby the question of social justice
remains unsolved. The whole situation is not
improved by the fact that in times of general
financial shortfalls in the public sector larger
and larger parts of the general population become
dependant on social welfare transfers, needing
increased financial support from the state and
not increased burdens.
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In the present situation tuition fees have to be
appraised very critically, from the point of view
of both policy and social welfare, especially
since the costs of living remain high and
actually should be relieved through the granting
of scholarships. Only tuition fees payable post
hoc and adjusted for expected above-average
income levels in professional life can be
reasonably justified in terms of social equality.
The precondition for this however is political
dependability which would guarantee to maintain
this system over the long term. But even here
there remains the problem of finding ways to
support students from lower-income families in
covering everyday living costs.