The role of higher education institution in modern society.
Alan Patterson (England).
We live in a time of increasingly interlinked world in which more persons will attend universities in the present century than in all of human history. Most of the capacity to accommodate this demand is yet to be built. The rapid development of improved systems of communication has changed our world to a hierarchical system of modes and channels. Information spreads wildly all over the world and no one can allow him or herself to live in isolation. The world is ever more globalized and knowledge-based. Our society is getting more complex consisting of individuals characterized by intriguing sets of multiple identities. This situation requires serious thought, as the universities do have to prepare the next generations for a new world, which is to be the borderless world in which many borders are loosing much of their meaning, and in which regional integration of countries is increasing.
We need to discuss thinking of leading higher education researchers and policymakers around the world about what kinds of researches are needed and who will be the architects for those future higher education systems and structures.
The Universities play many roles in the development of human capital around the world, through administration of funded graduate programs like the Fulbright and Humphrey fellowships, delivery of more targeted professional training through USAID’s Global Training for Development, and promotion of university linkages through Information Exchanges focused on key world regions. Most of these activities mobilize and share the expertise of different higher education institutions, extending these resources to academics abroad.
Due to the tremendous increase of the all developments - social, cultural, political and environmental - the university cannot maintain its self-centered approach any longer. All staff and students will have to engage themselves much more with their topics and subjects of study. They cannot hide themselves anymore from the ethical aspects involved in their studies. Rather, these have become an integral part of their study. All the higher education institutions around the globe are cooperating, sharing information on developments in their institutions and world regions. There are Professional Exchanges Program, hundreds of International Visitors each year participate in study tours. But even as we share with each other the higher education model, that model is to be seriously reviewed. All the European countries are facing similar problems to respond to changing social needs in every society, with limited national resources. Each society is to focus on the development of higher education systems, involving those who design and fund activities, those who shape and staff these institutions, the students and employers served by the institutions, and those who conduct research on their effectiveness. The purpose worldwide of higher educational system will be to assess the relevance of current models to 21st century needs at different stages of development, and to consider how these models might better incorporate and reflect changing assumptions about and vehicles for human capacity development.
We live in the rapidly changing world and it concerns both nations and cultures. Education is the medium of that exchange. The education is to help realize something new in the world for the purpose of helping every society develop its own concept of individual fulfillment. The society needs to form an informal network that will continue to share information and provide support as their higher education systems grapple with common problems and undergo their individual transformations. We are increasingly confronted with questions about the direction university teaching and research must take on a number of crucial issues: bio-ethical dilemmas, bio-diversity and bio-technological questions, benefit sharing, legal and equity issues, social and cultural aspects of our interconnected world. Indeed, one of the major issues today is cultural one. In our diverse but intensely interconnected world we have many neighbours, nearby and faraway, neighbours who often come from very diverse backgrounds. More than ever, a strong development of international activities and relations is needed. This is crucial today in particular to promote better understanding, as fear is often the consequence of lack of knowledge and lack of precise information. It will thus be essential to increase and improve knowledge and information. It will be important to increase and improve knowledge and information about other people, cultures and societies. To achieve this, one must be prepared to actively engage in dialogue.
Higher education worldwide and its future direction are neither simple nor straightforward topics, yet they are the focus of the attention of the society A comparative perspective can seldom provide us with detailed prescriptions for action, but it permits us to expand our horizons. In higher education, where we are so often bound by the constraints of national thinking, a comparative perspective is especially valuable because academic institutions worldwide stem from common traditions, and the issues facing higher education around the world have many common characteristics.
It is really necessary to outline areas within higher education that are undergoing major changes or profoundly affecting higher education systems around the globe. In Europe, many of the same areas have been discussed and have been targets for reform over the last decade.
In general, the universities in continental Europe are facing three major challenges: expansion, diversification, and massification. Expansion refers to the large increases in student numbers in most European countries in response to public policies providing education to a large portion of the population. Many nations like Germany, France, or the Netherlands have a binary system of higher and vocational education, which translates into different types of institutions for different target groups. Present-day society increasingly is made up of diverse groups. In fact all societies today are diverse, even if they are ethnically more or less homogeneous, because social and economic differences do exist and will continue to exist everywhere. In our diverse societies, the needs and preferences of the different groups will need to be reflected in political decisions in order to maintain equality of opportunity and with this, ultimately, to sustain peaceful societies. The governments of many countries have introduced or are planning to implement a more diverse scheme for higher education, in line with the interests and aspirations of potential students. The massification question, which refers to overcrowded and overburdened institutions that are hard to work in, to study in, and to manage is also of primary importance. These developments, the result of public policies, have shaped the problems facing institutions of higher education in Europe: higher education funding, equal access, relevance of studies and the role of the state in relation to institutions.
The issue of funding national systems of higher education has been a major problem for restructuring higher education in Europe. Colleges and universities should develop their own management structure, set up and revise programs independently, serve society and students as “customers,” and attract additional resources. Funding strategies for higher education are changing. In most countries, budgets in the past were itemized by categories like personnel, libraries, or maintenance. The new trend in many European countries is toward lump sum funding, with the state allocating funds mainly according to output-oriented indicators and formalized planning procedures. These public funds can then be apportioned within Universities according to their particular preferences and strategies.
Many institutions and nations have placed a priority on creating a more internationally reputed system of higher education through compatible study programs, excellence in research, and high mobility of students and staff. This internationalization of higher education is very relevant for continental Europe. The increased competition in Europe for students and resources has compelled universities to create strategies for improving their image and reputation in specialized fields of research and training. The aim is to enhance the quality of services and in that way move up in the ranks and gain higher visibility.
Mobility has played a key role in this process. Students in European exchange programs ( Socrates, Tempus, ERASMUS etc) make choices based on their perception of the best campuses and the most supportive faculty, thereby increasing competition among universities. Research through international collaboration and exchanges has to meet certain standards as well. Very Many European universities try to encourage their junior faculty to move to other countries and work with international colleagues—in the expectation that when they return to their home institutions, their research productivity, teaching quality, and hence reputation will increase.
The internationalization of higher education also involves the need for equal access and diversity at European institutions. With new forms of student and staff mobility and migration streams from Eastern Europe and Africa, universities have to accommodate a population more diverse in ethnic and educational background. The expansion in student numbers has boosted this trend even further, creating a situation for which universities are often unprepared. Emerging political and economic changes have put integration of diversity on the agenda in many nations in Europe that are used to a relatively homogeneous society.
With businesses being based on high-end technologies, to qualify for high-salaried positions, graduates need to be well trained. Policies to enhance access and diversity through a binary system, while maintaining quality standards, have positively characterized European higher education reforms. On top of that, universities are increasingly rewarded for their output. The universities need to develop common quality standards, which could prove difficult if the student population becomes more diverse. This is an indication of the multifaceted problems involving access and diversity—especially in combination with educational quality—in many European countries.
In the coming millennium European higher education will undergo a complex and stressful set of changes. On the one hand, state budget constraints are not going to disappear in the short term. Hence, universities will need to find new sources of funding, which will require in depth analysis of performance in teaching and research. It seems that most countries are looking for “organizational” solutions—that is, new structures and processes for efficiency and effectiveness. On the other hand, problems will arise as a consequence of this restructuring. Shifting authority structures between administration and faculty, the changing role of professors as service providers, and the differences in the attractiveness of various disciplines and fields will lead to major internal conflicts. It remains to be seen how the universities of the 21st century can keep their traditional role as a place for liberal education and reconcile that role with market requirements.
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