Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society: Pointers for Policy Development

MAIN CHALLENGES IN TERTIARY EDUCATION

• Articulating clearly the nation’s expectations of the tertiary education system and aligning priorities of individual institutions with the nation’s economic and social goals. Creating coherent systems of tertiary education, finding the proper balance between governmental steering and institutional autonomy and developing institutional governance arrangements to respond to external expectations.
• Ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of tertiary education, devising a funding strategy consistent with the goals of the tertiary education system and using public funds efficiently.
• Strengthening quality of tertiary education by developing quality assurance mechanisms for accountability and improvement, generating a culture of quality and transparency and adapting quality assurance to diversity of offerings.
• Ensuring equality of opportunities in tertiary education, devising cost-sharing arrangements which do not harm equity of access and improving the participation of the least represented groups.  
• Fostering research excellence and its relevance, building links with other research organisations, the private sector and industry and improving the ability of tertiary education to disseminate the knowledge it creates.
• Ensuring an adequate supply of academics, increasing flexibility in the management of human resources and helping academics to cope with the new demands.
• Including labour market perspectives and actors in tertiary education policy, ensuring the responsiveness of institutions to graduate labour market outcomes and providing study opportunities for flexible, work-oriented study.
• Designing a comprehensive internationalisation strategy in accordance with country’s needs, ensuring quality across borders and enhancing the international comparability of tertiary education.

 

MAIN POLICY DIRECTIONS FOR TERTIARY EDUCATION

 

Across OECD countries some main policy directions emerge to address the above challenges. In some countries, many of these policy directions are already being pursued. In other countries they may be less relevant because of different social, economic and educational structures and traditions.

 

Many of these policy directions are inter-related. Tackling one area without taking account of this will lead to only partial results. Even so, it is difficult to address all areas at once and resource constraints mean that trade-offs are inevitable.

 

Main policy directions are:

• Steering tertiary education: setting the right course
• Matching funding strategies with national priorities
• Assuring and improving quality
• Achieving Equity
• Enhancing the role of tertiary education in research and innovation
• Academic career: adapting to change
• Strengthening ties with the labour market
• Shaping internationalisation strategies in the national context
• Implementing tertiary education policy

 

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