Suchergebnisse

The contribution and impact of universities on the cities and regions in which they are based is an increasing focus of government policy. This builds upon their public good role with respect to knowledge creation and dissemination, but it also responds to problems of deep social and economic inequality in our societies. Wales is no different. In the belief that universities can make a significant contribution, the Welsh government commissioned a report seeking to maximize Welsh universities civic mission.

In 2015, the Welsh government commissioned a review of its postcompulsory education system. Recommendations included the creation of a single regulatory, oversight, and coordinating authority bringing together further, higher, and adult learning. By its swift endorsement of the report's principles and recommendations, the Welsh government conspicuously diverged from the market–demand drivenapproach adopted by the UK government for England.

This report is being produced at a significant and opportune juncture in the development of education in Wales, across the UK, and internationally. Around the world, education is widely recognised as bringing "significant benefits to society, not only through higher employment opportunities and income but also via enhanced skills, improved social status and access to networks."2 Yet, today, globalization, technological and demographic change, and the combined effects of the prolonged nature of the Great Recession, resource absorption challenges, and accelerating economic competitiveness are placing considerable pressures on education to deliver and demonstrate better value and benefit for citizens and society.3 Wales faces demographic, social and economic challenges alongside a combination of uneven regional development, weak education and employability skills, a changing labour market mix, and the lack of major large centres with the primary exception of Cardiff.4 At the same time, there are on-going modifications in the relationships between UK nations, and between the UK and the European Union. The recently published UK government consultation paper, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, proposes a new governing architecture for higher education (HE) in England with knock-on implications. All these developments are changing the policy environment in which Wales operates while also opening up new opportunities.

Ten years have passed since the Shanghai JiaoTong University first published the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2003. Followed shortly thereafter by the Times Higher Education QSTop University Ranking (THE-QS) in 2004, the arrival of rankings has been a game-changer for higher education and research, intensifying cross-national comparisons. They immediately attracted the attention of policymakers and the academy, challenging perceived wisdom about the status and reputation, as well as quality and performance, of higher education institutions (HEIs1).The Irish Minister for Education and Science, speaking in his capacity as President of the European Council, echoed the concerns of many political and academic leaders: Last year the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Institute of Education ranked the world's top 500 universities on academic and research performance. For the European Union, the news is not all that good.The study shows that 35 of the top 50 Universities in the world are American . . . (Dempsey, 2004). Almost ten years later, at the launch of Europe 2020, unease was just as palpable: Europe is no longer setting the pace in the global race for knowledge and talent, while emerging economies are rapidly increasing their investment in higher education (Europa, 2011, p. 2). The arrival of global rankings coincided with a Zeitgeist of modernising higher education, and ideological and public support for markets; their continuing influence is a manifestation of the intensification of global competitiveness and their visibly multi-polar character.

The 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) has cast a long shadow over Ireland and Irish higher education. In 2009, the IMF (2009) said Ireland was experiencing an "unprecedented economic correction…that exceeds that being faced currently by any other advanced economy", while Ireland's National Economic and Social Development Office (NESC 2009) said Ireland was beset by five different crises: a banking crisis, a fiscal crisis, an economic crisis, a social crisis and a reputational crisis. These circumstances provide the best explanation for the policy choices now confronting the government and higher education as they struggle to sustain the publicly-funded mass higher education and university-based research system, and reposition the country as a globally competitive knowledge society attractive to mobile capital and skilled labour. Whatever the outcome, it is unlikely that public funding for higher education will ever return to the levels enjoyed during the previous "golden age". This paper examines the background and policy challenges confronting the government and higher education. After providing an overview of the economic and policy context, the chapter summarises four key policy challenges: i) creating a coherent higher education "system"; ii) sustainability; iii) research excellence; and iv) quality and performance. The conclusion discusses the challenges in terms of policy-trade offs and considers the implications.

Over the past 40 years, Ireland has experienced a remarkable transformation in fortunes. Its emergence from a protectionist pre-industrial to a post-industrial high-tech economy came on the coat tails of European Union membership and accelerating internationalisation and deregulation of financial and investment markets. Strategically situated between the United States and Europe, Ireland became a leading importer of foreign direct investment. By 2000, it was the second-largest exporter of computer software in the world after the US, and home to the top-10 pharmaceutical companies. The boom years of the 'Celtic Tiger' made it the poster child for globalisation. After the 2008 global financial crisis, Ireland became the symbol of economic collapse, before being rescued by the 'troika' of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank. Today, it is variously described as the great experiment or the success story for austerity.

Irish higher education faces particular difficulties given the severity of its economic crisis. Like other countries, it is engaged in significant system restructuring coupled with managed policy direction. Where Ireland does differ is in its emphasis on a 'whole of country strategy' and commitment that teaching and research go hand-in-hand. This paper looks at the fortunes and mis-fortunes of Irish higher education.

Is it always a good thing when a university rises up the rankings and breaks into the top 100? Do rankings raise standards by encouraging competition or do they undermine the broader mission to provide education? Should rankings be used to help decide educational policy and the allocation of scare financial resources? Should policy aim to develop world-class universities or to make the system world-class? University rankings have dominated headlines and the attention of political and university leaders wherever or whenever they are published or mentioned. Politicians regularly refer to them as a measure of their nation's economic strengths and aspirations, universities use them to help set or define targets. What started out as an innocuous consumer product – aimed at undergraduate domestic students – has rapidly become a global intelligence information business – impacting, influencing, and incentivizing higher education, and its stakeholders inside and outside the academy. Today, there are over 50 national rankings and ten global rankings, including the European Union's U-Multirank. However, while much of the focus has been on methodological issues or how rankings may influence student choice, little is known about how rankings influence government policy. Around the world, governments are using rankings to guide the restructuring of higher education because societies which are attractive to investment in research and innovation and highly skilled mobile talent will be more successful globally. Many countries have introduced policy initiatives with the primary objective of creating "world-class" universities. For many governments, the world-class university has become the panacea for ensuring success in the global economy. There is little doubt that higher education must respond in a constructive manner to the debate about quality and performance, and identify smarter ways to assess and demonstrate impact and benefit. Political and societal support for higher education, for systems dependent upon public funding and on tuition fees, can only be maintained by quality profiling, performance enhancement and value-for-money which provides (public) investor confidence. Because there are direct correlations between societal value systems and policy choices, what matters is how governments prioritize their objectives of a skilled labour force, equity, regional growth, better citizens, future Einsteins and global competitiveness, and translate them into policy. Aligning systems to indicators set by others for commercial or other purposes threatens the very foundations of national sovereignty and society. It pits equity and excellence against each other, and favours elite models rather than world-class systems. This paper surveys the overall impact and influence that rankings are having on higher education institutions, and particularly on higher education policy. Drawing on international research, the paper raises questions with this approach and proposes an alternative. Because meeting the fiscal requirements may go far beyond national budgets, governments should focus on benchmarking systems rather than ranking institutions: world-class systems rather than world-class universities.

This chapter examines how effectively TAFE Institutes and universities in the State of Victoria contribute to meeting the social and economic needs of the population in terms of opportunities to study and relevance of the qualifications offered. It identifies some key achievements and areas for improvement. The chapter closes with a series of recommendations that include the need for a greater system approach to tertiary education in order to support sustainable regional development and the role that the State of Victoria can play in this strategy.

Global rankings are creating a furore wherever or whenever they are published or mentioned. They have become a barometer of global competition measuring the knowledge-producing and talent-catching capacity of higher education institutions. These developments are injecting a new competitive dynamic into higher education, nationally and globally, and encouraging a debate about its role and purpose. As such, politicians regularly refer to them as a measure of their nation's economic strength and aspirations, universities use them to help set or define targets mapping their performance against the various metrics, while academics use rankings to bolster their own professional reputation and status. Based on an international survey (2006) and extensive interviews in Germany, Australia and Japan (2008), this paper provides a comparative analysis of the impact and influence of rankings on higher education and stakeholders, and describes institutional experiences and responses. It then explores how rankings are influencing national policy and shaping institutional decision making and behaviour. Some changes form part of the broader modernisation agenda, improving performance and public accountability, while others are viewed as perverse. Their experiences illustrate that policy does matter.

This presentation addresses the question as to how Ireland should globally position itself, and what are the appropriate policies and processes that should be adopted to best enable Ireland to respond.

This chapter will look at the impact that rankings are having on student choice and mobility, and the way in which both higher education institutions (HEIs) and government are responding to global competition for talent. It draws on the results of an international survey of HE leaders in 2006 and interviews with HEIs in Australia, Japan and Germany during 2008. The research was conducted under the auspices of the OECD Programme for Institutional Management of Higher Education, the International Association of Universities, and the Institute of Higher Education Policy—the latter with funding from the Lumina Foundation. There are three main sections: part 1 describes the growing importance that rankings are having on student mobility and student choice; part 2 provides an overview of the recruitment and other initiatives HEIs are adopting; and part 3 looks at policy reaction. The final section offers some concluding observations on the way in which rankings are accelerating competition for the lucrative international student market.