Rise in intergovernmental involvement in HE

There has long been a tension between government expectations for its universities and the goals and mission of a country’s institutions of higher education. And universities have long clung to the idyllic notion that the pursuit of knowledge – the truth – knows no political boundaries.

But the reality is that governments around the world make decisions and have aspirations that have implications for higher education, quality assurance and accreditation, raising questions about who is driving policy, whether the policies are socially just and what the relationship between government and higher education should be in a global context.

The United States-based Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s International Quality Group (CIQG) sought to unpack some of the key factors and players in international quality assurance and accreditation during its annual gathering last week in Washington. More than 330 people representing 32 countries participated in back-to-back meetings sponsored by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and CIQG.

Two themes emerged. First, institutional autonomy remains the defining feature of the modern university and a prerequisite for its effective and efficient operation, and it must be earned over and over.

“Autonomy is not just a privilege, but it’s a privilege for a purpose,” said Sijbolt Noorda, chairman of Magna Charta Observatory, a community of 800 universities, primarily in Europe, dedicated to protecting academic freedom. “It is a constant repetition of the same exercise.”

Second, the only certainty is change. CHEA President Judith Eaton encouraged participants to embrace that reality. “Let me put it this way,” she said. “We need to become more irreverent than we have in the past, more willing to challenge the past as opposed to building on it.”

Recent developments that are playing a role

Here are recent developments that are playing a role in quality assurance and accreditation from an international perspective:

• • Regional influence: During the past year, two policy documents – a Common Higher Education Area by the East African Community and the European Union’s renewed Agenda for Higher Education – have been adopted that highlight the growing significance of regional influence on higher education policy. Both emphasise cross-border collaboration that addresses a shared set of common priorities.
  
  The European Commission’s role is to provide “great opportunities to make it possible for different countries to learn from each other and see how they can get stronger”, said Adam Tyson, of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation.
  
  The Agenda for Higher Education reflects a set of common priorities that set the direction towards which the European Union wants to go, but Tyson said he is “paid to be impatient” with the progress being made at the country and institutional level.
  
  “It’s very important that there is real ownership at the level of institutional leaders, even individual academics,” he said, but “we’re always wanting to push expanding [them] to go further. We’re never satisfied.”
  
  
• • Developing countries: Drawing from more than 25 years of experience, Jamil Salmi, author of The Tertiary Education Imperative: Knowledge, skills and values for development and former coordinator of tertiary education for the World Bank, stressed the relevance of higher education in developing countries.
  
  World Bank policies historically focused on basic education but in the 1990s began making the case for higher education as an engine of economic development, and only more recently has it zeroed in on the role of quality assurance.
  
  “We assumed that just access would take care of it, and the facts prove us wrong,” he said. “It’s really the culture.”
  
  One problem facing some developing countries is that government instability slows momentum. With each new regime, “everything starts from the beginning, so sustainability is gone and political will is not really there”, said Hossam Badrawi, chairman of the Badrawi Foundation for Education and Development in Egypt. “We’ve made progress [in Egypt] but the government is the major funding vehicle.”
  
  Moreover, he noted, in many developing countries “states do not differentiate between regulating and control”. Still, trends in higher education globalisation have given developing countries better opportunities than ever, he said, because industrialised countries are facing a new set of circumstances, too.
  
  “Higher education is not going to be the same in the coming five years,” Hossam Badrawi said.
  
  
• • Multinational support: Multilateral organisations such as the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO are taking global leadership roles in the role of quality assurance and social justice in higher education.
  
  The 2015 launch of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals also has called attention to the importance of higher education for economic development. Its target for 2030 is to ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university. Higher education also plays a crucial role in many of the other goals, including reduced inequality and inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
  
  Also filling a void are international, non-profit organisations such as the International Engineering Alliance (IEA), launched in 1989 to develop international quality assurance agreements, with a goal of recognising university degrees in countries where accreditation systems may not be fully developed. The goal is not only to help countries develop their system but also to enhance student mobility.
  
  “There’s such a demand for engineering undergraduates,” said David Holger, chair of the IEA Governing Group and associate provost emeritus at Iowa State University in the US.
  
  “Organisations and employers were saying the expectations for the outcomes for graduates are very similar across the globe and we need to find a way to know [whether] graduates are substantially equipped through their education to succeed.”