Transcript Concept Paper for the Development of A CARICOM Strategic

Concept Paper for the Development of
A CARICOM Strategic Plan for
Tertiary Education Services in the
CARICOM Single Market & Economy
(CSME)
Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie
Pro Vice Chancellor
Planning and Development
The University of the West Indies
Tertiary Education: WHAT DO WE MEAN?

UNESCO defines Higher Education as:
“All types of studies, training or training for
research at the post secondary level,
provided by universities or other
educational establishments that are
approved as institutions of higher learning
by competent state authorities.”
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Tertiary Education: WHAT DO WE MEAN?

From the Vision 2020 sub-committee report on
Tertiary Education (Trinidad & Tobago):
“The teaching and learning process that
occurs following the completion of secondary
education and provides academic credits and
competencies that lead to certificates,
diplomas and degrees from universities,
university colleges, polytechnics, community
colleges and similar institutions.”
Trinidad & Tobago’s Vision 2020 Sub-Committee Report on Tertiary Education
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QUICK OVERVIEW OF TERTIARY SECTOR

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1948- University College of the West Indies, first
university-33 students.
2009- 150 institutions- public, private & offshore.
Approximately 90 000 students enrolled at tertiary
level. 41 000 in UWI alone.
Largest tertiary institution besides UWI- University of
Technology (UTech- 8 632).
Most others between a few hundred and less than
four thousand.
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PUBLIC, PRIVATE, LOCAL, REGIONAL,
INTERNATIONAL

Of the 150 tertiary institutions:
 60%
public
 30% private including local, joint venture, foreign and
offshore
 10% with some level of government support
 25-50% are private sector (Jamaica, St. Lucia)
 10% are private sector (Trinidad & Tobago)
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UWI remains the only, genuinely regional institution
in impact, scope and reach and is the premier
tertiary institution in the region now 60 years old.
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THROUGHPUT FROM SECONDARY
CXC participation annually
130 000
CAPE participation
annually
19 000
Pool Immediately available for
tertiary access annually
85 000
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Situation Analysis: Opportunities for Development

Recurring themes in the extensive literature on tertiary education in the
region:
 Tertiary
level institutions in the region foster the
advancement of the people within the framework of
globalisation.
 There
is a need for greater access.
 There
is uneven access, especially in non UWI campus
hosting territories.
 ICT
systems need to be strengthened especially in the
context of Distance Education.
Cont’d
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Situation Analysis: Opportunities for Development
 Agreed
standards are needed to facilitate recognition and
mobility.
 The
need for a Regional Accreditation Agency.
 A framework
for functional cooperation & collaboration
among sector partners is required.
 Alignment
of the tertiary sector to the requirements and
aspirations of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy
(CSME) is necessary.
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Targets
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A minimum target for tertiary level participation should be an
imperative for every country in the region.
At the June 2002 CARICOM Summit the participating
governments agreed to a 15% tertiary participation rate by
2005.

Trinidad & Tobago has set a target of 60% participation by
2015 and Barbados has set 1 graduate per household by
2010.

Many countries in the region have yet to achieve a 15%
participation rate.
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Targets
Regional and international gross enrolment rates (GER) at the tertiary level for
selected countries.
Country
GER
Cuba
109%
British Virgin Islands
75%
Barbados
30%
USA
82%
UK
59%
Jamaica
19%
Antigua & Barbuda
16%
Guyana
12%
Trinidad & Tobago
15%
St. Lucia
10%
Anguilla
5%
Belize
3%
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WHAT STORY EMERGES?

Even though over the last 60 years the tertiary
landscape has changed dramatically and significant
growth and expansion as well as diversity of
institutions have taken place:
 There
is room for growth of the sector and for increased
access and participation.
 There is room for growth at UWI.
 There is room for growth at other tertiary institutions
individually.
 There is room for expansion of the sector.
 There is room for investment in the sector.
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FREQUENTLY IDENTIFIED CHALLENGES
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These have been identified on several occasions in
reports done over the years:
 The
pivotal role of tertiary level institutions in fostering the
social, economic, and cultural advancement of the people
of the region.
 The need for increased access and higher enrolment.
 The fragmentation and incoherence of the system and the
need for greater functional co-operation in such areas as
articulation to support student mobility, uneven access to
educational opportunities especially in those territories not
hosting a UWI campus.
(Cont’d)
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FREQUENTLY IDENTIFIED CHALLENGES
 The
need to strengthen ICT systems in reach, scope and
user friendliness for the purpose of distance education.
 The
need to rationalise the qualifications framework.
 The
need for a Regional Accreditation Agency.
 The
need for a framework for functional co-operation.
 The
need to align the tertiary sector and its output to the
requirements and aspirations of CSME.
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HAS ANYTHING BEEN DONE?
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Limited progress has been made in:
 Improvement
in participation rates with some countries
setting ambitious targets.
 On-line, e-learning and multimode delivery.
 Regional equivalence and articulation.
 Establishment of a Regional Qualifications Framework
(RQF).
 Some but not enough progress on Regional Accreditation
Authority.
 CSME proceeding too slowly.
 Tertiary trained teachers, one of ten categories of workers
who can move professionally across the region without a
work permit.
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GETTING IT RIGHT
STRUCTURE
SYSTEM
BEHAVIOUR
CULTURE
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MAJOR CHALLENGES
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A regional policy framework.
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A clear strategy forward.
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EFFECTIVE POLICY FRAMEWORK
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An environmental scan of the regional tertiary sector
indicates:
 Growth
in response to increasing demands for services
and products.
 The sector is still characterised however, by
fragmentation, insufficient resources, inadequate
collaboration/cooperation among its partners and several
other factors hindering effectiveness.

This highlights the need for a regional policy
framework that will form the basis for the
development and implementation of national
policies, programmes, and action plans in relation to
tertiary education in the region.
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PRIORITY AREAS FOR A POLICY FRAMEWORK
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Summary of the priority areas that should constitute
a policy framework:
 Legal
framework- regional legislation especially related
to tertiary and higher education in the region needs to be
reviewed, rewritten, harmonised and integrated to support
the evolution of a seamless tertiary sector across the
region.
 Regional Qualifications Framework- work in this area
needs to be expedited to ensure that qualifications
awarded at regional institutions are aligned with regional
and extra-regional standards.
 Regional Accreditation Regime- which will inter alia
undertake accreditation for those countries that cannot
sustain their own agency.
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PRIORITY AREAS FOR A POLICY FRAMEWORK
(cont’d)
 Financing-
sustainable financing of tertiary education to
meet desired targets and objectives, ensure access for
students and to upgrade and expand physical plant and
infrastructure.
 Participation rates and sustainable development- there
is a need to link tertiary education strategy with
development and transformation strategy within the
context of a strategic plan for the region.
 Teacher Education Strategies- a tertiary education
strategy must be developed to strengthen the entire
tertiary education sector in the region. The UWI has
initiated such a strategy but it must be broadened.
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PRIORITY AREAS FOR A POLICY FRAMEWORK
(cont’d)
 Administration,
Management, Leadership- effective
training and development programmes at the tertiary level
are mandatory not only for teachers but for administrators,
managers and leaders at this level.
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STRATEGIC ROLE FOR CARICOM
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Rethinking and restructuring the system, improving
behaviour and transforming culture is to build a
sustainable, responsive system that contributes to
the global competitiveness of the regional economy.
The following are suggested imperatives for
CARICOM:
A
strategic plan needs to be developed for CARICOM.
 The strategy for the regional tertiary sector needs to be
aligned with the trade, diversification and priority
development goals in the context of the strategic plan.
 Minimum targets for tertiary participation needs to be
established. A recommendation of 35% by 2020 is
proposed.
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STRATEGIC ROLE FOR CARICOM (cont’d)
 The
plan for the proposed target should include a
negotiated agreement between each country and the UWI.
 Each country should develop its own modus operandi for
meeting the 35% target over the 10 year period by
preparing plan of execution.
 National capacity and local standards must be developed
and improved to meet regional aspirations and
international norms. The UWI should be mandated to
perform a key role in achieving this objective.
 Excess or highly specialised capacities that exist in
selected countries in the region may be deployed through
the region by a mixture of teaching and learning
techniques in an impactful and cost effective manner.
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STRATEGIC ROLE FOR CARICOM (cont’d)

Establishment of the Regional Accreditation Agency to
urgently fulfill the three principal aims of:
i.
ii.
iii.
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A seamless system
Free movement of skills
International recognition
Rationalise the tertiary sector in every country so that
there are complimentary, supplementary and feeder
relationships between national systems and the UWI.
Draw on UWI’s strengths and the knowledge of UWI’s
Tertiary Level Institution (TLI) Unit to strengthen the
national system as a seamless, effectively articulated
system.
Strengthen the primary and secondary education levels
to ensure quality throughput to the tertiary sector.
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STRATEGIC ROLE FOR CARICOM (cont’d)
 Work
through issues of financing plant, infrastructure and
equipment, as well as issues of student financing and
ensuring sustainable access.
 Rationalise the e-learning strategy across the sector for
the benefit of the region and design a range of knowledge
products of value to the world using this medium.
 Commit to build a research enterprise in the region with
UWI and the specialised regional research institutions as
the foundations to build the research capacity linked to
regional needs and solutions and global trends, to include
on-going research in the tertiary sector itself.
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THE PRESSING NEED
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Rational, orderly system of tertiary institutions
meeting needs of the region as well as expected
standards globally within a framework of
collaboration, co-operation and competition to result
in efficiency and effectiveness.
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REINFORCING THE VALUE OF A STRONG
TERTIARY SECTOR
MICRO
MACRO
Externalities and other indirect effects related to education,
health and population growth:
Higher education attainment and achievement of children
Better health and lower mortality of children
Better individual health
Lower number of births
Education
Increased earnings
(higher productivity)
Lower population
growth and better
health of population
(and labour force)
Higher Growth
Increased earnings of neighbours
Participation in the labour force
Increased labour force
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Other Benefits
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Competitive tertiary sector committed to quality
Research enterprise
Entrepreneurial culture
Ideas generation, social capital, strengthening
democratic participation
Inflow of investments supported by knowledge
sector and to knowledge sector
Inflow of students from abroad diversification, higher
standard of living
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FURTHER IMPLICATION OF COMPETITIVE
TERTIARY SECTOR AND COHERENT SYSTEM
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Orderly development and progress within sector
with better options for students.
Possibility of rationalising investment strategy in the
sector and strengthening general investment
strategy based on improved tertiary throughput.
Possibility of creating export capacity encouraging
flow of international students.
Supporting the ideas of CSME and making it work.
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FURTHER IMPLICATION OF COMPETITIVE
TERTIARY SECTOR AND COHERENT SYSTEM
(cont’d)
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Building a knowledge sector diversifying economy,
enhancing absorptive capacity which can only be
done on a strong tertiary platform.
Facilitating an entrepreneurial culture and helping to
strengthen democratic institutions.
Creating the framework for strengthening research
capacity.
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Tertiary education is important to strengthen
basic education which is essential for
throughput to tertiary and it is important to
include technical and vocational
programmes essential to the economy in
the tertiary sector.
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Tertiary sector platform for services
sector/knowledge sector.
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Tertiary education remains predominantly
the business of the public sector.
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Private sector more demand driven, public
sector more comprehensive.
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There is opportunity for the University of
the West Indies to play a leadership,
developmental, rationalising and
integrative role especially supportive of
public sector institutions.
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Grande Anse Declaration (1989).
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It is to be noted that all of the ten (10)
categories of skilled persons approved for
free movement throughout the CSME
without the need for work permits are
service workers or knowledge workersuniversity graduates, media workers,
artistes, musicians, sports persons,
managers, technical and supervisory staff,
self employed persons, service providers,
tertiary trained teachers, nurses.
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At the fifteenth meeting of COSHOD (October 1921, 2006, Georgetown) a report highlighting the
critical issues in education and labour was
presented and discussed. The report emphasised:
 The
appropriate development and effective utilisation of
human skills.
 Emphasised the centrality of appropriate HRD in
preparing persons to take advantage of opportunities
presented by CSME.
 Noted that the emerging labour market was more
integrated and competitive for high level skills demanding
“weightless” goods and high knowledge content.
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TERTIARY SECTOR
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Services industry
Serve services economy
Platform for research enterprise, knowledge industry
Rationalised, orderly sector- investment
opportunities
Tertiary throughput- investment attractor
Competitive sector- export capacity
Rationalising delivery of teaching and coordinating
research. UWI, other tertiary institutions, research
institutions can make a difference in both teaching
and research.
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Thank you very
much for your
attention.
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