Transcript No Slide Title

OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary
Education
The Conclusions from the Review of Tertiary Education
of Iceland
Paulo Santiago
Directorate for Education, OECD
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in Iceland
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Reykjavík, 8 September 2006
Outline of Presentation
Part 1: The OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education
Objectives, Participating Countries, Methodology, the Review
Visit to Iceland
Part 2: The Main Policy Priorities for Iceland
-- System Governance
-- Resourcing
-- Quality Assurance
-- Equity
-- Regional Role
-- Research and Innovation
-- Links to the Labour Market
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-- Internationalisation
Part 1
The OECD Thematic Review of
Tertiary Education
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Objectives
To examine how the organisation, financing and
management of tertiary education can help countries
achieve their economic and social objectives
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The OECD project’s contribution
A collaborative, cross-national process to:


Identify innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices

Facilitate exchanges of lessons and experiences among countries

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Synthesise research-based evidence on the impact of tertiary
education policies and disseminate this knowledge among
participating countries
Identify policy options and the conditions under which they are
successfully implemented
Participating countries
24 countries
Australia, Belgium (Flemish Community), Chile, China,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France,
Greece, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and
the United Kingdom.
13 countries visited by review teams
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China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland,
Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway and Poland.
Methodology
- Cross-Country Collaboration;
- Country Background Reports;
- National Co-ordinator;
- National Advisory Committee;
- Workshops and Seminars;
- Review Visits (for some countries);
- Country Notes (for countries organising a Review);
- Analytical Visits (for countries not organising a Review)
- Commissioned Papers;
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- Extensive Reviews of Literature;
- Data Analyses.
OECD’s Tertiary Education Review of Iceland
Objectives
1. To provide insights and suggestions for policy development in Iceland;
2. To inform the wider international community about (a) the main features of
Iceland’s tertiary education policy; and (b) innovative and effective approaches
to tertiary education policy in Iceland; and
3. To inform the final comparative report from the project.
Structure of Visit (26 September-3 October, 2005)
 Eight-day visit which comprised discussions in all institutions of tertiary
education in Iceland.
 Review team with 6 members: 2 OECD Secretariat members; and researchers
and policy-makers from Denmark, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom;
 Interacted with over 200 individuals; had about 45 meetings amounting to
about 50 hours of discussions;
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 Discussions were held with a wide range of education authorities, institutions,
student organisations, academic staff, the business and industry community,
agencies responsible for funding and quality assurance, and researchers.
OECD’s Tertiary Education Review of Iceland
Relevant features
 External perspective, looking from a distance;
 Independent perspective, no review team member has a vested interest in the
system;
 Not an examination; qualitative analysis that seeks to provide an input of a
specific nature to the internal debate;
 Bring together research evidence, data and information available in a broad
comprehensive comparative framework;
Final report from visit (Country Note) released on 22 of
August – both on the Ministry’s and OECD’s website
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Part 2
The main policy priorities
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From one Institution to a System
-- Expansion and Growth
-Accomodation of domestic demand and establishment of new
institutions
- Range and sweep of reform are impressive
-- High “Adaptive Capacity”
- Speed of change and deeply-rooted consensual nature of Iceland
Politics
- Diversity of approaches
-- The “Facilitatory State”
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A large degree of institutional autonomy along with new steering
responsibilities for educational authorities
The need to rethink Governance
-- A new state of tension
How to reconcile priorities of individual institutions and broader
social and economic objectives of the higher education system
-- The reliance on competition
- Seen as the prime instrument to bring convergence between
institutional initiative and national objectives
- But it presents a number of shortcomings
-- A new role for policy: the steering of the system
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The call for reflection on how best to build a coherent system
Areas for further attention
-- Design a funding system consistent with the overall
strategy and objectives for the system
-- Clarify role of and relationships with individual
institutions
-- Develop a comprehensive system of quality assurance
to give coherence to the overall system
-- Integrate higher education system into the country’s
research and innovation system
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-- Develop an evidence basis to inform policy making
Design a funding system
consistent with the overall
strategy and objectives for the
system
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Funding System – Features to cherish
Funding of Institutions
- Transparency of funding formula for instruction;
- Contractualisation;
- Competitive funds for Research;
- Autonomy of institutions to decide on internal allocation;
- Public funds allocated to private institutions.
Student Support System
- Generosity of system which removes liquidity constraints of
students, allows the treatment of students independently from
their family, and is the operational expression of the weight
attached to equity values;
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- No discrimination between private and public sectors; supports
study overseas;
- Linked to study progress and income-related.
Funding System – Ideas to consider
Sustainability of funding
- Debate implications of “free” tuition in public institutions;
- Competing priorities;
- Lack of economies of scale.
Provide incentives for alignment with system goals
- Introduce performance-based criteria in funding formulas;
- Encourage institutions to seek more external funds.
Eliminating distortions
- Assess appropriateness of funding for distance learning;
- Differentiate funding for postgraduate students from undergr.;
- Equal treatment between private and public sector.
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Student Support System
- Review some features of the loan system.
Clarify role of and relationships
with individual institutions
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Role and Governance of Individual Institutions – Features
to cherish
-- Maintain the good levels of autonomy (e.g. internal allocation of
resources, human resources management, creation of programmes);
-- Ability to seek and retain ‘external funds’;
-- “Contractual” relationship to institutions;
-- Diversity in management structures and educational approaches;
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Role and Governance of Individual Institutions – Ideas to
consider
-- Make better use of system of “contracts”
Define expectations, performance targets, ‘profiles’
-- Consider “external” representation in Governing Boards
Improve accountability mechanisms
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Develop a comprehensive system
of quality assurance to give
coherence to the overall system
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Quality Assurance – Features to cherish
-- Keep emphasis on internal quality assurance mechanisms
Culture of evaluation in system to draw on institutional
experience
-- Draw on currently existing framework for external evaluations
-- Keep principle of making results of external evaluations publicly
available
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Quality Assurance – Ideas to consider
-- New priority in the setting up of a comprehensive system of
Quality Assurance
- to serve two ends: improvement and accountability
- to avoid degenerating into a culture of compliance and imposition.
-- Concentrating on the internal dimension… and assigning a
complementary role to the external dimension:
- Internal QA procedures externally validated;
- An advisory capacity to help institutions sustain their drive to
improvement;
- Selective external evaluation either of institutions or disciplines
-- Accreditation of Programmes
Finding more effective procedures for the validation, approval and evaluation of
educational programmes
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-- Undertake a comprehensive review of distance learning in higher
education
Integrate higher education
system into the country’s
research and innovation system
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Research and Innovation – Features to cherish
-- Intensification of research activities and levels of funding;
-- Consensus about the importance of the role of research and
research-based knowledge for economic and social progress;
-- Range of incentives to stimulate research productivity and output:
-- Research contracts;
-- Competitive funds;
-- Reward schemes for academics;
-- Science and technology parks and regional development plans;
-- Strong international ties
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-- Ability to secure funds from external sources
Research and Innovation – Ideas to consider
-- Performance driving research
- Research contract to be strengthened in setting out research priorities;
- Encourage alternative ways of funding research;
- Introduce performance-oriented dimension in research contract.
-- Project Management:
Encourage an entrepreneurial culture among academics
-- Improve integration of higher education and innovation systems
- Consolidate and make more efficient use of knowledge transfer mechanisms
already in place;
- Improve links of regional institutions to regional innovation systems
-- Dissemination research
- Importance of disseminating research-based knowledge and include it in
individual incentive procedures;
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- Closer co-ordination between institutional objectives and individual reward
schemes.
-- Develop complementarity / co-operation
Develop an evidence basis to
inform policy making
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Information Base
-- Build on the existing “informal social networks” both as:
- Channels of communication; and
- as ways of reaching informal understanding, entente and
accommodation between individuals, groups and institutions.
But…
-- Improve the formal processes of informing, reporting and follow
up
Regular flow of verified and credible information to judge
whether higher education is meeting expectations
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Other features to cherish
-- Emphasis on equity
- commitment to gender equality
- viewing itself as a classless society
- Lifelong approach and the access of mature students to higher education
- Opportunities for cross-border training
-- Reaching out to isolated areas
- Expansion of supply of tertiary programmes in regions
- Development of distance education and role of lifelong learning centres
-- Linking to the Labour Market
- Institutional specialisation through links with particular sections in the
labour market
- Largely student demand-driven system
- Examples of good partnerships between institutions and the labour market
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-- Commitment to internationalisation
- Experience abroad expected with capacity to attract students back
- Unproblematic implementation of the Bologna process
Other ideas to consider
-- Improve the articulation with secondary education
-- Develop career guidance and counselling both at secondary and
tertiary levels
-- Shape incentives to account for the regional role of institutions
-- Develop programmes to raise interest in the natural sciences
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For further information and to download Review
of Iceland:
www.oecd.org/edu/tertiary/review
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