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Background Report
Higher education has grown and diversified in OECD countries in recent decades. The policies and practices that govern it are developed in a broader social and economic context which influences decision making. This Background Report is intended to provide a statistical and analytical background to support the discussions, based on the questions raised in the issues paper. It contains analysis, findings, description and data related to the topics to be discussed. These include the demographic and economic context; educational attainment and expenditure; employment; and research and innovation.
Issues for Discussion
In recent decades, higher education has grown and diversified in all OECD countries. Governments are among the major players in the sector, particularly in centralized higher education systems, but they are not the only ones. Quasi-governmental or independent quality assurance bodies, public and private institutional providers, employers, and students and their families play significant and sometimes determining roles. There is competition among established and emerging providers, while learners (and their families and employers) have become more sophisticated and demanding. Fiscal pressures continue. The international nature of the market is becoming more evident.
Four Futures Scenarios for Higher Education
What plays out in the future often depends upon decisions taken today, particularly as the passage of time narrows the room for manoeuvre of different players. Hence the importance of factoring the long term into decision-making in higher education. This paper presents four scenarios for higher education systems developed by the OECD Secretariat as part of its ongoing project on the future of higher education. The University Futures project is designed to inform and facilitate strategic change to be made by government decision-makers and other key stakeholders in higher education.
OECD Observer
Higher education for a changing world
Barbara Ischinger - Director, OECD Education Directorate
Achieving and sustaining quality in higher education is a tough challenge. A new stakeholder contract may be needed, and better performance measures would help light the way forward.
Europe’s university challenge
Andreas Schleicher - OECD Education Directorate
When European Union heads of state and government met at a summit in Lisbon in 2000, they set the goal of making Europe “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.” That goal is far from being met, not least in tertiary education.
Fee education
Interview: Bill Rammell, MP Minister of State for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education (United Kingdom)
A basic problem with delivering a better higher education system is funding. Since the Second World War higher education, just as secondary and primary schools, has been considered as a public good, and so in most OECD countries the service had to be delivered free of charge to students through taxation. However, tighter public budgets and stiffer global competition for talent have led to a renewed interest in student fees as a possible way of raising more funding. The issue poses several tricky challenges, about access, equity, student finance, debt, and so on. Little wonder the debate has become rather heated in several countries.
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