Governance in tertiary education in the OECD area: trends and lessons Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) World Bank Seminar, 16-17 December 2009, Marseille
Challenges in OECD countries Globalisation Increased competition between systems Importance of being in international knowledge flows Expansion of tertiary education Quality and relevance of education Quality and productivity of research Call on the public purse Competing priorities on scarce public resources (ageing, etc.)
3 key trends in governance Globalisation: international harmonisation Bologna: degree architecture (BMD), Quality Assurance, ECTS, international mobility Cross-border higher education and people mobility International rankings Diffusion of New Public Management practices Autonomy and accountability Steering by incentives/sanctions and contracts Increasing importance of quantitatve indicators in system steering Learning and employment outcomes Research output Rankings
International Bureaucratic Supply-driven Market mechanisms Demand-driven National
Growth in the number of international and foreign students within the OECD (2000-2007, 2000=100)
Growth in foreign students worldwide and projections to 2030
Change in the share of tertiary education students enrolled in public institutions (% points) 1998-2006 1985-2006 30 25 20 15 10 5 0-5 -10-15 -20
Tertiary enrolments in public and other institutions (2006)
Change in the share of resources coming from households in tertiary education institutions expenditures, 1995-2005 (% points)
Distribution of direct funding for HEIs by source 2005 (%)
More direct government funding of research (+9% points on average / Decline in France and Japan)
Principles of good public governance Accountability Efficiency Responsiveness Transparency Effectiveness Forward vision
Some dimensions of institutional autonomy: a continuum Institutional governance legal status, governance design, buildings, commercialisation Staff hiring and firing, academic career, salary scale, working time, etc. Students admission rules, capacity Finance tuition fees, income generation, income management, spending rules Education programmes, curriculum, delivery modes, etc. Research research priorities, etc.
TEI governing boards Typically: Academic staff, students, nonacademic staff Increasingly: External stakeholders 2007: Australia, Belgium (Fl.), Chile, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom Presidents are elected or appointed by governing boards in most cases now rarely nominated by central government (Korea)
A few policy instruments for steering at a distance Allocation of funding Formulas for institutional block grants (more output criteria) Indirect funding (cost sharing, grants) Contractualisation (allows for some autonomy) Competitive allocation (research) Performance-based Special funding (mobility grants, etc.)
A few policy instruments for steering at a distance Evaluation (research, teaching), accreditation, quality assurance, reporting must not be burdensome and lower productivity Setting objectives and standards Guidelines of good practice, support Building an information infrastructure for improvement
Lessons Good governance is about behaviour more than structures (ex: Bologna) Need for leadership and differenciation, but also of collegiality and academic freedom The design of funding and accountability matters and needs to be balanced and contextualised: the devil is in the details
A few tensions Research and teaching Block grants and competitive funding Concentration and dispersion of funding/research Accountability and innovation/risk taking Accountability and productivity/flexibility Accountability and sanction/support Transparency and improvement
Stephan.Vincent-Lancrin@oecd.org THANK YOU www.oecd.org/edu/universityfutures www.oecd.org/edu/innovation