Approximately 500,000 students are enrolled in South African universities, with less than half of these students receiving state aid. Many others are being “priced out” of education. This dilemma is at the forefront of a student revolt that originated at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand but shut down campuses across the country last week in an effort to put pressure on the government to reform tuition fees and force a conversation about the role of higher education and the right of poor students to access it. Increasing enrolment in post-secondary education is seen as key to stabilizing the nation’s shrinking economy.
Cuban Minister of Higher Education, Rodolfo Alarcón Ortiz, recently announced his country’s new strategy for improving the quality of the island nation’s higher education institutions. Improving English proficiency and the creation of multiple different degree structures are at the forefront of Ortiz’s policies. He hopes to implement a stronger undergraduate course of study, introduce a legal framework for continuing education and create a new 2 or 3 year “non-university higher education” level to tackle the underutilization of the skilled workforce through training for specific occupations. The measures aim to ensure that Cuba maximizes its potential in terms of developing a workforce that is able to compete with developing nations worldwide.
China has turned its attention to becoming a global force in the world of higher education. The Chinese government are centered on creating better bilateral agreements with English language institutions, ensuring international students that publicly funded higher education institutions will not be affected by recent economic turmoil, and strengthening transnational partnerships and collaborations.
At a Times Higher Education Summit in Johannesburg earlier this year, Adebayo Olukoshi, head of the United Nations’ African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, questioned the benefit of private higher education institutions. The article looks at the mixed record of private institutions in the region. “Private universities may be playing an important role in absorbing demand from students who cannot get into or do not want to attend public institutions, but the mix of courses that tends to be offered raises questions, according to some, about their role in Africa’s wider development. The World Bank found that, across all types of institutions, only 28 per cent of students in Africa were enrolled in science and technology fields in 2005, for example.”
Guatemala’s education sector is urging a major transformation in the educational system from its roots, starting in kindergarten and the primary levels and the creation of a national curriculum that offers technical courses that meet the needs of the nation, expanding the training system for teachers, and having the Ministry of Education exercise greater control over the educational institutions. This in response to evaluations that show that, since 2006, only 24% of students had passed a basic reading proficiency test, and only 7% the basic math test. There are also calls for the creation of a national long-term plan, agreed to by and with the commitment of all sectors in the country,that enables radical changes to the current educational levels within a 10-20 year timeframe.
Now chairwoman of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard comments on what it will take to reach the new SDG education goals. The GPE is a coalition of government and NGO coordinated efforts on education access. She’s also a member of a new global education financing commission that includes several former heads of state. Gillard talks about closing the gender gap in education and the special challenges posed by the growing global population of displaced children.
A New York Times columnist and author of the Marginal Revolution urges the reconfiguring of humanities to stress their relevance to business. Today’s post-secondary landscape is far different than it was 20 years ago, with the main difference being the number of students who are foregoing a degree in the humanities in favour or a course of study in business or STEM related subjects. “More humanities graduates are needed to “synthesise, integrate and humanise” new technology to ensure that products and services are successful, “Why did Facebook do better than MySpace?” Professor Cowen asks. .“It may have had slightly better technology, but it was more because its [co-founder] Mark Zuckerberg, who majored in psychology, understood the importance of the feed of information, rather than just having a profile”.
Kabul University has recently launched a master program in gender and women’s studies that women are now allowed to enrol in. This is a major breakthrough for the Muslim-majority Asian nation, as less than 20 years ago women weren’t even permitted to receive the most basic education under Taliban law. Funded by South Korea and run by the U. Development program in coordination with the government, the controversial program has accepted eighteen women and ten men. The aim of the program, in part, is to promote equality by sending more women into the Afghan workforce.
At a recent International Council for Open and Distance Education forum, policy makers from around the world came up with various ways to increase access across the globe regardless of location. The conclusion that many groups came to was that investment in online and distance education need to be increased so that geographic location and financial circumstances do not remain such a dominant factor in access. Additional strategies included implementing face to face lectures through online mediums, working more closely with employers to ensure that skills learned through online learning are applicable to industry settings, and involving students in the development of curriculum, among others. All regions agreed on the need for greater investment in higher education if it is to help the world meet the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, and highlighted the crucial issues of equitable access, learner support, the skills gap and international qualifications.
Education was not only a driver of development and key to reducing inequality, but was also essential to accelerating progress towards achieving other SDGs, said the ICDE in a statement afterwards.
The South Korean Government’s plan to limit the number of secondary school history textbooks to a single approved volume and place its development solely under state control by 2017 has led Education International and its affiliate, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, to respond strongly, calling the decision a direct infringement of freedom of speech, academic freedom, and human rights in general: “Such policies are at odds with the right to education, the right of all people to have access to their own cultural heritage, the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to information."
GAPS in the News
GAPS in the News
Earlier this month, the Global Access to Post-Secondary Education Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur at Sunway University. With 168 in attendance over the three-day event from 29 countries, the programme featured senior figures from the Malaysian government, UNESCO Asia Pacific and the World Bank Asia-Pacific, with keynote speakers from 8 different countries including Malaysia, Korea, Pakistan, India and Brazil.
The sessions covered a wide range of topics and included employers and senior HE leaders. The emerging issues reflected the Asian context but also the engagement of those from the HE, NGO, private sectors and policymakers. They included:
Challenges with expanding HE in Asia which included whether government or public sector would drive such expansion
Appropriate goals and values to orient expansion
Student funding and finance models in Asia and beyond
How to better understand who participates in HE globally
The new UNESCO Global Goals and their relationship to HE
Graduate unemployment and employability in Asia and how HE can/should respond here
The contribution of trans-national providers to access in Asia.
The event drew media coverage both local and international (see below):
From October 7-9, 2015, GAPS Executive Committee member IAU partnered with the Jaume Bofill Foundation, to organize an invitation-only meeting in Barcelona, Spain with representatives from higher education institutions and organizations and UNESCO. to discuss the Framework for Action for the newly-adopted Sustainable Development Goal No. 4 on Education that had been prepared for the World Education Forum (WEF) 2015 and which will be tabled for adoption at the Education 2030 High-Level Meeting to take place at UNESCO, Paris, France on 4 November 2015.
Students around the world looking to earn their MBA or specialized master’s degree in business are making increasing use of ETS GRE scores to pursue their goals:
More than 96,000 citizens from India took the GRE revised General Test, up 12 percent from the prior year, continuing a multiyear growth pattern.
Other Asian countries continued to produce a steady flow of GRE test takers. The number of Korean citizens who took the GRE revised General Test increased nine percent and the number of Taiwanese test-takers increased five percent.
The stream of individuals from African countries continued to grow in 2014–2015, up 19 percent since last year.
The ECHO Junior Academy is a children's university for children in primary education, age 10-12. This program focuses specifically on children who are not familiar with an academic environment and who are often the first ones in their family who will actually go on to enter a higher education institution in the future. The purpose of the Junior Academy can be summarized in three important goals: Introduction to higher education, developing academic skills and empowering students in their cultural identity and contributing to their self-confidence.
SALT®, the consumer literacy program for students and alumni provided by the nonprofit American Student Assistance® (ASA), and the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) have entered into a new partnership to raise the financial competencies of low-income, first-generation students, veterans, and students with disabilities. Working in conjunction with more than U.S. 1,000 colleges and agencies, COE delivers college access and retention services to low-income students and students with disabilities.
The GAPS Initiative is reaching out to new members whose goals are aligned with the GAPS mission and objectives. Investing in worldwide access to quality early childhood (prenatal to age eight) development and education is one of those areas of alignment. In April, GAPS Executive Committee member ETS partnered with the Salzburg Global Seminar on a three-day strategy session on "Designing a Social Compact for the 21st Century: Early Childhood Development and Education", co-hosted by ETS and attended by 40 international education and policy leaders. They have published the Salzburg Statement, recommending improvements in six key areas.
If your organization is interested in joining the GAPS Network, please contact Florian Kaiser.
GAPS Calendar
November 3-5, 2015: 2015 WISE Summit, Investing for Impact: Quality Education for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (Doha, Qatar). To find out more, click here.
November 3-18, 2015: UNESCO General Conference, 38th Session (Paris, France). Click here for details.
November 10, 2015: 5th Annual Access to Higher Education Summit, Widening Participation to HE in a changing funding and policy landscape (London, United Kingdom). For more details, click here.
November 15-20, 2015: International Association of Universities Training Program: Leading Globally Engaged Universities (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). For more information, click here.
December 1-5, 2015: 69 ESU Board Meeting and Board Meeting Seminar (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). For more details, click here.
December 11, 2015: NEON Access Academy, How to widen access to postgraduate study, presented by Paul Wakeling, University of York (York, United Kingdom). To find out more, click here.
March 9-12, 2016: European Students' Convention 31 (Amsterdam, Netherlands). For details click here.
May 29-31, 2016: European Access Network’s 25th Anniversary Conference, Dublin. For more information, click here.
November 14-17, 2016: The next IAU General Conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. Co-organized in partnership with a Consortium of Thai universities lead by Siam University, this 15th General Conference will focus on Higher Education: a catalyst for innovative and sustainable societies. For more information, click here.
Online Library
Our online library is growing!
GAPS is building a library of books and articles which may be of interest to organizations and individuals committed to post-secondary education access and success. To view content already submitted by the GAPS Network community,please visit the GAPS online library.
Reflections and expectations on the Global Access to Post-Secondary Education (GAPS) Initiative before the 1st World Congress took place in Montreal 2013.
