Globalization and its Impact on
Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Recognition of Qualifications
A.Gnanam
Chairman, NAAC-EC
Bangalore, India
Globalization is a generic term and it can be defined in a number of different ways depending on the context. The definition - description - given by Knight and de Wit (1997) appears to be the best operational one for any discussion pertaining to higher education in this context. According to them, Globalization “is the flow of technology, economy, knowledge, people, values, ideas…across the borders. Globalization affects each country in a different way due to a nation’s individual history, traditions, culture and priorities.” To cope with the ‘Globalization’, the higher education system has to re-orient its structure and function besides enlarging the scope of its provisions to meet the challenges of Globalization. This re-orientation process is termed as Internationalization. Internationalization of Higher Education is one of the ways a country responds to the demands of globalization.
Thus, the terms ‘Globalization’ and ‘Internationalization’ are to be seen as distinct but linked concepts so far as the higher education is concerned. Globalization is the cause and the internationalization is the effect in response. With this perception of these terms in focus, an attempt has been made in this article, to outline in broad terms the strategies to be followed to internationalize the higher education at the national level and to respond to the various demands rising out of the globalization of economies and related activities. Developing this strategic plan and implementing it speedily is crucial for any nation to succeed in the highly competitive knowledge driven global economy.
The globalization of economies brings in the mobility of knowledge workers and seekers across the world in volume unprecedented in the history. If a particular country cannot produce the graduates with the skills that employers want, especially in areas like information technology, then the employers in that country may seek the employees from wherever they are available. This need not necessarily mean an influx of skilled labor into that country. There are already examples of employment in the ‘knowledge based industries’ moving to the workers rather than the workers moving. Whether the employer moves or the potential employee moves, the mobility will be dependant on the quality and standards of the qualifications offered by the educational institutions. Ensuring the quality and standards of the educational offering will constitute the first step towards internationalization of higher education. This in turn would involve restructuring of the contents, duration, quality and standards of educational offerings in line with the broad frame of higher educational systems in vogue in most of the countries of the world. Fortunately, ensuring the parity of the content and the duration of studies with those of others may not be a major problem since the qualification framework followed in most of the countries by and large fall into a common pattern, though there may be some extent of contextualization to the national culture, language and values. This is largely due to the fact that the higher education system - universities and colleges- through out the world are patterned after the medieval European model by the historical accident. All most all the third world countries have had their institutions built on the pattern in vogue in the countries of their European rulers. On the other hand, the issues of quality and standards are the main concerns, and they need to be ensured to internationally acceptable levels through careful planning.
In this context, national level External Quality Assurance (NEQA) mechanism becomes important. The National Quality Assurance processes, whether it is assessment, academic audit or Accreditation used to assess and accredit the educational institution/programs should also conform to the international practices. In addition, they should broaden their focus to the international norms instead of the national context to which they are presently oriented. With an effective and acceptable mechanism of Quality Assurance at the national level in place, re-orienting them towards assessing the educational system for the international stakeholders may not be difficult. The reorientation of the quality assurance exercises and the outcome would in turn ensure the recognition of the qualifications across the national borders in the long run.
Outlines and trends towards globalization in the Asia Pacific Region
Massification of higher education
i. Trough Expansion
The region with the fastest growing economies in the world is making plans to protect its economic interests by assuring world-class education through its institutions of higher learning. China and India, two most populous countries of the world know that they have to improve their higher education system both quantitatively and qualitatively. The massification effort of higher education is continuing at a greater pace than it has been hither to. In fact, the number of students enrolled in these two countries along with others in the region has been the highest among the various regions of the world. The current enrollment figure of about 35 million students in Asia is by far the highest among the other regions like America, Europe and Africa. In China, the enrollment figure is more than 6 million and in India, it is about 8 millions as of 1999. Though percentage of population that have access to higher education in the Asia pacific countries may be lower than the corresponding figures of the developed nations, the absolute number of well trained people in this region is substantially higher and the trend continues. The annual compounded growth rate in both India and China is maintained at about 5-6% over the last two decades.
ii. Through Distance Education
The emergence of distance learning as the effective supplementary system to the traditional universities and colleges is also an important trend in the expansion of the higher education system in the region. The increasing export market in higher education and new corporate educational programs, accelerated by the new technologies that make distance education a primary medium. Realizing this, a country like India like many in the region has established both open universities and traditional distance learning units enrolling millions of students from all over the world. Their program offerings are diverse, career oriented, relatively inexpensive and therefore attract a large number of students. Besides, institutions that formerly did not have distance learning as their core mission are also now emerging, as major providers of distance education for which there are innumerable examples.
iii. Through Privatization
As part of the general thrust for increasing the size of enrollment in higher education, spurred by the need for additional resources, the countries in the region have already undertaken the initiatives to privatize the higher education. In India, establishment of new institutions by the governments (federal and State) with full grants was stopped as far back as in early 80s. All the new growth in terms of institutions, enrollment and diversification of higher education is through the private initiative. India, having the second largest network of higher education institutions in the world, with more than 265 universities and 11200 colleges, expanding its higher education system only through private resources during the past 15-20 years. From 1994-95 to 1991-99 alone, more than 2100 colleges have been established through privatization strategy. These phenomena could be seen in all the countries of the region, varying only in the relative magnitude.
iv. Through Transnational Education:
Sensing the concern for increasing the openings for higher educational opportunity in the region, many developed countries both within the region and outside have come in a large way to establish their teaching and training centers in a number of countries. More recently “transnational education” as a distinct class is emanating from countries like USA, Australia, UK, France and a few others for the countries that cannot expand the institutional base for want of adequate human and other resources. Though, this is not a major thrust in countries like China and India, transnational education is substantial in many of economically well-developed countries of the region like Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore and to some extent Philippines.
v. Through Diversification:
Consequent to the phenomenal growth of knowledge and the emergence of many multi-disciplinary subject areas, the range of educational offering have also increased substantially. Computer and computer related information technology area denote the domain of new knowledge emerging as a key sector of education. Areas like, Biotechnology, Management, New material sciences, Bio-medical engineering and the like are the examples of inter and multi-disciplinary areas. Besides, diversity also comes from the variety of new delivery system by the educational providers. In fact, the universities have become only one of the many actors in providing higher education. Examples of other providers include: 1. Telecommunication, cable and satellite companies, 2. Publishers including News paper groups, who are designing and delivering course materials, sometimes in partnership with established universities. 3.‘Corporate’ Universities and other units run courses and 4.The Virtual Universities.
All these trends seen in higher education like, Expansion, privatization, Diversification, Emergence of non-traditional and non-university type of educational provisions and the growing relevance of transnational education brings in the concern for quality and standards of the education offered for both local and international consumption. This concern has resulted in the establishment of national Quality Assurance mechanisms as a part the higher education system.
Quality Assurance and Accreditation in the region
The term Quality Assurance is the European version of the American process of Accreditation of the academic institutions and programs. The concern about quality of education and quality assurance through a suitable external mechanism is evident from the fact that more than 130 national quality assurance agencies in about 100 countries have been established in the past decade or so. These National Quality Assurance Agencies (NQAA), were originally conceived to serve the national interests. By and large their outcomes are designed either to promote quality enhancement or to ensure the accountability of the higher educational institutions to the providers, which happen to be in most of the third world countries, their respective governments. Many of the Asia-Pacific countries have already established their national Quality Assurance Agencies, including Australia, China, India, Japan, Philippines and Korea. The rest of the countries are in different stages of establishing such bodies. Being the region with the fastest growing economies in the world, it is making plans to protect its economic interests by assuring world-class professional preparations through its institutions of higher learning. In 1996, Center for Quality Assurance in international Education together with the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong, the regions first conference on Quality Assurance in higher education was held. Couple of years earlier, based on the recommendations of the New National Policy on Education, India had established its National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), in 1994 as an autonomous body to assess and accredit all the universities and colleges, numbering nearly 12000. Already, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have their national units wholly devoted for this purpose. It is clear, therefore, that the region is discovering the economic fruits of co-operation in assuring quality education at the tertiary level. In this they are not lagging behind any other region in the world. The second major conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education under the auspices of International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) was organized at Bangalore, India, in March, 2001, where significant progress has been made to have a Asia-Pacific network of quality Assurance Agencies to promote co-operation in assuring quality and mutual recognition among the countries of the region.
Qualifications in the context of globalization
What ever may be the unit or process of assessment used by the national Quality Assurance bodies-institution, faculty, department or program- the outcome of such assessment should ultimately reflect on the Qualifications offered by them. In a sense the qualifications offered are the academic ‘currency’ for the transaction among the nations to promote academic mobility. Therefore the qualifications should be well denominated with sufficient and precise description of the purpose, content, duration and the level in a generic way. Related measures include subject benchmark details, program specification and the record of student progression. The development of National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and suitably retooled National Quality Assurance (NQA) mechanisms are therefore considered essential to enhance the acceptability of any qualification at the global level. In India and in a few other countries of the region, adequate efforts are underway to strengthen the standing of the qualifications awarded through these strategies.
Impact of internationalization of Education on Quality Assurance
The present nationalistic modes of quality assurance, including institutional and programmatic accreditation will inevitably have to work in conjunction and/or give way to global forms of public protection and educational quality. For serving the global market, it is important that the overall quality and standards of education available in a country must conform to certain thresh hold levels to become internationally acceptable. At the same time one has to realize that doing more or better of what one has been doing all along may not be enough to be accepted as international education. There must be a certain elements of educational provisions and the institutional basic infrastructure to make the grade as the provider of education for the international clientele. Many institutions are using several generic strategies for this purpose. Implementation of certain activities such as reorienting the curriculum focusing on the international needs and expectations, students and faculty exchanges, technical assistance from others to raise up beyond the national standards and having international students in the campuses to enhance the international ambience for the education they offer are some specific examples. Likewise, emphasis on the development of new skills, knowledge, attitudes and values in students and faculty that will lead to the development of certain identified global/international competencies, promotion of international/intercultural activities in the campus must be given priority. These may be implemented through either integration or infusion into teaching, research and services related activities. These initiatives should be backed up and supported by appropriate policies and processes at the institutional and/or at government level.
Nearly all the countries of the world have or in the process of developing quality assessment systems based on the four stage model of external evaluation of higher education, i.e., 1. A dedicated coordinating agency, 2. Submission of self-study and self-evaluation report by the institutions to the agency, 3. A peer review visit, usually on-site and 4. The preparation of a report accrediting on a two-point scale or on multi-point grade. Apparently, it would appear that this uniformity might provide a basis for a strong system of comparable quality assurance leading to the recognition of the studies and qualifications. However, there are many variations among countries in the details at each stage. Unless due emphasis is focused on the specific elements required to internationalize the higher education units, the outcomes of the national quality assurance mechanisms may not be indicative of the international quality. However, this should not be construed as implying that the national quality assessment is not important for each country. As of now, however the fact remains that most of the NQA agencies use the method that is not designed for assessing the elements that contribute to the international character of education provided.
Fitting into Globalization:
As explained earlier, globalization leads to internationalization of higher education. This involves expansion of both institutional base as well as diversification of the delivery systems like distance education, privatization for additional resources and getting into virtual mode and the like. The program offerings should also be diversified to meet the specific needs of global market. While undertaking all these measures, it should be ensured that expansion and diversification efforts are done without affecting certain minimal thresh hold levels of quality and standards as it always happen which such rapid expansion occurs particularly in the third world nations. While expanding, focus must also be on certain generic and specific skills, competencies and knowledge that are transferable and therefore usefully applicable anywhere in the world. Internationalization of higher education also involves certain conscious policy formulations at both the government and institutional level to integrate or infuse elements that add to the international character of education as outlined earlier. These include the efforts to attract foreign students and faculty, encourage collaborative teaching and research and accelerate diversification of academic programs that cut across international and inter cultural domains.