A CALL TO ACTION:
Global University Transformation Led By Major Public Universities
FOREWORD
Change, at an accelerating pace, is the story of our modern era. Technological, economic and industrial transformations lead to significant social and political challenges in every country in the world. The modern media bring events in every corner of the globe into our own homes in a way that was unimaginable decades ago. We are now all becoming ‘global citizens’ so the globalised world needs to be an important component of the modern education of every citizen of the world. The universal challenge is whether people and their communities will be the masters of this enormous process of change or its victim. Understanding and education are the key. That is why billions of people rightly see education as more and more important to their lives, and why all types of government increasingly want to give priority to the education of their populations. That is the reason for the revolution which is taking place in higher education across the world. It affects the number of people studying, the way in which they study, the pedagogical methods with which they study, the curriculum they are learning, and the ways in which they are assessed. The more that individual students understand the world in which they are growing up the better will be their personal prospects and the greater will be the capacity of society to cope with the implications of this process of change. But expansion of educational opportunity across the world will only take place sufficiently quickly if private and public resources are brought together in partnership to fund and drive the changes which are needed. This INTO Call for Action sets out the approach which needs to be taken by those forward-looking universities, governments and investors who are trying to address these big challenges. I hope that they will meet the challenge.
Rt Hon Charles Clarke Former Secretary of State for Education and Skills, United Kingdom Advisor to INTO University Partnerships
SUMMARY The purpose of this document is to call for concerted action by universities, the private sector, state and national governments to work together to improve the access to high quality higher education around the world, so we can continue to work together addressing the foremost challenges of our time.
INTRODUCTION
Across the world there is a revolution in demand for higher education, accompanied by a rise in the number of internationally mobile students seeking quality education and experiences which may be unavailable in their home countries. In the last decade alone, OECD figures show global numbers in higher education have grown from 100 to 164.5 million – with forecasts of even faster growth ahead.1 Over three million people study outside their home country; by 2020 UNESCO estimates this number will be around seven million.2 There is increasing diversity in subject demand matching the parallel demand of emerging economies for a more sophisticated skills base. University education is a transforming process both for individuals and cultures, and universities are primary drivers of the global knowledge economy. In order to compete effectively and retain relevance, major academic institutions must evolve. Amidst this climacteric change our great universities and their governing bodies must evolve and embrace the resources available through the private sector. Central to academic purpose in the 21st century will be significantly improved access to higher education, and a need for more co-ordinated international engagement with issues of global significance: crumbling economies; climate change; security; pandemic disease and so on. Indeed, we believe it is morally, commercially and politically right, as well as wholly pragmatic, to increase higher education opportunities around the world for those wishing to prepare for the many and varied careers that are at the heart of economic and social development. These include, most notably, medicine and the health professions – but also teacher education, business and engineering, art and design, and agriculture. Even in the most developed countries there are significant skill shortages; for example the US alone may need 150,000 additional doctors over the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.3 Governments in every nation and of every shade of political opinion recognise and support higher education development. Yet public funding is in decline as governments expect the direct beneficiaries – students or those who employ them – to fund that provision. Universities are forced to be entrepreneurial and inventive in their drive for efficiency and alternative revenue streams. The private sector has a golden opportunity to step forward and demonstrate its ability to respond and support our universities, creating sustainable partnerships that preserve the ethos and standards of the best public and not for profit institutions. This decline in funding comes at a time when world-wide growth in demand for higher education is creating a major economic opportunity for expansion. New technologies and new types of relationship offer additional opportunity to address capacity limitations.
1 http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/global_education_digest_2011_ en.pdf 2 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001831/183168e.pdf 3 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304506904575180331528424 238.html
But moving from vision to action is challenging. Universities need to invent innovative capacity-building approaches that create opportunities for growth and deliver resourcing through partnerships and networks. These changes and challenges present a unique opportunity for universities to re-imagine structures and processes, and as a result substantially increase access and capacity both domestically and abroad. New partnership models have emerged that preserve academic integrity and universities’ unique identities, promote investment and improve quality while maintaining the ethos and values of our traditional public and not-for-profit models. Enhanced efficiency is derived from growth, not from cutting provision, and also from making more imaginative use of resources, exploiting technology in delivery methods, and the development of structures, relationships and working practices that bring learning to participants. Those universities that have been bold enough to engage with new market opportunities and embrace this nascent public-private sector model are already seeing the rewards in finance, infrastructure and performance. They have benefitted from access to private sector capital and expertise, for example in globally distributed recruitment networks which could not be funded by single public institutions. Students too are reaping the rewards of improved access and enriched educational experience. Thousands of new jobs are being created, whilst research and domestic student tuition fees are being increasingly subsidised by international student flows. Our legacy to future generations should be an expanded system of higher education with improved access. This requires increased investment which is highly unlikely to come from public investment alone but, should be generated through an expansion of university-led public private partnerships.
A CALL TO ACTION
This paper represents an urgent call for action to ensure a legacy for future generations. The pace of change and the required level of investment needed to meet society’s needs for higher education are beyond the existing capacity and capability of many governments, let alone individual universities. We believe the rhetoric of “public” and “private” is no longer helpful, and instead an openness and willingness to engage with outside influences is the key to seize the opportunities that lie ahead. While our leading universities have the skills, brands and academic rigour, the private sector can help through sophisticated partnerships, bringing mission-enabling resource, expertise and capital – often on better terms than public investment. We believe university leadership teams, governments and investors should consider their role in supporting global development of our famous institutions as they become more entrepreneurial and respond to the growth opportunities of the 21st century.
2. Governments Governments need to sharpen fiscal and regulatory incentives to encourage partnerships which create a more powerful and open university system. We believe that through encouraging public-private partnerships, governments can: a. act as a catalyst for private sector investment, offering fiscal incentives for higher education delivery projects that improve or create new capacity and infrastructure without undermining the position and mission of public sector partners; b. develop appropriate and equitable regulatory and quality control mechanisms to free up innovative and sustainable new methods of meeting demand; c. enable public private partnerships to re-invigorate those institutions struggling to fulfil their mission;
d. allow quality-led partnerships to bid for student numbers within state or national student allocation systems;
e. evolve legislation that enables established public private partnerships – once established and successful – to develop independently with degree-awarding powers and access to publicly funded students;
1. Universities Traditional forms of organisation, types of universities and funding systems are being challenged as never before. Successful universities are evolving, realigning their missions and developing their capacity to address these higher education challenges through a strategy which puts at its heart innovation and partnership. To succeed in the new landscape, we seek to work in partnership with universities to: a. meet the worldwide demand for high quality education which we believe represents the greatest opportunity in a generation; b. diversify revenue streams and generate income by accessing new markets, funded and resourced through independently sustainable models, including public private partnerships; c. manage brand, reputation and quality to sustain, not compromise, academic controls and enshrine university leadership and values; d. enhance partnering skills in leadership teams, grounded on a clear understanding of the differences between genuine partnering and merely contracting or outsourcing; e. recognise that all students are international – whether they cross continents or enrol at their local university – and creating the appropriate social spaces for a truly international culture is at the heart of modern student experience; f. recognise the major risks associated with not addressing these imperatives. Emerging global competition and the rising expectations of students and their sponsors leave no room for complacency. Inertia will be the forerunner of failure.
f. ensure that public policy initiatives reflect and support the globalisation agenda and do not, for example, impede the flow of high quality students between national jurisdictions. 3. Investors Private sector investment in higher education is absolutely critical to improving access and quality in higher education around the world. Investment should be focused on public private partnerships, which bring benefits to universities, students and investors alike. Such investment vehicles provide for institutions to retain authority and academic responsibility within a flexible and entrepreneurial structure. In turn, there are undoubtedly significant rewards for long-term, committed investors, who will find that university-led public private partnerships are both educationally and financially more secure and more productive than investing in most purely private sector initiatives. Rewards and features include: a. bringing secure, long-term returns grounded on the certainly of student numbers predicted by OECD and UNESCO and the established reputation of major public institutions; b. sharing in the long term asset value of ‘spin out’ operations, as tax-efficient investment vehicles;
c. i nvestment vehicles and the governance of partnerships which provide for institutions to retain authority and responsibility for academic standards;
d. participation in well-structured partnerships where entrepreneurship is embedded deep in the heart of the organisation, but where risk is well managed and strong performance is more likely.
If managed within a partnership structure whereby academic excellence is assured, private investment can enable the future growth of a genuinely world-class university system.
CONCLUSION
Global university transformation led by major public universities and powered by private sector investment INTO believes in and supports the worldwide expansion of university education, particularly extending access to people who have had little or no opportunities in the past. We live in a time when young people throughout the world know that their university education will be more valuable to them the more it enables them to understand and contribute to the world in which they are living. Across the world, the appetite for high quality, globally aware, university education is immense, and the contribution that knowledge development and dissemination makes to solving the challenges of the 21st century are clear and understood. Universities and the new public private partnerships they create have the opportunity to meet the needs of our communities and to develop their own sustainable economies by reaching out to those people and developing markets. However, this requires new strategies and operating models that generate significant external investment. At this crossroads in higher education, universities, governments and investors must come together to deliver a new model of education, one that meets the global challenges of the world today.
REFERENCES 1 http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/global_education_digest_2011_en.pdf 2 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001831/183168e.pdf 3 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304506904575180331528424238.html
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Helping universities access new opportunities and developing existing ones INTO helps universities identify and initiate growth opportunities. INTO brings knowhow; experienced staff teams of project leaders, developers and operators; investment; worldwide resources for student recruitment; and a unique structured, partnership approach that leaves full academic authority and control in the hands of our university partners. INTO is building an international network of partners to help universities transform global higher education access, to deliver ambitious universities a sustainable competitive advantage, and create an unrivalled student experience. Key to INTO’s success is the success of our students: high retention rates, sector-leading outcomes in terms of academic quality and success; and progression to major higher education institutions.
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Š INTO University Partnerships Limited, March 2012. All content published in this document is believed accurate at time of publication. INTO reserves the right to alter details of all aspects of its operation without notice. INTO University Partnerships Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales, registered number 05507863. Registered office: 102 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EZ
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