Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise

1
Human history becomes more and more a race
between education and catastrophe
H.G. Wells, The Outline of History
2
Higher Education in Developing Countries
Peril and Promise

• The Task Force on
• Higher Education and Society

3
Central questions

• What is the role of higher education in
  supporting and enhancing the process of economic
  and social development?
• What are the major obstacles that higher
  education faces in developing countries?
• How can these obstacles best be overcome?

4
Five areas of inquiry

• the public interest
• systems of higher education
• governance
• science and technology
• general education curricula

5
Longstanding problems

• funding
• faculty quality
• student conditions and preparedness
• curriculum
• teaching methods
• research capacity
• vision

6
New realities

• rapidly changing world
• increasing use of information technology
• growing income inequality
• knowledge capital replacing physical capital as
  source of wealth
• higher education becoming more important and in
  greater demand
• resulting expansion rapid, chaotic, and
  unplanned

7
Public interest

• high private and social returns
• build knowledge capital resource
• address topics with long-term value to society
• promote equal opportunity
• venue for free and open discourse of ideas and
  values

8
Government as supervisor

• deter abuses of private education
• encourage autonomy
• ensure coherence and coordination
• ensure cooperation and openness
• encourage competition
• encourage connections to broader economy and
  society

9
Governance some problems

• governments often closely involved in running of
  universities
• universities are hostage to changes in political
  weather
• lack of open dialogue about reform
• corruption
• active student political life

10
Science now

• accelerating pace of scientific progress
• link between scientific capacity and economic
  performance
• higher education essential for strong science

11
Science and the developing world

• large and growing scientific gap between
  developed and developing countries
• brain drain
• scientific advance and global public goods

12
General education

• develops the whole individual
• interactive teaching methods over a broad range
  of subjects
• promotes citizenship, ethics, and ambition
• encourages broad-mindedness, critical thinking
  and communication skills
• provides adaptable leaders, and is a good
  grounding for specialists
• contributes to national development

13
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the
lighting of a fire

• W. B. Yeats