# Mass tertiary education in the developing world


I am currently preparing to give a lecture on open education and global
ICT trends next week, and I am doing some readings. The following
article is quite interesting, although a bit controversial, and I
thought I’d just post my notes here.

Daniel, J., Kanwar, A., Uvali-Trumbi, S. (2007).[Mass Tertiary Education
in the Developing World: Distant Prospect or Distinct
Possibility?](http://www.col.org/colweb/site/pid/4605)Commonwealth of
Learning.

-   current participation in LDCs less than 10% will rise to 30%. Will
  use methods less common in IDs: distance ed, private institutions,
  cross-border operations. Will become more diverse - benefits of
  higher access outweigh risk of academia loosing its soul.
-   International education nothing new - Europe, silk road, religion.
-   China and India will dominate higher ed. Growth of 8% per year. Not
  possible to grow conventional campuses at that rate. Technology can
  connect, OERs can slash rates. Three trends mentioned above. India,
  because of English, could become dominant provider of tertiary
  education within two decades.
-   Currently only reach privileged. Can new tech and OER radically
  widen access? Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.\
-   Worldwide growth in enrollment more rapid than anyone expected.
  India needs 2400 new universities over the next 25 years?
-   Educational planners aim to copy yesterday’s successes. Creating
  IITs in Africa.\
-   5-A: accessible, affordable, appropriate, accredited, accepted.\
-   Affordability. Can for-profit tertiary education work for the public
  good? Public/private goods. Externalities.\
-   Should state be sole provider? Practice, principle and pragmatism
  says no. History: very private (churches etc). Regulate, don’t
  control. Better to focus researches on free elementary primary
  education.\
-   Private tertiary education has become fastest growing segment
  worldwide, L-Am, Asia also Africa. East Asia, 80% enrolled in Japan,
  South Korea, Taiwan and Philippines. Include for-profit and non-for
  profit that are private. Distinctions become blurred as unis become
  cross-border.
-   Fees - countries that made tertiary education free in the days when
  only a small elite were supposed to attend. Socio-economic profile
  of students in countries that charge fees and provide scholarships
  are wider than in those that don’t charge fees. By introducing fees
  in public sector, private sector find more level playing field.
-   Distance: India already 24% of enrolment! Target, 40% by 2010. So
  far using India’s edu satellite, but mostly traditional methods. Are
  private or government most poised to exploit technology to drive
  down price and increase accessibility?
-   New methods of education has always attracted private providers.
-   Wave of multi-media distance learning showed that distance-learning
  could sometimes provide better quality than normal, because the
  courses had to be developed in a much more systematic fashion.
-   Now: Cost structure with high up-front costs, and low marginal
  costs. Private access to capital markets makes that easier for them.
  Plus they have access to OERs. Potential for low per-student costs
  without huge volumes.
-   Cross-border education always implies for-profit (almost), even by
  public institutions. GATS treaty: consumption abroad, presence of
  natural persons, cross-border supply (distance ed), commercial
  presence (for-profit branch presence). Lack of appropriateness (just
  computer/business, no cultural adaptation). Needs strong
  partnerships with overseas provider and local institutions.
-   Students like “customer focus”, convenience and flexibility,
  overseas qualification. But want not just accreditation but inst
  with good reputation.
-   Students in India have to choose between low-quality cash-cow
  courses by established universities (Delhi University), or much
  higher quality courses by Open Universities that don’t have the same
  name recognition.
-   Quality ensurance: Cross-border operations vulnerable to scams etc.
  Governments role will increasingly be to regulate and monitor, not
  to provide. Provide parents and students with good information about
  quality. UNESCO helping. (South Africa pioneer)
-   Examples: Best Associates develop M.Ed. programs that fit particular
  school systems (in the US) needs, and do so at 1/5 of the cost.
  Globally, Best’s Whitney International University System is
  expanding rapidly. South America, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi
  Arabia. Distance learning that blends remote classroom with
  asynchronous delivery.
-   Virtual University of Small States

* * * * *

I found the following statement very interesting:

> Fees are a special problem for those countries that made tertiary
> education free - i.e., totally subsidized by the state - in the days
> when only a tiny proportion of the population was expected to go to
> university. At that time entry to tertiary education was highly
> competitive but many citizens believed - and still believe - that the
> combination of competitive entry and free tuition would produce
> equitable participation in tertiary education from all socio-economic
> groups. Research now shows that this is simply not true (e.g. Levin,
> 1990). The socio-economic profile of students in countries that charge
> fees while providing scholarships and loans for poorer students is
> more broadly based than in those that do not charge fees. This is a
> very important finding, and one that governments are gradually finding
> the courage to act on.

(His reference, which I should try to hunt down, is Levin, B (1990)
Tuition Fees and University Accessibility, Canadian Public Policy, Vol.
XVI:1 , pp. 51-59 - [JSTOR
link](http://www.jstor.org/view/03170861/ap060069/06a00050/0?frame=noframe&userID=8e96ccf5@utoronto.ca/01c0a8346600501cca8b7&dpi=3&config=jstor)).
Coming from a country with universal free higher education (Norway), I
question this statement, although I’d certainly like to know more about
it.

Three things that I came across during this reading:

-   Best Associates, a US merchant bank, is creating educational
  enterprises that are aimed squarely at combining greater learning
  effectiveness with dramatically lower costs. At the national level
  it is slashing the cost and improving the relevance of professional
  development for teachers through the American College of Education.
  This for-profit institution, already one of the ten largest teacher
  education operations in the USA, teams up with school systems to
  offer M.Ed. degrees that meet the schools’ need for teacher
  development better than existing programmes and do so at one-fifth
  of their cost.At the global level Best’s Whitney International
  University System is expanding rapidly, both by acquiring
  universities in other countries and creating joint ventures with
  existing universities. Having begun its expansion in South America
  it is now launching ventures in Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, India
  and Indonesia. The mode of delivery is distance learning that blends
  the remote-classroom and asynchronous approaches. Lectures from
  senior professors are carried to remote classrooms by satellite or
  computer and these are underpinned by supporting professors who
  interact individually with relatively small groups of students
  online. Unlike conventional remote-classroom teaching this model is
  scalable because of the network of supporting professors; an
  essential feature for achieving a low price point. Another
  cost-saving principle is to use existing facilities, study centres
  and tele-centres.
-   A Chinese academic journal on open education
  research,[开放教育研究](http://engine.cqvip.com/QK/80620X/) (Kaifang
  jiaoyu yanjiu). I’d love to check this out, unfortunately it’s
  (ironically!) behind a paywall.
-   The [Indira Gandhi Open University](http://www.ignou.ac.in/) which
  has 1,5 million students. Some of their assignments are available
  online, in English and Hindi (हिन्दी). Here is a marketing
  assignment in
  [English](http://www.ignou.ac.in/assignments/bcom/AMK.doc) and
  [हिन्दी](http://www.ignou.ac.in/assignments/bcom/hindi/AMK.pdf).

Stian