Building Capacity for Higher Education Growth

The growth of higher education is increasingly impacting on the organisational structures and strategic direction of universities in the developed and developing world alike. The 50% increase in student enrolments across the world over the last decade has changed the face of the university sector, with increased institutional diversity, new forms of private higher education and so on.
The literature on higher education clearly demonstrates that middle managers, often drawn from the academic community, are crucial to the processes of development and change. As Professor Ron Barnett of the Institute of Education in London puts it: "Much more than capable management, across the world universities need creative, visionary and effective leadership with a global perspective that understands the capacities of universities in promoting the public good."
Higher education is seen as the key to increasing economic competitiveness with a wide range of strategies adopted by universities to achieve expansion with internationalisation. These include leading universities establishing overseas campuses, and a slew of collaborative ventures between universities within and across countries. Yet, for any country, particularly those gaining in presence on the world stage, the focus is more towards seeking to build world-class universities.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0161, 6 March 2011

Research Explores 'Development and Dreams'

Karen MacGregor
The 2010 FIFA world cup inspired one of the largest consolidated research exercises in South Africa in years. Culminating in a 2009 book, Development and Dreams, the research found the economic benefits of the global tournament had been wildly over-stated but its infrastructure and social legacies would be considerable, said co-editor Dr Udesh Pillay.
Development and Dreams: The urban legacy of the 2010 World Cup pulled together four years of research co-funded by the Development Bank of Southern Africa and led by the Centre for Service Delivery of the Human Sciences Research Council, or HSRC, which published the book. Pillay is the centre's director.
The FIFA 2010 World Cup Research Project combined academic and applied research. The academic component aimed to enhance understanding of mega events and urban development, in South Africa and internationally, through research conducted by the HSRC in collaboration with the Centre for Urban and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Studies were commissioned into urban development experiences and lessons learned from other mega sporting events, the South African World Cup bid and its governance, integration of planning into the strategic frameworks of host cities and their efforts to enhance their images, urban regeneration and the legacy dimension of the tournament, among other aspects.
The applied work contributed to the planning of host cities and conducted public perception surveys from 2005 to 2007, based on 3,000 respondents, to benchmark attitudes towards the World Cup.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0128, 13 June 2010

Private Education and Development

In the past decade, private education has had an increasingly significant impact in the developing world, with many countries promoting private sector growth to expand educational capacity and access at all levels, an international education conference was told last week.
The conference heard that more entrepreneurs were investing in the private sector in developing countries and "bringing fresh approaches and perspectives".
It was the fifth global conference to be held in Washington by the International Finance Corporation and attracted representatives of private education organisations and institutions from around the world.
The IFC provides investments and advisory services to expand the private sector in developing countries.
The corporation - an arm of the World Bank - has committed US$469 million in financing 62 education projects in 30 countries at a total value of $1.54 billion. Of these, 21 or 35% were in the world's poorest countries. IFC-supported projects help educate about 1.2 million students annually.
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Source: University World News, Issue No: 0118, 04 April 2010

Redefining Knowledge and Development

After 10 years of analysising systems around the world, the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge needs to redefine key concepts that underpin research and innovation and their contributions to development. Profiles and analyses of emerging knowledge systems in low- and middle-income nations have provided a vital building block – but it is limited in usefulness as the basis for new and more effective ways of linking knowledge with development for the benefit of developing nations.
Attention to lists of research gaps that emerged in the work of the Forum is likely to be valuable but does not necessarily constitute a basis for a different theory on knowledge and development, and a different practice that is better suited to the needs of low- and middle-income countries, writes Mala Sing in the final chapter of Forum's Research Report.It is time to rethink and re-theorise concepts such as what "counts as development within a Knowledge Society", and "what knowledge counts for development", she argues in a chapter titled "On the Way from the Forum: A future research agenda".
Full article on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Special Edition, Issue No: 0001 1 July 2009

US$400 Million to Build Vietnam World-class Universities

‘New model’, ‘high-quality’ and ‘quick access to international standard’ were phrases used by Tran Thi Ha, Director of the University Education Department in the Ministry of Education and Training, when talking about plans to build four world-class universities.
Ha said one of the four universities of international standard will be the Vietnam-Germany University, which has been operating in HCM City with Germany being the main partner. The second university will be the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, whose strategic partner will be the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
The Ministry is moving ahead with a plan to establish two universities of international standard in Da Nang and Can Tho cities, whose strategic partners will be the Da Nang and Can Tho universities. Strategic partners will also be selected from the US, Japan and Russia. The government will spend $400 million sourced from loans from the World Bank and Asia Development Bank to build the four universities.
Full report on the VietNamNet Bridge site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0081 21 June 2009

Research Governance Policies Threaten Capacity

Phuong Nga Nguyen
Around the world, research-based knowledge is believed to enhance socio-economic development. So funding agencies, including governments, are pushing universities to focus on ‘usable’ research outputs. The way they bring this pressure to bear, through ‘research governance’, can either support and facilitate university research or hinder it, sometimes even damaging a university’s existing strengths.
Full SciDev.net article on the University World News site
Source: University World News, Issue No: 0067 15 March 2009