Quality in the Context of the Financial Crisis
The economic and financial crisis has brought with it the opportunity for strategic change in university systems, which must become the reference for society's future well-being, given that quality education is key for employment and economic sustainability in the knowledge society.
In an adverse economic climate society, most needs innovative, decisive and, even, risk-taking initiatives that break new ground, making accessible and mobilising knowledge for society, and expanding the boundaries of our knowledge. This is the mission of the university system as agent for innovation, and for economic and social progress.
Specifically, we believe that it is vital to reflect on four challenges that such crises pose to university undertakings:
- Quality upgrading
- New entrepreneurship
- Employability and lifelong learning
- Leading innovative approaches to the financial crisis
Quality upgrading
The higher education system is experiencing constant and unpredictable changes, and as a consequence, must respond to an increasing range of needs and demands. This has challenged the traditional definitions of quality, and makes it necessary to give institutions and programmes a good, hard look in order to identify and promote appropriate curricular designs, new methods of teaching and learning, different strategies for the development and transfer of knowledge, and more professional competencies for institutional and academic management. Quality in higher education is increasingly linked to flexibility and a strong commitment to the transformation of students, to enable them to transform society. As such, a consistent and explicit concern for quality, its definition, its assurance and its constant improvement is now an essential component of the life of all higher education institutions.
New entrepreneurship
The fostering of the entrepreneurial talent that transforms ideas and knowledge into new economic opportunities is one of the most significant challenges for the education system. Among the broad range of missions attributed by society to university systems is the crucial role of fostering these entrepreneurial attitudes and skills, because without the promotion and development of this talent, it will be difficult to excel in the knowledge society. Recent research shows the relevance of new businesses in the favourable evolution of productivity around the world. Contributing to this result are not just initiatives fostered from university-based springboards and incubators but also knowledge-intensive activities developed by other highly-qualified entrepreneurs with extensive working experience. Our societies are also witnessing the emergence of the so-called social entrepreneurship. Universities have to be the leading agents behind these new factors for social and economic transformation.
Employability and lifelong learning
Educational systems need to find better ways to address the requirements of an unconventional student profile concerned with quality learning throughout their professional life. This has become a more urgent imperative in the context of world economic stringency that will require many individuals to extend their years of employability in order to survive with some degree of comfort. New learning technologies can provide a means through which people can improve core lifelong learning skills and acquire additional competences that they may require for purposes of employability. An exploration is needed of the ways in which ICT/e-learning approaches can be integrated into quality programmes that can be made accessible to people to enable the development of the competences they need not only for employability but also for inclusion into the social and economic fabric of the societies in which they reside.
Leading innovative approaches to the financial crisis
Universities are prompted nowadays to generate resourceful and creative paths of operation in order to handle the financial crisis and strengthen their economic basis. University leaders are challenged today to think out of the box and reconsider their traditional missions, redefine their student constituencies (within and beyond national jurisdictions), find ways to decrease the cost of course development (particularly in DTUs based on the industrial model), enhance collaborative ventures within the academic world (both with other distance education providers and with campus-based universities) and with the corporate world, and rethink their infrastructures and overall operation. They have to do all these without compromising on high quality, accountability and being attentive to societal needs.
Participants in the 2009 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents are invited to identify and discuss best practices, analyse their role in society, and propose new, creative and effective solutions. The expected outcome, the SCOP 2009 Declaration will propose a road map for universities to prepare and assist society in such crises in the future.
