Be More Purposeful on HE, OECD Says

The report draws on the OECD Thematic Review of Tertiary Education, a study of tertiary education policy in 24 countries. It investigates tertiary education policy across its many facets, from governance, funding and quality assurance to equity, research and innovation, academic career, links to the labour market, internationalisation and policy implementation.

Among its ky-recommendations are:

–         Goals
Ensure that tertiary education contributes to economic and social objectives: foster links to employers, communities and labour markets; promote effective university-industry links for research and innovation.

–          Governance
Devise sound instruments to steer tertiary education: improve the capacity of ministries to develop policy and evaluate performance;  establish and maintain a balance between institutional autonomy and public accountability.

–          Funding
Develop a funding strategy to optimise the contribution of tertiary education to society and the economy: cost-sharing between students and government; a comprehensive student support system;  subsidies related to the benefits tertiary programmes bring to society.

–          Quality Assurance
Emphasise quality and relevance: improve quality assurance frameworks; develop a strong quality culture; focus more on student outcomes.

–          Equity
Give greater prominence to equity in national tertiary education policy:  systematically monitor equity issues; devote significant resources to address inequities.

–         Internationalisation
Position national systems in the international arena: develop a strategy and framework for internationalisation; encourage institutions to be more proactive internationally.


Read the Executive Summary here. The fulle report here. More information on this Thematic Review: www.oecd.org/edu/tertiary/review.

A companion series – OECD Reviews of Tertiary Education – offers an in-depth analysis of tertiary education policies in each of the 14 countries which opted for an in-depth review by an OECD team: China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and Spain.