Nederland maar matig met HO

Broadly speaking, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian education systems dominate the top half of the ranking (Australia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom and USA); while a broadly-defined Romano-Germanic block makes up most of the lower half (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland). Without entering a debate on social and economic models, this implies that the Romano-Germanic countries should do more to make their education systems more open, democratic and readily accessible to a broader range of people.

Nederland ook hoog in rang
Nederland doet het wel goed op het punt van de toegangkelijkheid van het hoger onderwijs, waarbij de krachtige rol van het hbo osn bijna aan de top van de hoog ontwikkelde landen brengt. “A “university degree” is any degree awarded after at least three years of cumulative, full-time, theory-based study taught by faculty with advanced research degrees and qualifying the holder to work towards an advanced research degree. The results are revealing. Australia does particularly well, weighing in at No. 1 in this category (it manages to provide almost 60% of its young age cohorts with a university degree).

But countries like Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Denmark and Finland also do well, coming in at Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the category, ahead of the UK, which would have been leader in this category 10 years ago. This shows the danger to successful systems of sitting on their laurels while other countries are advancing quickly. At the other end of the spectrum, France, Austria and Germany score particularly poorly, coming in at Nos. 15, 16 and 17.”

Het succes van Australië, Denemarken en het UK verklaart de Lisbon council als volgt: “The top 3 countries and their universities are also attractive to foreign students, which gives these countries an important leg up in the global war for talent. And all three countries are frontrunners in the effort to offer continuing education to adults after they have left the formal education system, with high numbers of people benefiting from access to lifelong learning.

Finally, all three have opened up their education systems to a wide range of people without lowering their educational standards. To the contrary, there is much evidence that the diversity and inclusiveness of their educational system has helped them raise standards in important ways.”

Weltschmerz in het HO
Duitsland krijgt –net als bij de OECD-analyses- zware kritiek. Het WO is er sterk verouderd en weinig uitnodigend voor brede lagen van de bevolking. Bij LLL scoort onze oosterbuur zelf het slechtst van allemaal.
“Austria and Germany suffer because of the restrictiveness of their educational system; they turn away the most number of students from higher education, and as a result offer higher education to a relatively low number of people.

In addition, Germany also suffers from low wage premia for university graduates – a sign that the education system may not be turning out enough graduates with the right skills for the domestic labour market. Germany is, however, an attractive place for foreign students (weighing in at No. 3 in this sub-indicator), though this is offset by a relatively poor performance on providing access to lifelong learning (where Germany
ranks last at No. 17).”

Een pijnlijk voorbeeld van hoe het Duits HO functioneert geeft de Lisbon Council in zijn rapport: “At Ludwig- Maximilians-University in Munich, one of the few officially designated elite universities in Germany, Jonas is reading business mathematics – a course of study that promises a bright future in business. On his own initiative, Jonas also studied one year at the internationally renowned National University of Singapore in order to sharpen his skills in international commerce and gain exposure to the market dynamics of Asia. Upon his return, his university in Munich did not accept transfer credits from this stay at NUS towards Jonas’ German degree.” Het kan dus niet verrassen dat de ondernemende studenten in Duitsland in toenemende mate naar Nederland komen voor hun studie.

Portugal: land in opkomst
Verrassend is het succes van het Portugees hoger onderwijs. Het laat nog eens zien hoe sterk de impact kan zijn van een minister met visie en doorzettingsvermogen in het voeren van een strategisch beleid, in dit geval minister José MarinaoGago. “Even if this performance may be the result of exogenous factors – such as the country’s rapid economic growth in the post-1985 period – it nonetheless illustrates an important corollary to this study; put simply, a healthy labour market (with low levels of unemployment and merit- based promotion) can itself be an excellent catalyst for educational performance, and forms an integral part of the overall system encouraging citizens to pursue tertiary education and seek academic excellence.

Overall, Portugal is a good example of how a growing domestic economy can encourage and improve educational performance. Longer term, Portugal must work to increase access to lifelong learning (as measured by the Age-Range sub-indicator) and raise the number of foreign students it attracts.”

U leest het interview dat minister Gago over zijn beleidsvisie en het succes van zijn ‘bèta-tech’ promotie beleid met ScienceGuide hield hier.
Het complete rapport van de Lisbon Council leest u hier.