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“The Impact of Globalization on the Palestinian Higher Education” Prof. Labib Arafeh,

The 2 nd Regional Research Seminar of the Arab States “ The Impact of Globalization in Higher Education and Research in the Arab States UNESCO Rabat, May 25-26 2007. “The Impact of Globalization on the Palestinian Higher Education” Prof. Labib Arafeh, Al-Quds University, Palestine

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“The Impact of Globalization on the Palestinian Higher Education” Prof. Labib Arafeh,

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  1. The 2nd Regional Research Seminar of the Arab States “ The Impact of Globalization in Higher Education and Research in the Arab StatesUNESCO Rabat, May 25-26 2007 “The Impact of Globalization on the Palestinian Higher Education” Prof. Labib Arafeh, Al-Quds University, Palestine Larafeh@eng.alquds.edu LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  2. Outlines The Palestinian Higher Education System Rationales for Globalization; International Trends; The Palestinian HEIs Responses; Suggested Actions; National Challenges. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  3. Reality: • Occupation  Off campus / Underground Teaching; • Total immobility & confinement of labor force; • Collapse of many economic sectors; • Skyrocketing Unemployment; • Poverty; • ?? The Palestinian Higher Education System LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  4. Evolution of Palestinian Higher Education, HE: Palestinians have always relied on human resource to survive & developas apeople & a nation; Palestinian commitment to education defined its self-value and was and still is a source of collective security; Most HEIs came into being under extremely adverse conditions as an act of commitment and at the initiative of individuals and groups since 1971; HEIs have provided Palestinian students the opportunity to study in Palestine; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  5. Currently, 44 HEIs: 12 universities: 2 Private, 2 Governmental, 1 Open Education, 7 Public Non Profit, PNP. 32 Community & University Colleges (governed by PNA & UNRWA, Private); Offer 100 different types of academic programs at: 2-year (Associate) level, 4-6 year (under graduate) level, and 2-4 year (graduate) level; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  6. Provide educational services to around 150kstudents(05/06); Graduates were 17301 in 04/05; Academics (Faculty Members) are 5169 (05/06) : 4% are full Professors; 10% are Associate Professors; 38 % are Assistant Professors; 48% are Lecturers;  Student/FM = 29 Governance: 1978, A 24-member (HE stakeholders) Council of Higher Education; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  7. 1994, Ministry of Education & HE, MoEHE; 1998, Law of Higher Education; 1999, A 15-member Council for Research (University’s Research Deans); 2001, A semi independent (working under the umbrella of the MOHE) Accreditation & Quality Assurance Commission. Characteristics of Palestinian HE: Universities are young by international standards; HEIs have responded to intense social pressures; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  8. The majority of HEIs have started and remained public non-profit institutions; Significant human and physical resources have been placed in the HE sector, despite adverse political and economic conditions; More than half of Palestinian university graduates were educated at Local Universities. 4.5 % of all Palestinians are enrolled in HE; 1.7% of Palestinian GDP and 30% of all education spending is devoted to HE, above average by international standards; Spending on HE as a % of GDP (0.3%); LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  9. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  10. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  11. 05/06 76% (Arts, Humanities, & Education! LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  12. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  13. 04/05 70% (Arts, Humanities, & Education! LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  14. Number of students enrolled in HEIs will be doubled in 2015 LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  15. Spending on HE as a % of GDP (0.3%), the PNA total budget (1.9%), are very low by international standards. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  16. Rationale for Globalization Refers to increasingglobalconnectivity, integration and interdependence in the economic, social, cultural, technological, political, and ecological spheres; A shift in our daily life circumstances. Changes in those life circumstances are: Far-reaching, Comprehensive, & Move rapidly with ease! (Moore’s Law: the power of computers per unit cost doubles every 18 months); Higher Education: A key factor in the developing countries; Recognized as the catalyst & essential driving forcefor national social & economic development (Human Resource Capacity): Creates, Disseminates & applies all forms of knowledge; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  17. Major key elements of globalization: The growing importance of the knowledge society/economy; The development of new trade agreements which cover trade in education services; The innovations related to ICT; and The emphasis on the role of the market and the market economy. Rationales for Globalizations that resonates in HE: Economic: Financial-economic issues: Emergence of worldwide production markets as well as financial markets, LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  18. Realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods & capital; Cuts back in public funding to HEIs have forced to find out new sources of funding; It is clear that “A HE sector which meets the needs of the economy in terms of Trained people, Research, and Technology transfer” is a central concern; as published by The future of HE - UK dept. of Education & skills; Characteristics of graduates: Expertise, Strategic skills, Negotiating / Interpersonal Skillscan be advantageous throughout the labor market. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  19. With the growth of emphasis on the market, a new interest in the HEIs to collaborate closely with business: According to HE-Business Interaction Survey (2001), showed that: 51% of Universities attached to high priority to the economic development in the region (87% of the new universities did so) All had well-developed business strategy 50% of new universities have more than 50% business representation in their governing bodies; Academic: A desire to make money for the university from international accomplishments; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  20. Internationalization was perceived as a means of enhancing the quality of education & research, & has been developed further by the growth of the ICT; International research projects, degree offerings, exchange of academic staff & students have become commonplace; Culture: The new culture is all-encompassing: Current policies, UK, increasingly privilege the modernization of public services; The continuous monitoring and audit of performance and quality; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  21. The cultural shift from a secrecy is marked with the external review process; The enhancement of quality & sharing of good practice between HEIs, which can meet the demands for information of stakeholders: governments, Students, Employers, Parents, etc.; The emphasis on the effective teaching, and the academic is still central to the success of the HEIs; The growth demand for access to HE in recent years has been a phenomenal; an estimate of 100M qualified students who will not be able to find places in the conventional HEIs, by 2010; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  22. The demand for HE is fuelled by the: ICT, 2. Knowledge economy, Urging of governments who see it as essential to produce a highly skilled workforce to meet the needs of the international labor market; Political: A response to support the process of reconstruction, nation-building (Learning Society) & economic & democratic reform through cooperation, capacity building, knowledge transfer & the education of local intellectuals to modern and international standards; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  23. The response to globalization has been & continues to be perceived in a drive by governments to reform the national HEsystems to deliver as the ends they need; Steering change in HE: Joined-up Thinking A term being used to characterize attempts toachieve greater integration & cooperation between educational, social, and economic policies; Student-focussed or Client-focussed Policies: Stakeholders: employers, social partners, and other economic & social actors with vital interest in HE outcomes; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  24. Influence and Control: HE provision based upon client demand and a sense that HEI is ‘the place to be’ is in important senses out of control. Governments can seek to influence the volume, speed and composition of change. How can such influence be exercised? Changing Courses and Curricula: To realize the full benefits of the expansion & diversification, courses & curricula must be a central concern for policy-makers: Relevance to labor market needs; Promote independent study & Academic Staff ability to adapt their teaching, supervision, and assessment; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  25. Such adaptation could be facilitated by using additional resources, ICT, and favorably maintaining the staff-student ratio; Changing Teaching & Learning: Technical & Pedagogical Training to Academic Staff; The Quality of Teaching may be measured by the: Care with which the material was assembled; Number of computer-based (ICT & Multimedia,audiovisual aids) used in the presentation; Ability of students to recall, understand, & make use of the exact details of what was said. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  26. Trends in Europe: A general shift towards more market-orientation; UK Binary system (traditional / academic universities & vocationally-oriented institutions) has been abolished, & universitieshave tocompete for students & research funds; Netherlands’ HEIs have gained more autonomy in managing themselves and in working with external constituencies; Germany & AustriaUniversities have found themselves faced with performance-based funding; New role of the State from control to supervision: New Buffer organizations (Boards, Councils); LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  27. Evaluative measures have been introduced; Goals of most of HEIs efforts have been to: Reach a satisfactory level of efficiency & effectiveness, which implies increasing quality & improving productivity, Regain public legitimacy, credibility and trust by producing well-prepared graduates for the job market, research publications & involvement in technology transfer; More funds have been devoted to support corporate partnerships between Universities & business; US - European Universities’Strategic allianceshave become popular; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  28. Private Universities are now being accredited; Teaching & research is being offered by other bodies: consultancies, media,IT companies, etc.; Harmonization of curricula; Bologna declaration is based on objectives: Comparable degrees; ECTS (Credit System); Promotion of mobility; Quality Assurance & common patterns of HE; Impacts of IT & Internet (Virtual Universities, Internet-based programs, etc.) have broughtinnovation to teaching & research; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  29. Trends Impacting Faculty roles Academics define the nature and quality of a HEI through their teaching, research, & other activities; Academic profession can appear to be held together by some overarching beliefs & values that explain the meaning & value of their work to themselves and others: The main purpose of a HEI and its academics is to: Preserve, Create / Discover, and Transmit knowledge & understanding through teaching and research; Additional beliefs and values encompass: The commitment to serve society; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  30. The commitment to intellectual integrity & fairness; The necessity of academic freedom and autonomy in doing academic work. Academic profession appears highly fragmented & differentiated by discipline, institutional mission, organizational structures and national systems; To meet the demands of the 21st centuryglobalization, the increasing economic role of knowledge, IT and reduced public funding, etc., HEIs world wide, are undergoing reforms regarding their Missions, & Better use of their intellectual resources (Research & Teaching); LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  31. To accomplish this, HEIs must adopt an approach that places emphasis on: Teams, Networks, Connectivity, and Individual personal autonomy and discipline research; The growing area of Transdisciplinary patterns of new knowledge. These arrangements reconfigure academics into units that recognize research & training around the search for solutions to complex systems: Academics may be permanently reassigned to new groups, or split their identification between their homediscipline and these new configuration; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  32. The emerging media of ICT will: Provide new ways to engage in all modes of communication, Make clearer their impacts on the nature & status of knowledge itself as well as teaching & learning; Thus, the academics, traditional producers of knowledge, will: Continue to be a rich intellectual & educational resource, Increasingly be the consumers of knowledgeproduced by their traditional consumers:Students, alumni, business & industry, others. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  33. The Palestinian HE Responses Education and R&D are under pressures and have capitalized on the opportunities of globalizations; Lack of powerful & mature industry, Thus, R&D is poor; Foreign programs equip local students with knowledge, skills, transmit foreign values and attitudes: We have bad experience, and the decision was taken  Not allowed (A Threat); Research University: Not feasible; International Cooperation (An Opportunity): Most of HEIs are involved in International, mainly European mobility & research projects; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  34. Quality Assurance (An Opportunity): A 5 – year semi governmental Accreditation & Quality Assurance Commission: Develops a national & institutional quality assurance systems; Evaluates all running Academic programs; Self-Evaluates all HEIs  QOU is accomplished; A completive 10M $ Quality Improvement Fund  4M$ is allocated; Approves new academic programs & HEIs; Publicizes accredited academic programs & HEIs; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  35. Cuts in public funding: (A Threat) Heavily dependent upon foreign support; If available, distributed in fixed %! HEIs Heavily depend on students’ tuition fees  Covers (50-70)% of the HEIs running costs;  Most of HEIs are managing somehow their finances; The exponential growth in ICT (An Opportunity): ICT is heavily adopted to overcome the mobility obstacles; Most of HEIs offer their programs based on ICT as an enhancement tool; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  36. Research trends in ICT related topics are increasingly growing; A need to satisfy the demand for HE & providing access to HE (An Opportunity to HEIs BUT A Threat to Quality): Accepting more students BUT not increasing their Capacity  Imbalance in F/S ratio; Offering new customized multidisciplinary academic programs; Private HEIs All restricted to offer only needed non repetitive academic programs; Knowledge Society (An Opportunity)  Badly Needed; 36 LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  37. Essentially, HEIs must adopt good corporate governance in terms of focusing on: Restructuring exercises: Which in some case saw the disappearance of whether well-established or not departments faculties, which did not have the “adequate” student enrolment, The need to innovate and create relevant multi discipline programs which are sensitive to current and future needs of both students and employers (to what extent this has been achieved is a different issue altogether); and Suggested Actions: LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  38. The optimization of resources – human resources (academic and non­academic), laboratories and equipment. Core functions, & Optimization of resources, Adopt and implement money­saving measures, Improve on university ­ industry relationship and enhance partnership, Commercialize research as well as to make their products (both in terms of academic programs and the graduate) more marketable and relevant; Undertake initiatives to review, strategize and reprioritize their missions and objectives; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  39. Generate their own income to meet their operational budget, and Have to intensify research collaboration with partners abroad; Promote constructing Knowledge Societies: Significant changes in the global environment will bear heavily: Functions, Role, Shape & mode of operation of HE. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  40. National Overarching Challenges Maintaining and developing a highly competent and competitive HE Provision & System under prolonged military occupation: Curtailment of mobility for students and staff locally, nationally, regionally and internationally; Very negative impact on carrying out research. Physical destruction and attacks. Drop in income, increase in poverty levels, and inability of students to pay fees, & HEIs to pay salaries; Developing a Relevant, Accessible, Efficient, Sustainable and Accountable system. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  41. Relevant System: Fit with national priority needs; Quality of programs; Periodical assessment of programs, in terms of content and relevance. Quality of student intake; Quality of faculty members; Quality of teaching and research facilities; Ability to conduct technically applied research. Accessible System: Meeting increasing demand: HE as a right or an opportunity, etc. Size of student intake vs. HEI Capacity; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  42. Admission policies. Synergy with general education. Efficient System: Student-faculty ratios. Management structure. Public payroll: inability to recruit qualified staff. New blood. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  43. HEMIS. Coordination and exchange among HEIs & Private Sector Nationally, Regionally, Globally; Employment potential of graduates. Fields of study are not responsive to broader labor force needs; Sustainable System: Level of fees and operational costs; Commercialize products & generate income strategy; Relation between funding & accreditation of programs; Accountable System: Participation of stakeholders; Coordination between MoEHE and HEIs. LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  44. Greater competition for resources, manpower and markets opportunities; HEIs’ graduates: In a global commodity and borderless access education, there is a need to ensure that the quality of education that a HEI provides, matches those of “competitors” globally; Ranking / Comparing HEIs intra­nationally as well as regionally / international benchmarks become necessary; Promote using of ICT as an enhancement tool to improve the quality of teaching & learning; Promote the Culture of Quality Assurance & Enhancements, Program/Institutional Evaluation LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  45. Conclusion: There is an urgent need for all HEIs, world wide, to reposition themselves in the light of the challenges of the 21st century that include the phenomenon of globalization and good corporate governance; The various reforms & initiative must be designed to facilitatethe drive towards: Promoting research at HEIs, Providing quality programs, & Promoting internationalization; LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  46. Despite great vital obstacles over its relatively short, three-decade history, Palestinian HEIs have demonstrated: Capacity to survive & even Grow in adverse and unstable conditions; A systematic process for accrediting academic programs, as well as HEIs has been established; Research & Quality Improvement Funds are distributed to Faculty members & HEIs basing on criteria including: Competitiveness, Relevance, etc. 46 LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

  47. Thanking you LA UNESCO, 25-26/05/07 Rabat

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