Access to Higher Education Adnan Badran World International Conference on Education WICE 2010

1. Access to Higher Education Adnan Badran World International Conference on Education WICE 2010 Amman - Jordan 19-20 May 2010

2. Access to Higher Education • The world is a getting small. We can now fly to any place on earth and reach remote areas in hours. • We can survey any place on earth. • We can talk with people around the globe within seconds. • Our economies have become global. • These and others due to creation and construction of knowledge. • Due to delivery of education and research.

3. Nations are investing heavily in restructuring their economies in K-economy created by intensive-brain skills. • Economic prosperity is knowledge-driven. • Countries must create and sustain a highly educated and innovative workforce to generate and apply knowledge. • To create the “K”, there is need to high level universities: quality-based, research-based, to respond and create demands and draw the roadmap to development.

4. New approaches have emerged: • Lifelong learning, distance learning. • Interdependence learning. • Knowledge – driven economy. • Blended learning. • E-Learning, self- learning, just- in-time learning. • E-Conferencing • More of Es...

5. Let me stop at one of these terms, that is: Lifelong Learning: • Today the shelf life of education in one’s life is shrinking rapidly in face of the explosion of knowledge in many fields. • Longer life expectancies and working careers, create needs to refresh one’s knowledge and skills. • An increasing number of nations are setting the goal of lifelong learning opportunities.

6. This will require entirely new paradigms for the conduct, pedagogy, organization, financing, leadership, and governance of higher education. • This could create true societies of learning, in which the sustained development of knowledge and human capital become the key to economic prosperity, national security, and social welfare.

7. Access to Higher Education (HE): • Access to HE, what does it mean? • Policy of admission. • Why students should go to college? • Financing HE. • Challenges facing the HE process. • Investment in education and scientific research.

8. Adults access to higher education: • Courses prepare mature students who have few other qualifications for higher education (HE). • They are also called, bridging courses, access courses, or foundation courses etc. • They address the particular needs of adults who may have left school early or in some countries, the needs of students who selected a path which have led them to vocational training, polytechnic, or other further education stream.

9. Access to Higher Education : • Courses are specifically designed to equip students with the necessary skills to overcome deficiency in studying at university level. • Access courses are targeted, in particular, at groups which are under-represented in HE. • Some Access courses prepare students for particular HE courses, such as Access to Business, Access to Law. • Some provide career development in other areas. • They usually include a compulsory core element, including study skills.

10. Access to Higher Education: • Most courses can be completed in one year, or a part-time basis. • Assessment usually takes place by a combination of coursework and examination. • The majority of access courses are offered in further education colleges, but some are provided in adult education institutes, community colleges or centers, university colleges and universities. • Access courses are recognized by many accreditation boards.

11. Access to HE System in Jordan: • Current Admission requirements: • Applicants to universities should hold the General Certificate of Education (Tawjihi), or equivalent. • Medicine and Dentistry; minimum 85% (Scientific stream). • Pharmacy and Engineering; minimum 80% (scientific stream), disciplines, allied health sciences 70%. • Other disciplines; minimum 60% in private, 65% in public. • Mixed: merits, quotas and others.

12. Access to HE in Jordan: How should be: • Scenario I • Based on merits. • Governed by accreditation capacity in every discipline. • Ruled by descending Tawjihi grades or equivalent in fulfilling capacity. • Maintain minimum GPA in Tawjihi for medicine, engineering and others. • Ruled by descending GPA science courses for scientific disciplines and GPA literal courses for other disciplines.

13. Scenario II • As above, replace 5thpara by entrance examination in science for scientific disciplines. Likewise in literal GPA for arts, humanities, and social sciences. • Scenario III • As above, amend 5th para by remedial courses followed by entrance examination.

14. What does “Access” prepare the students for? • Progression to higher education. • Progression opportunities in knowledge and skills. • Supporting informal choices about further study, continuing education. • Provision of progression routes to higher education.

15. Financing Higher Education: • How students will pay for their education? • Colleges and universities carry a heavy price tag, it is of great importance not to let that discourage students from obtaining a college education. While the cost of tuition continues to rise, the number of available financial aid options are also increasing. • Students have opportunities worth exploring when attempting to obtain financial aid. (e.g. scholarships, grants, loans, work study programs).

16. Financing Higher Education: • Local options: pay the cost by all and subsidize needy students from student trust fund. fed by government contribution, local community & the private sector. • Government options. • Merit-based options, scholarships partial or total. • International grants. • Corporate options.

17. Challenges: • We live in dynamic change. • Delivery of frontier of sciences confront education system. • Knowledge society. • knowledge-driven economy places a new premium on technological workforce as out-sourcing and off-shoring. • Governments place increasing confidence in market forces to reflect public priorities even as new paradigms such as open-source software and open-content knowledge, challenge conventional free-market philosophies.

18. Challenges: • Manpower: Arabs are young • 30% less than 15 years old. • 60% less than 25 years old • Arab population 318 millions. • 100 million new jobs to be created by 2020 (WB 2007)

19. ChallengesFacing Higher Education • The diverse landscape of access course provision that is developing across the HE sector nationally. • The different models delivered by different HE institutions. • The current policy and funding context. • The linkage of courses to the national strategy of education. • The rapid shift of education into e-learning, blended learning, virtual campus etc. • Authorities and governments have to recognize that access to higher education is an ongoing process.

20. A National Development Plan must be initiated to include Strategic Objectives for Enhancing Access to Lifelong Learning. • Establishment of partnership between institutions. • Supplementary admissions for students with disabilities. • Recognition of prior learning. • Finally, Development of Articulation Routes.

21. Quality Assurance must also be considered at all levels of education and higher education.

22. INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest” Benjamin Franklin “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school” Albert Einstein

23. Investment in Education There is a strong consensus among economists, scholars and businessmen that education is an important determinant of individual earnings as well as economic growth. Example : Jordan Jordan is one of the countries who spare no efforts in investing in education at all levels.

24. Educational Infrastructure in Jordan Distribution of Institutions 2010

25. Education Infrastructure in Jordan Distribution of students 2010

26. Private and public sectors in Jordan invested four billions (JD) in education, as follows: Investment in Education (in absolute figures)

27. According to statistical standards, investment in education in Jordan is now forty (40) billions (JD), in today figures: • JD18.5b. higher education. • JD14b. general education, • JD7.5b.vocational training.

28. Annual Expenditure on education, JD 1430 m at all levels, as follows: • General Education JD 750 m. annually distributed as follows:

29. Higher Education JD 680 m. annually on, distributed as follows:

30. In the light of the fact that GDP of Jordan is JD15000 m. a year, this means that the proportion of total expenditure on education (all levels) is 9.5% of GDP, of which 5% is allocated for general education and 4.5% on higher education. • Expenditure analysis, show government expenditure represents only 56% of total expenditure on general education (others: private, UNRWA, armed forces) and government expenditure only 10% of total expenditure on higher education

31. Education and learning are the key elements in development. • Jordan has eliminated illiteracy to 7.2% of the population. • With the expansion of educational institutions in Jordan, the impact is great. International students with an annual income JD.250 m. and the national saving of foreign currencies, used to be spent on Jordanian students abroad.

32. Challenges • Our universities need to review its strategies, enter into partnerships, twin and cooperate with international universities, and the industrial market, build up incubators, and concentrate more on patents and delivery of scientific research. • Research • Our weakness in research is obvious and all policies, plans, infrastructure and environment related to research must be seriously reconsidered. • The Arab world invests an average of 0.2% of its GDP on scientific research, while in Jordan the rate is 0.55%. The UNESCO 2010 report affirmed that this is a significant improvement.

33. R&D expenditure in the Arab region GERD/GDP ratio for Arab countries, 2006 Other countries & regions are given for comparison Source: for Egypt: UNDP (2007) Human Development Report 2007/08; for Algeria, lebanon, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saleh (2008) for Bahrain, Syria, United Arab Emirates: Roland (2008) Draft regional report on Arab countries: study on national research systems. A Meta-Review presented to the Symposium on Comparative Analysis of National Research Systems. Others: World Bank knowledge for Development Scoreboard . Jordan GERD/GDP in 2008 was 0.55 33

34. Investment in science: researchers in the Arab region FTE researchers per million population in the Arab world, 2007 Selected countries Note: The figures for Jordan & Tunisia represent FTE researchers. For Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco & Oman, the figures include FTE researchers at government universities. The figures for the other countries can be classified as partial data, as they do not include FTE researchers at government universities. *Human Development Report 2007 **The World Bank knowledge for Development Scoreboard Source: Saleh, Nabiel (2008) S&T Indicators in the Arab State, 2006 34

35. R&D output: scientific publications (SCI) Source: Data From Thomson Reuters (Scientific) Inc. Web of Science, (Science Citation Index Expanded), compiled for UNESCO by Canadian Observatoire des sciences et des techniques. Population Data taken from AFESD (2007) Unified Arab Economic report & UNDP (2007): Human Development Report 2007/2008; World Population prospects: the 2006 Revision, Department of economic & social affairs of the Unites Nations Secretariat. 35

36. R&D output: patents in Arab region Patents as indicator of technology, increased to 67 registered patents in U.S. but still behind (i.e. Finland 894 in 2008) US patents granted to residents of Arab countries, 2004 and 2008 36

37. R&D output: high-tech export in Arab region Share of high-tech exports in total manufactured exports in selected Arab countries, 2005 (%) other countries are given for comparison Note: Worldwide, high-tech exports average 22% of a nation’s total exports. Source: World Bank (2007) World Development Indicators. • High-tech export is 10% of all national exports, Morocco leading. • Arab High-tech export is low, as compared to Malaysia of 55% of national export. 37

38. Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) in the Arab region Knowledge Economy Index for selected Arab countries The knowledge Economy Index (KEI) is calculated on the basis of the average normalized scores of a country or region on all four pillars of the knowledge economy: economic incentive & institutional regime: education, innovation; & ICTS. The score ranges from a low of 0 to a high of 10. Source: World Bank - UAE is leading 5.77 - Jordan 5.05, Syria 3.39 38

39. Internet penetration in Arab region (2008) Penetration, leads by UAE of 50% of total population, 18.2% in Jordan, 1.4% in Yemen, 0.2% in Iraq. 39 Note: The most recent information on usage comes mainly from data published by Nielsen/Net ratings & the International Telecommunications Union

40. Challenges: Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009 Top 200 World Universities

41. Challenges: * Source: SESRTCIC (2007) Academic Rankings of Universities in the OIC Countries: A Preliminary Report: www.sesrtcic.org/files/article/232.pdf

42. Final Conclusion • Investment in higher education, which totals about JD.40 billions in current prices, with annual expenditure of JD 1430 m. should be effectively and efficiently utilized to its maximum potentials in transferring Jordan from a developing country to Knowledge (K) and research-based economy. • There is an urgent need, to establish a genuine partnership with private and public sectors, to share technology transfer from K-driven universities & higher institutions.

43. Thank You