20-06-2013, 01:03 PM
Analysis and discussion of curriculum, resource and organizational issues
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Executive summary
This report contains the main findings and recommendations of a study conducted between April and November 2005 into what should be the strategy with respect to the 13 new higher education institutions (HEIs) to be opened in Ethiopia during 2005/6.
Main findings
The main findings of the study are as follows:
The Ethiopian Government has a vision of vastly increasing the numbers of students within HEIs and increasing the numbers of universities and university colleges in the country. To this end it intends to develop around 13 new university colleges in the longer term. This vision is commendable – most of the main regions and centers of population should have a HEI in the longer term. On the other hand it is not possible to create a university or university college from a field in a few months without devaluing the idea of a university and the currency of a university education. This report addresses this dilemma: the need to expand the numbers of HEIs and the numbers of students benefiting, while retaining quality and institutions that at least approach international standards.
Ethiopia’s higher education has yet to develop as a system: the new HEIs should be part of a set of interrelated and complementary institutions, each with a particular and different function and goals within the system. The system needs mechanisms to develop a flourishing professional and academic community: a functioning association of Public Higher Education Institutions; subject associations; and professional groups of support managers in higher education. Institutions should work together to agree how each will make a special contribution and develop a distinctive curriculum appropriate for a particular region or for the country as a whole. The new HEIs should offer demand driven subjects and interdisciplinary programs integrating gender and HIV/AIDS; work experience and practice.
Recommendations for mission of the new HEIs
The recommendation is for the new HEIs to be much more specialist, all but a few focusing on a limited range of subjects, offering programs at associated degree level, having large specialist staff, resources and facilities and enrolling many hundreds of students on each of the few programs offered. This will maximize economies of scale and the intensive use of expensive resources, including scarce well qualified staff. This will ensure that the limited number of PhD holders in each discipline are concentrated in one HEI and can ensure that the subject is covered properly and all topics covered by the curriculum are informed by current research.
Pedagogic and curriculum issues
The new HEIs need to produce questioning, creative, risk taking entrepreneurs. Graduates will need to develop relevant knowledge that fits with the developmental stage of the country, practice orientation and service commitment. To achieve this, appropriate pedagogy is essential: instructor development must focus less on subject knowledge and more on pedagogic skills and the world of work. The process of education must focus on group work, performance assessment, self assessment and self motivation. Particular topics should be covered, particularly entrepreneurialism (for example, the principles of developing a business plan, principles of cash flow and project planning). Entrepreneurialism also requires appropriate pedagogy: a ‘can do’ philosophy from instructors, encouragement to students to think ‘outside of the box’; and opportunities for initiative and experimentation. The curriculum must emphasize work experience and work readiness and include work placements. It should include new inter-disciplinary and professional qualification structures.
Introduction
This report is compiled by the Higher Education Strategy Center (HESC). This Center is an autonomous organization set up by Proclamation (351/2003) to advise the Government on HE strategy and policy and the sector’s contribution to targets and plans, especially the Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP).
Objectives
The main aim of the study was to undertake research and consultation and compile a report to the Minister for Education to add value to the Government’s strategy in relation to the 13 new HEIs that form part of the third Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP3).
It was intended to provide practical and strategic advice as to the ways that the new HEIs could contribute to development objectives and poverty reduction. This would include model of curriculum and curriculum delivery that could be offered by the new HEIs and options as to course, validation and quality assurance and qualifications structures. It was intended that the study would suggest how to encourage and protect diversity of mission and outline appropriate staff training (academic and management), finance and organization.
The methodology that informs the recommendations
The study was completed between February and November 2005. It involved a variety of strategies to collect and analyze information and options.
The study was informed by an extensive literature review to explore the approaches and structures for expansion in other countries and how they have developed higher education systems able to contribute to social and economic development. It drew on various Government policies and strategies, including the Agricultural Led Development Strategy, Industrial Development Strategy, Water Sector Strategy, Education Sector Development Strategy and the Health Sector Strategy. A range of research and reports from Ethiopia and across the world were considered and analyzed (see Appendix 2).
Interviews were held with around 50 representatives of ministries, donor organizations, NGOs and employers during May and September 2005 (see Appendix 3). The interviewees were asked about the long term strategy of their organization and the ways higher education might support that strategy. They were asked to speculate upon the curriculum that might support national and regional economy/social infrastructure and development and the barriers to national and regional economic and social development. Each interviewee or group of interviewees was asked what qualities and skills the ideal graduate would have acquired. Each interviewee was asked supplementary questions as appropriate about their area of expertise (for instance, HIV/AIDS organizations were asked how HEIs might support the fight against the disease) and whether there were any other matters they wished to discuss. Each interviewee was assured that he/she would not be identified with any particular viewpoint or opinion in the report.
Ethiopia’s higher education system
This report addresses a central dilemma: the need to expand the numbers of HEIs and the numbers of students benefiting, while retaining quality and institutions that at least approach international standards. This chapter outlines some of the issues that are presented by the higher education expansion and sets the context for the analysis of options in the rest of the report.
The Ethiopian Government has the vision of vastly increasing the numbers of students within HEIs and increasing the numbers of universities and university colleges in the country. It intends to simultaneously expand the intake of the existing higher institutions and open 12 new university colleges within the same, short, timescale.
The Government’s vision is commendable – most of the main regions and centers of population should have a HEI, but in the longer term. However, in the course of this research we found no example of a country that had developed green field sites into universities or university colleges offering bachelor qualifications on this scale nor within the short timeframe envisaged by the Government at the present time.