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India’s higher education system, while much criticized, does some things well. It provides impressive rates of access compared to other countries at similar levels of development. India also spends a reasonable proportion of its [gross domestic product] GDP on education, and pays its academics reasonably well. But it does not get appropriate quality from this level of support. The authors question whether India is gaining value for its investment in higher education and if more money is the answer to the challenges faced? The general impression is that despite several areas in which India compares well globally, deep structural and cultural impediments constrain the academic system from performing effectively. In the Indian case, expenditure does not necessarily mean effectiveness. The paper concludes that the recently approved 12th Five Year Plan provides a good framework for change but success will ultimately depend on implementation.

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The purpose of this publication is to provide a reference source on key topics in higher education. Chapters in the first volume cover central themes in the study of higher education, while contributors to the second volume focus on contemporary higher education issues within specific countries or regions. Part one 'Global themes and contemporary challenges' contains the following chapters: Introduction / Philip G. Altbach and James J. F. Forest; The academic profession / Jurgen Enders; Accountability and quality assurance: new issues for academic inquiry / Elaine El-Khawas; Curricula in international perspective / Lisa R. Lattuca; Doctoral education: present realities and future trends / Philip G. Altbach; Higher education finance: trends and issues / Arthur M. Hauptman; For-profit higher education: US tendencies, international echoes / Kevin Kinser and Daniel C. Levy; Globalization and the university: realities in an unequal world / Philip G. Altbach; Governance and administration: organizational and structural trends / Barbara Sporn; History of universities / Harold Perkin; Internationalization: concepts, complexities and challenges / Jane Knight; Higher education management: challenges and strategies / George Keller; Reflections on the transition from elite to mass to universal access: forms and phases of higher education in modern societies since WWII / Martin Trow; The private fit in the higher education landscape / Daniel C. Levy; Beyond private gain: the public benefits of higher education / David E. Bloom, Matthew Hartley, and Henry Rosovsky; Research and scholarship / Grant Harman; Student politics: activism and culture / Philip G. Altbach; Teaching and learning in higher education / James J. F. Forest; Rhetoric or reality?: technology in borderless higher education / Svava Bjarnason; Part two 'Regions and countries' contains: Section one 'Regional perspectives': Higher education in the Arab world / Linda Herrera; Higher education in Central and Eastern Europe / Peter Scott; Higher education developing countries / David E. Bloom and Henry Rosovsky; European integration in higher education: the Bologna Process towards a European high education area / Hans de Wit; Higher education in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa / Juma Shabani; Latin American university transformation in the 1990s: altered identities? / Marcela Mollis; Higher education in Scandinavia / Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt; Higher education in Southeast Asia in the era of globalization / Molly N. N. Lee; Higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa / Damtew Teferra; Section two 'National perspectives': Argentina / Ana M. Garcia de Fanelli; Australia / Simon Marginson; Brazil / Simon Schwartzman; Canada / Glen A. Jones; Chile / Jose Joaquin Brunner and Anthony Tillett; China / Ruth Hayhoe and Qiang Zha; Egypt / Iman Farag; France / Christine Musselin; Germany / Barbara M. Kehm; India / N. Jayaram; Indonesia / M. K. Tadjudin; Iran / Abbas Bazargan; Israel / Yaacov Iram; Italy / Roberto Moscati; Japan / Akiyoshi Yonezawa; Kenya / Charles K. Ngome; Korea / Namgi Park; Mexico / Hugo Casanova-Cardiel; The Netherlands / Egbert de Weert; Nigeria / Munzali Jibril; Poland / Wojciech Duczmal; Russia / Anna Smolentseva; South Africa / Chika Trevor Sehoole; Spain / Jose-Gines Mora; Turkey / Hasan Simsek; United Kingdom / Michael Shattock; United States / Peter D. Eckel and Jacqueline E. King. Show less

China and India together account for almost 25 per cent of the world's postsecondary student population. Most of the enrolment growth in the coming several decades will be in developing countries, and China and India will contribute a significant proportion of that expansion, since China currently educates only about 20 per cent and India 10 per cent of the age cohort. Both countries are expanding the higher education sector, while at the same time seeking to improve its quality. Challenges of funding, educating qualified academics, and building a sustainable academic culture are significant. An emerging private higher education sector and developing masters and doctoral programmes are additional pressures. Internationalization is a key factor as well, as both countries seek to expand their global profile and develop strategies for international programmes. Also, higher education development is central to future economic growth of these two of the world's fastest growing economies.

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This report examines the changes that have taken place since the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, in particular the main engines of change and their impact on higher education. This trend report is intended to provide background analysis and to animate discussion at the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. It examines the central issues and the contextual factors that have shaped higher education in the past decade, and presents prospects for the immediate future. Much of this report is concerned with the ways in which higher education has responded to the challenge of massification. Other issues examined include globalisation; inequalities in access; increasing student mobility; teaching, learning and curricula; quality assurance, accountability and qualifications frameworks; financing and the public good-private good debate; the growth of private higher education; the academic profession; the research environment; information and communications technology; and the impact of demographics and the economic crisis on the development and reform of higher education in the immediate future.

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The [developed] world is worrying about skills shortages, especially at the upper levels of their economies. The causes are many - such as a 'demographic cliff' in Japan and in some European countries, significantly reducing the numbers of university-age young people, especially too few students enrolling in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, a leveling off of access, and low-degree completion rates. What is a solution of these problems? Increasingly, it is to boost the 'stay rates' of international students - in other words, to convince international students, mainly from developing and middle-income countries, to remain after they complete their degrees. To oversimplify, the [developed countries] are robbing the brains of the developing countries - or for that matter any qualified brains who can be lured. Although the brain drain has been part of academia for a century or more, the situation is increasingly acute for all sides. For developing and emerging countries, the danger is that they will be left behind in the global knowledge economy, thus permanently damaging their futures.

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International higher education has become a major income producer for Australia for more than two decades. The prime goal of internationalisation was moneymaking, which resulted in creating perceived problems in ethics, quality, and academic integrity. As well, the recent policy change in reducing international students has affected institutions that had been too dependent upon high proportions of international enrollments. Current estimates are that international student numbers in Australia may fall by 20 per cent, albeit mainly in the vocational sector, with a concomitant decline in revenues. However, for some universities that had grown too dependent upon high proportions of international enrollments, the effects are likely to be significant. All of this is a predictable outcome of commercialism shaping international education. It is hoped that the recently announced reforms will to some extent restore Australia's enviable international academic image, its 'brand', which has already been significantly damaged. Australia's example has important lessons for other countries. Show less

This chapter first presents historical developments and current characteristics of Chinese and Indian higher education systems. It then examines the respective roles of China and India in [an] increasingly globalised higher education sphere by looking into cross-border mobility and international research competitiveness. The chapter finally explores the internal challenges related to higher education access, equity and emergence of private provision in China and India. It shows that while China and India are two of the world's largest academic systems, it is less clear that these systems will be globally competitive in the near future.

Published abstract.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 98.698. Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 98.699 to TD/TNC 98.709. Show less

The Arab Spring came, in part, from the region's universities. Students are central actors throughout the region. The weaknesses of the universities have been highlighted by these social movements. They include political interference at many levels, overcrowded classrooms, an inefficient and unresponsive administration, a decline in quality at all levels, an irrelevant curriculum, underqualified professors, and perhaps most significantly, qualifications that do not lead to jobs. Additional funding, higher standards, and other improvements are needed. High levels of unemployment of graduates need also to be reduced. Achieving needed reform in difficult political, social, and economic circumstances constitutes a daunting challenge. First, a roadmap for change is needed. Then, a social consensus must emerge to implement it. Show less