THE EVOLVING LANDSCAPE AND EMERGING TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION By PROFESSOR LOYISO G. NONGXA

1. SOURCES ReportLinker – http://www.reportlinker.com “ReportLinker is a search engine offering immediate access to the largest collection of reports published by official sources” Commissioned Reports: for example “Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution” a report prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education; by Philip G. Altbach; Liz Reisberg; Laura E. Rumbley. “The Shape of things to come: Higher Education Global Trends and Emerging Opportunities to 2020” British Council Report launched 13 June 2012.

1. SOURCES Universities Associations: for example, European Universities Association and their annual Trends Reports – Bologna process; Southern African Regional Universities Association – SARUA (housed at Wits University); Periodic (daily, weekly) publications on Higher Education matters: for example (a) Inside Higher Ed; University World News; The Chronicle for Higher Education

1. SOURCES "This report is especially devoted to examining the changes that have taken place since the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. While many trends included in this report were discussed in 1998, they have intensified in the past decade" UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education

2. WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT OF: Global financial crisis Youth unemployment Growing inequality

3. FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION Government subsidy Tuition fees Consultancies and services Intellectual property and commercialisation Philanthropy

Intense competition over academic talent - "War for/over talent“ 4. TALENT MOBILITY Intense competition over academic talent - "War for/over talent“ Students: overseas recruitment and incentives - China and India to North America and Europe? Has "brain drain" intensified? Joint appointments: North-South and the diaspora.  Research Chairs and "superstar" academics. Philanthropy: growth of endowments for scholarships and academic positions at alma maters.

Inequalities in access: demand for free education. 5. MASSIFICATION Increasing participation rates: low-income countries less than 10%, Sub-Saharan Africa around 5%. Inequalities in access: demand for free education. High-dropout rates and correlation with socio-economic stats. Access for success: New Kresge initiation in South Africa. Cost remains an enormous barrier to access.

5. FINDINGS Student participation will continue to expand, as will higher education systems. Only a few countries will see a contraction in student numbers; Women will form the majority in student populations in most developed countries and will substantially expand their participation everywhere. The mix of the student population will become more varied, with greater numbers of international students, older students, part-time students, and other types;

5. FINDINGS The social base in higher education will continue to broaden, along with uncertainty about how this will affect inequalities of educational opportunities between social groups. Attitudes and policies relating to access as well as the consciousness among disadvantaged groups will change and become more central to national debates;

6. UNIVERSITY RANKINGS AND DIFFERENTIATION Rankings and investments; Rankings and student recruitmen;t Rankings and partnerships; Rankings: marketing and advertising; Rankings and policy choices.

7. THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCHOLARS "The PhD Study - Academy of Science of South Africa: Consensus Report September 2010". (a) Escalate the numbers of doctoral graduates; (b) Expand significantly the levels of funding; (c) Address pipeline issues; (d) Advocate public support for, and understanding about, the PhD. (e) Strengthen and elaborate the relationship between universities and industry. "Doctoral Programmes for the European Knowledge Society - Report on the EUA Doctoral Programmes Project, 2004: "Doctoral programmes are considered to be a crucial source of a new generation of researchers and to serve as the main bridge between the European Higher Education and Research Areas.

7. THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCHOLARS Partnership for Higher Education in Africa - University Leaders' Forum in Ghana November 2008 "Next Generation of Academics". Carnegie Corporation support of 4 African institutions to produce the next generation of academics. Growing Our Own Timber - GOOT and Staff Development Programmes. ACU Early Career Academics Project - The Nairobi Report.

8. GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION Communication: 'instant' - technologies to achieve this and concomitant investment; Collaboration: academic and intellectual isolation; Knowledge-networks: North-South and West-East. Developing world and Sub-Saharan Africa. "Knowledge, networks and nations" - Final Report of the Royal Society published 28 March 2011.  

8. GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION "Concentrate ownership of publishers, databases, and other key resources in the hands of the strongest universities and some multinational companies located exclusively in the developed world" (UNESCO Report - 2009); English the dominant language of scientific communication - impact on global university rankings. Overseas branch campuses: Middle East and Asia. Recognition and evaluation of 'foreign' qualifications.  

Goal of a 'knowledge-led' economies. 9. TRIPLE HELIX Goal of a 'knowledge-led' economies. Improving and paying closer attention to University-Industry collaboration; Research laboratories in some major universities mainly in developed world and sponsored research. Government: an enabling environment; Intellectual property debates. Concern about high-level skills shortage.

10. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY  The demise of the 'traditional university' around the corner? Depends on whom you are listening to. Revolution brought about by the Internet; The Open and Free Educational Resources Debate - massive online open courses (MOOCs); Connectivity and bandwidth: widening inequality between the "haves" and the "have-nots". Role of NRENs (National Research and Education Networks). Distance Education and 'mega' Open Universities.  

11. THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION Transformation and the academe in South Africa, post 1994; Managerialism versus academic rule. Or Managerialism and unionization of the academe, two sides of the same coin? Remuneration; Next generation of scholars and ageing professoriate- stagnation of the academe; Casualisation of academic work; I have proposed that the University Forum starts the debate around (a), above. Maybe you and I and your colleagues can meet to discuss this project?