Svava Bjarnason

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Borderless Higher Education - Competition or
Collaboration?
Svava Bjarnason Observatory on Borderless Higher
Education
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Todays Presentation

• Introduction BBE / OBHE
• Challenges
• GATS
• Scenarios
• Responses
• Threats and opportunities

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Future Challenges

• Pace of change is accelerating
• Managing is more complex
• Traditional boundaries are becoming blurred
• Lack of clarity in identifying competitors

Council for Excellence in Management and
Leadership 2000
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Borderless higher education involves the
interaction between...
Traditional HE / CPD / Lifelong learning
Distance learning / Transnational education
Time / Space / Geography / Level
Internationalisation
New technologies
Public / Private / Not-for-profit providers
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Forces Driving Change in HE

• Continuing growth in demand
• Increased recognition of the economic returns
• Expanding and shifting frontiers of knowledge
• Communications and information technology
• Economic globalisation and inter- nationalisation
  
• Democratic quest for cohesion, justice and
  equity in social arrangements

The University Challenged a review of
international trends and issues 2001
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General Agreement onTrade in Services (GATS)

• Liberalization of trade in services
• Education one of twelve service sectors
• Five levels of education services
• 21 of 44 countries committed to trade in HE
• Request/offer stage ends 30/03/03
• Negotiations close 31/01/05

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Modes of trade

• Mode 1 Cross-border supply
• distance learning
• Mode 2 Consumption abroad
• students travelling abroad
• Mode 3 Commercial presence
• branch campuses
• Mode 4 Presence of individuals
• visiting scholars

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Global Players

• Global mega universities
• Traditional public universities
• Private universities
• Corporate universities
• Media Publishing Houses
• Professional Associations
• Brokers

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Scenario 1 Invaders Triumph

• Large, higher learning businesses enter
  national markets
• Varied forms commercial, public/private
  consortia, public and expanded on-line
• Target markets business, healthcare,
  engineering, IT
• Undergraduate, postgraduate, CPD
• Use of local centres in convenient locations

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Scenario 2 Trojan Horse

• Foreign HEIs seek local partnerships
• Content designed elsewhere with delivery local
• External on-line exams
• On-line teaching options from foreign partner
• Full range of curricula
• High fees for international currency

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Scenario 3 Community Champions

• International media companies government
  external funding
• Investment in local/regional DL universities
• Community learning opportunities - all levels
• International collaborations possible
• Community projects as vehicle for learning

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Scenario 4 Explorers International

• International educational consortia of
  Professional Associations
• Consortia provide modules/programmes
• Associates study in several countries
• Accreditation consortium or HEIs
• Target market for international qualifications
  managers in private/public sector

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Issues

• Accreditation
• Quality assurance
• Access / capacity building
• Public good
• Collaboration vs competition
• New providers
• Cost

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Expectations of the University

• To be more outward looking
• To provide leadership and service
• To make efficiency gains
• To maintain standards and high quality
• To demonstrate ability to obtain additional
  sources of revenue

The University Challenged a review of
international trends and issues 2001
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Strategic Challenges for Managers

• New strategic positioning of the university
• Need for explicit strategies for eLearning
• Human resources requires more investment
• Competition versus collaboration
• Challenges from corporate providers

European Union Policies and Strategic Change for
eLearning in Universities 2002
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Rationale for online provision
On-campus enhancement 94
Keeping up with competition 71
Widening access 65
Distance learning 59
New international markets 53
Safeguarding international markets 33
New corporate markets 33
Safeguarding corporate markets 20
Cutting costs 20
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Opportunity or Threat?

• Depends on ones perspective!
• International increased mobility of knowledge
  and people global understanding(!?)
• National increased capacity diversity of
  provision
• Institutional new modes of partnership

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We tend to under-estimate change in the longer
term and over-estimate it in the shorter
term. Gill Ringland 1998
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The Observatorywww.obhe.ac.uk

• Major reports 10 per year
• Briefing notes 10 per year
• Weekly breaking news
• Links to other resources
• Empirical research
• Conferences and seminars
• Consulting

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www.obhe.ac.uk