“Making Education Responsive to Prior Learning”

Keynote Address prepared for the 29th EUCEN Conference “From Bologna to Bergen and Beyond”

Ms Rachel C. PrinslooApril 28-30, 2005

Univ ersity of South Africa, Pretoria, 0002; South AfricaPrivate Bag X6, Florida l7l0, South AfricaTelephone: +27 ll 47l 3938; Fax: +27 1l 47 3476; E-mail: rprinslo@tsa.ac.za

Visit our website at http://www.unisa.ac.za

Preamble

Introduction• Acknowledgement of the context setting

value of the Feutrie, Davies and Dondi position papers

• Provide a policy and developmental trajectory of key events in Bologna Process

• Serve as advocacy templates, EUCEN institutional memory and account

Interpreting my brief

• Deceptively simple task of providing an “outsiders” perspective to the debates

• Admit to temptation to simply respond and answer thoughtful and provocative position frameworks

• Engage in dialogical and interactive approach

Structure of the Keynote Address

• Propose to explore 4 dimensions

(i) Locate the notion of “education” in contemporary debates of “end of knowledge” in higher education through

framing “education” as the knowledge brokerage and knowledge production function of universities explicitly in the service of the public good

Structure of the Keynote Address cont.

• (ii) Examine the tactical value of QF’s underpinned by quality regimes as an instrument to promote alignment, articulation, comparability and portability. Use UNISA as a case study to illuminate silences and gaps in the EU processes

• (iii) Engage with the emerging findings of a recent CHE study on Equity and Access for Adults and Workers

Structure of the Keynote Address cont

• (iv) Conclude by distilling common

challenges

Using a “Bergen now” and “Beyond” lens to envision the future and identify strategic pitfalls from the analysis

Offer tentative recommendations as a humble contribution to the dialogue and conference outcomes

Contemporary Challenges

• Singh (2003) argues for a new social embeddedness of universities through constructive enagement in 4 spheres:

renegotiating aims, purposes and priorities;relating teaching and learning to the wider world; dialogical interaction between scientists and practitioners; assuming responsibilities as neighbours and citizens

Kwiek (200l, p.27) argues that

• “policy for the coming decade cannot be fashioned successfully by fine-tuning policies that are currently in place: policy makers need an entirely new conceptual approach to policy frameworks”, especially with regard to the impact of globalisation on higher education.

Sehoole(2004) provides a balanced account of of the impact of global challenges citing

as examples

rapid explosion of new and specialist fields, arrival of private providers, corporate

universities and growing in-house R & D activities in the business sector

Barnett’s (2000) alternative to “end of knowledge” and legitimacy crisis

• Suggests 4 elements to reposition education

(i) Capacity for innovative and revolutionary accounts of contemporary life

(ii) New discourses and new technologies(iii) New forms of professional life(iv) Process of constructive engagement and

critical reflection – Michel’s challenge to become learning organisations

Africa’s Response to Globalising Environment

• Transformation of OAU and alignment of south-south bloc

• Establishment of AU led by SA and Nigeria• The South African Higher Education System, the

education and training landscape, is being re-engineered to finally disrupt the ideological and geo-political imagination of the apartheid social engineers, by creating an integrated system that is premised on equity, consistency and quality, dissolving the racialised inequalities of the past.

• The transformation project also intends to reposition the higher education system within the competitive and globalised economy.

Effects of Academic Entrepreneurship on The SA HE Landscape

• l990’s saw explosion of private providers• 45 formally registered by DoE out of potential 323• More contentiously – GATS challenge by 5 countries for

SA to remove “burdensome requirements” for access to educational trade

• Response- vehement assertion by Min of Ed of right to protect public good and affirm need for state intervention and protectionism

• No accident that the SA CHE ED Mala Singh will lead the OECD/ UNESCO Cross Border Ed Provision QA exercise

Qualification Frameworks and the Creation of Comprehensive Institutions

• The South African government’s intention in introducing the new institutional type, the comprehensive, was informed by the fact that such a type would be well placed to address a range of policy goals central to the national human resource development strategy

Policy Intentions

Facilitating access to higher education and the promotion of student mobility through enhanced articulation between career-focussed and general academic programmes; strengthening applied research, and improved responsiveness to regional and national human resource, skills and knowledge needs are stipulated as key advantages.

The SA HE Policy and Regulatory Environment - Triangulated Planning and QA Levers

DoE (1997) PQM / NAP

Policy & Leg. Public Good

Funding

HEI’sand New UNISA SAQA Act 1995

NQF Architecture & OBE Quality Regulation for ETD

CHE / HEQC InstitAudits ProgAccred / Capacity Building 2000 +

ETQA

Responsibilities of SAQA (l995)• create an integrated national framework for learning

achievements • facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within,

education, training and career pathways• enhance the quality of education and training• accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in

education, training and employment opportunities• and thereby contribute to the full personal development of

each learner aimed, in part, at achieving the relevant NQF objectives relating to and the social and economic development of the nation at large.

• RPL is access, redress, portability, mobility and progression within the NQF

• The SAQA Act states that “[a] qualification may be achieved in whole or in part through recognition of prior learning, which concept includes but is not limited to learning outcomes achieved through formal, informal and non-formal learning and work experience” (1995: 9).

Draft HEQF – policy trajectory outcome

• Basis for integrating all qualifications into the NQF and its structures for standards generation and quality assurance

• Improves coherence of the higher education system & facilitates articulation of qualifications enhancing the flexibility of the system

• Enabling student portability in pursuit of their academic or professional careers

• New HEQF establishes common parameters and criteria for qualifications design and facilitates the comparability of qualifications across the system. Diversity and innovation are encouraged.

• Higher education institutions will have ample scope to design educational offerings to realise their different visions, missions and plans and to meet the varying needs of the clients and communities they serve.

The UNISA QF

• Regulatory frameworks, common guiding principles and critical capacity building for implementation

• HEQC’s Improving T & L Resources

• NADEOSA’S Provider Readiness QA Instrument for online delivery http://nadeosa.org.za

• Evaluative Question 3: Academic Demands & Relevance / Suggested Good Practice Descriptors

• Student need• The programme’s design, volume of credits, expected completion time and delivery methods

are based on a detailed profile analysis of its target students.. • The programme offers a degree of curriculum choice and flexibility and is delivered via an

appropriate media and technology mix.• Disciplinary and occupational demands• The programme offers students a sound disciplinary knowledge base and sufficient theoretical

and conceptual depth taught at the appropriate level to serve its educational purpose. • There is evidence that the content and theory taught on the programme are current and up-to-

date with recent developments in the discipline/ field. Evidence that, where appropriate, staff members’ research activities contribute to the depth and rigour of the programme’s offerings.

• Contextualisation• Where appropriate, the programme offers opportunities for the contextualisation of the knowledge

and skills learnt. Contextualisation is achieved by using appropriate teaching methods, for example, through work-site placements, service learning, community service, project work and South African/ African perspectives in the curriculum.

• Requirements of external stakeholders• The programme’s design meets the requirements of legitimate external stakeholders such as

professional bodies and potential employers and undertakes a scientific and academic interpretation of expressed industry needs and identified competences.

• Marketable qualifications• Where appropriate, evidence of the programme’s marketability and credibility in the labour market

can be shown.• Research competence• Where appropriate, the programme offers opportunities for students to develop research

competence.

CHE Equity & Access Adults and Workers Study

White Paper 3 – A Programme for Higher Education Transformation (DoE 1997: 2.2) highlights the need for “broadening of the social base of the higher education system” by increasing access to higher education of “workers and professionals in pursuit of multi-skilling and re-skilling, and adult learners who were denied access in the past.”

• Successful policy must overcome historically determined patterns of fragmentation, inequality and inefficiency. It must increase access for black, women, disabled and mature students, and generate new curricula and flexible models of learning and teaching, including modes of delivery, to accommodate a larger and more diverse student population. (1997: 1.13).

Contestation: LLL and Widening Participation

• Assimilationist model or

• Institutional transformation and responsiveness??

• Tracking and monitoring mechanisms

• Proving active student status

• Identification of “at risk” students and timeous interventions

Distillation of Emerging Challenges for South Africa and The European Context

“Bergen Now”• Qualifications Frameworks and the

Recognition of Prior Learning• Retaining the full spectrum of programmes

and qualifications in the proposed European Qualifications Framework

• Accreditation Frameworks, Common Principles and Mutual Recognition of Decisions

• Ensuring fully participatory, inclusive, transparent and democratic engagement

“Beyond Bergen”

• Directions for Further Development to achieve the 20l0 EHEA Goals

• International Higher Education and a Response to the Globalising Arena

• Revisiting The Magna Charta Universitatum to Reposition the EHEA more Strategically

I thank you