Selected Recommendations

8.1 Tuition Assistance, Subsidies for Poor and Vulnerable Students, and Loans

One of the useful lessons of the 1997–1998 crisis was the key role played by emergency subsidies to poor students. Though limited, these measures were essential for sustaining access to education and education completion rates. Nevertheless, the amounts and the means of selection and distribution of subsidies require greater transparency. No capable student should be prevented from continuing his or her education due to poverty.

Part of the answer would seem to be a national system of loans, rather than free education. The experience of developing countries with respect to student loan schemes is varied. Those developing countries which do not have the infrastructure needed to institute a comprehensive loan scheme are cautioned about abruptly starting one. Small countries such as the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Mongolia have different management challenges for implementation of a comprehensive system of student loans than large countries such as the PRC or Viet Nam. Measures need to be developed to ensure that loans do not become misdirected by recipients, whose families may be facing strong transitory financial crisis.

One way to address such challenges is to involve the institutions directly, though this may add to costs of maintaining records on the part of the institutions. In this respect, a proper balanced scheme should be reached. The aim in all cases should be to eventually launch a viable system of nationwide student loans for higher education, one that can survive amid future economic shocks and also guarantee a high degree of cost recovery.

Can current conditions support a more sophisticated system of recession proof student loans? The experience of developing countries with student loans was encapsulated in a World Bank paper (2008b). It is useful to examine the best practices in the different student loan systems of developing countries. Sarvi (2008) has taken note of studies by Ziderman (2004) and Woodhall (2007) that assessed the implementation of student loan schemes in five Asian countries. The study revealed weaknesses in areas such as “financial appraisal, forward planning, monitoring and evaluation, inadequate targeting, and inefficiency in collection” (Sarvi 2008:10).

8.2 Information and Guidance for Students from Poor and Vulnerable Populations

Students, especially those from the first generation in their family to attend college or university, need guidance and protection from substandard higher education. This is especially needed during recessions when recourse cutbacks may decrease the quality of instruction in higher education. It is already clear in the global recession that many households are concerned about the quality of higher education. However, the decision on which institution to attend should still be a personal decision. Students who are willing to pay full fees and not get tuition support should be able to attend the academic programs they choose. Especially for students who receive tuition assistance, there is a need for government protection and a guarantee that they are receiving a quality education that has a good possibility of leading to productive employment.

8.3 Labor Markets and Community-Based Vocational and Technical Higher Education

As higher education has rapidly expanded in many Asian and Pacific countries, the number of students unable to locate appropriate employment opportunities after graduation has greatly increased in some countries. The recession has intensified this problem. While massification of higher education provides more opportunities to poor and vulnerable populations, it also comes with higher fees for tuition, accommodations, books and other supplies. While the status of regular higher education has remained consistent and rooted in traditional values, there are increasing signs that households are expecting greater relevance of higher learning for the labor market.

Several developing countries in the region are responding to the pressure for greater relevance by placing more emphasis on higher vocational and technical education. However, there is a need to intensify the support for community-based vocational and technical education that can react quickly to rapid changes in the job markets and shorten the time to complete diplomas and degrees. These institutions also need to focus on generic skills, including communication, problem solving, and creative thinking that will help graduates adjust to future economic shifts that could cause restructuring of labor markets. These institutions also need to stay socially relevant to match local community development trends. As community college models have become disseminated across an increasing number of countries, they have demonstrated a high degree of flexibility in the delivery of instructional services, especially for underserved populations, and have helped students address the rapidly changing economic landscape.

8.4 Performance-Based Measures

Quality indicators related to performance can decline during a recession. The emphasis given to performance indicators across higher education systems in the Asia and Pacific region differs significantly. A recent study revealed that academic staff in developing countries like the PRC and Malaysia saw less of a performance orientation in their institutions compared to academic staff in more developed economies like Hong Kong, China and the Republic of Korea (Postiglione and Wang, forthcoming). There is a general need to narrow the gap in the use of performance indicators and provide transparent standards for judgment about quality for prospective students and their families. With respect to instructional quality, there is a great deal that can be done to identify and reward competent teachers. The extent to which a system of career incentives can be arranged to develop and retain high quality college and university academic staff during recessions is still an area in which developing countries can make a key part of their long-term planning.

Quality teaching has invaluable downstream benefits to a society experiencing an economic downturn. Quality instructional resources need to be recognized and should match with the provision of physical and social infrastructure that support continued professional development of academic staff.

8.5 Cost Sharing

There is less reason to compartmentalize the financing of tertiary education such that it becomes an automatic transfer source of funds for basic education during a recession. It makes greater sense to take a more systemwide approach toward cost sharing among different levels of the education system based on present conditions and forward planning (SEAMEO 2005).

One of the positive lessons of the 1997–1998 crisis was the provision of more autonomy for public institutions to enter into new financial arrangements for joint academic programs with private institutions. Therefore, it is worthwhile to continue to examine a range of cost-sharing alternatives that involve public–private financing partnerships, and to more closely scrutinize legal and social policy issues that determine the success of cost-sharing reforms.

Institutions should be able to make choices from a wide range of policy options that can be adopted to ensure partnerships. More innovative financing mechanisms should be directed at improving both greater access for poor and vulnerable populations and greater quality assurance in higher education.

Public–private partnership models, including those that involve transnational collaboration, have a role in improving the external efficiency of higher education by creating innovative ways to offer new programs at reasonable costs. In some cases, governments provide land and infrastructure, with management and teaching handled by the private sector. Through such cost-sharing, colleges and universities can recover costs and ensure sufficient salaries to attract high-quality faculty members. In other cases, governments provide autonomy to private endeavors but set the upper limit on fees charged to students and ensures minimum standards. Whatever the case, possibilities of expanding private initiatives—consistent with public objectives—can be further explored. In some countries, public support remains essential where other actors are not available and where philanthropic initiatives can supplement the government-planned expansion of higher education.

8.6 Diversification and Differentiation of Institutions

System and institutional diversification is on the rise, as public higher education has to respond to a more complex set of socioeconomic development challenges. Diversification is seen not only among traditional colleges and universities, undergraduate education-focused institutions, and research universities, but also community-driven vocational and technical higher education, as well as tertiary distance education. As program needs become more differentiated, there is a need to examine a wider variety of cross-institutional articulation and funding options between public and private, domestic and cross-national, providers (Postiglione 2008).

8.7 Philanthropic Ventures

Economic success in Asia has given birth to a spirit of generosity rooted in traditional values. The last decade has seen an exponential rise in the culture of philanthropy, and a significant part of this has been for the benefit of higher education. This has been the case more in some countries than others but the trend is unmistakable. There is a need to provide an environment of confidence about philanthropic partnerships by regulations that encourage involvement, provide accountability, and increase transparency, in order to help identify niches where fresh philanthropic partnership approaches can be launched to address needs in teaching, research, and service functions of colleges and universities.

8.8 Upgrading of Research

Much of tomorrow's socioeconomic development will be inextricably tied to higher education, including funding for university research laboratories (Postiglione 2009e). This funding can be used to support research in science, technology, and medicine that aids poor communities, as well as research focused on the effects of climate change on the Asian environment (ecological, economic, social, etc). The number and quality of research universities will increase. However, there is a need to consider strategic possibilities in an Asia-wide context. Research universities are the most expensive component of higher education, and their outputs are not always measurable in the short term. However, well-established research universities will become an indispensible part of regional integration into the global economy with important long-term contributions for facilitating innovation.

8.9 Regional Strategies to Attract International Students

For many years, Asia has contributed the largest number of foreign students to colleges and universities in the United States, United Kingdom, continental Europe, Canada, and Australia (Raychaudhuri and De 2007). In anticipation of future recessions, countries in Asia can be more proactive in attracting international students from outside the region. Along with increased trade and economic cooperation, Asian countries can foster a flourishing trade in educational services. Intraregional mobility of students is increasing and forecast to expand further with rising levels of science and technology. One study of intraregional mobility revealed that “as East Asian markets have been experiencing increasing enrolments from other East Asian countries throughout this decade, some traditional destinations have experienced noticeable declines in enrolments from some major East Asian markets or a flattening of demand” (JWT Education 2008: 11). East Asian universities are now very active in recruiting international students from East Asia (Table [ PDF 17.3KB | 1 page ]). Intraregional student mobility in East Asia over the medium to long term will continue to increase as the rate of student flows to Western countries slows. Tuition fees are between a quarter and a fifth of those in developed countries. Regional cooperation in this respect has advantages and collectively, Asian countries may be able to mitigate some of the impact of global recessions on their populations.

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