Adult, Vocational and Higher Education - Essay Example

Running head: ADULT, VOCATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION Adult, Vocational and Higher Education Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Introduction “Education is a better safeguard of liberty that a standing army”, this are wise words postulated by Edward Everett, an American politician and educator and who was the president of Harvard University between 1846 and 1849. The process of gathering knowledge which is rather referred to as education is one of the most valued activities in most countries. Many people have invested a lot of resources in education not only for the young people but also for the adults more than any other project. However, education has not been without stabling blocks to its success. This paper therefore seeks to discuss the 21st century issues for the adult, vocational and higher education. The paper will also reflect on the perceived challenges affecting these institutions of learning which have posed a great threat to the learning process. Consequently, the paper will also formulate some of the ways in which these institutions can respond to the challenges of globalization in the best interest of the students. Challenges affecting adult, vocational and higher education The adult, vocational and higher education in Australia has been faced by many challenges both locally and internationally. For instance Australia has ragged behind other nations in the investment and the performance of higher institutions of learning. The idea behind the investment in higher education is that there is established relationship between the productivity of a country and the level of skills attained from theses institutions. For this reason therefore the country seeks not only to increase the number of degree qualifications but more importantly the quality of graduates (National Library of Australia and Commonwealth National Library (Australia), 1998). The other challenge affecting the higher education is the rate at which the Australian higher institutions are loosing their grounds. According to a study conducted in the Organization of economic co-operation and development area it indicated a decline of degree qualifications in Australia form 7th position a decade ago to 9th position currently. This is a challenge that has set the country at a great competitive disadvantage and it requires an immediate action before the situation turns worse. The Australia institutions of higher learning are affected by the shortage of well qualified people who can perform in various capacities to meet the ever increasing labor demand in the country. The number of undergraduate persons has been anticipated to fail the market demand for labor thereby requiring recruiting other unrepresented groups such as the indigenous and those disadvantaged by circumstance of birth (Altbach at el, 2005). Higher education in Australia has also been challenged by the difficulties of providing higher education program in the areas with weak market support. Some regions are considered to have no capacity to maintain the viable higher education presence. The setting of these institutions in those areas has gained no impetus fearing that it may not give the equivalent of the resources invested there. The collaboration of the government and other education providers has been found futile citing the difficulties and inefficiencies in the practicality of the ideas. Another big challenge in the higher education in Australia is poor quality of the students in the country. About two decades ago, Australia introduced as system which allowed most of the people to get access to higher education. Australia was the leading country the by conversion of the elites to mass system. Currently the number of student in full time programs is very low resulting to a very unhealthy ratio of students to staff which is unacceptable. With many students in the system the teachers are not in a position to monitor the progress of students and the teaching in lecture halls becomes a problem. The institutions of higher education in Australia have been challenged by the narrow scope of the subject fields offered. Not withstanding the fact that the industry of education in Australia forms the third largest export industry it is discouraging to know that a quarter of the students are from other countries. This can be termed an area of concern because the students contribute greatly to the economy. This is a challenge to the long term survival of the industry because it can lead to inevitability of the industry in the long term. The learning in the institutions of higher education has also been challenged by the lack of financial support for research purposes. Research is one of the most fundamentals of higher education through which new knowledge is got. In absentia of research the kind of education that is given to the student is very low and affects the student experience. Australian universities are founded on the national strategy and for research and innovation. Globalization of education Currently the higher education is increasingly becoming internationalized with more that 2.7 million students acquiring education in foreign countries. This has been brought again by the ever increasing demand of labor force for graduate students all over the world. With the introduction of open system where one can get education from any corner the student mobility has continued to rise day by day. Nevertheless the globalization of education has not been without challenges both to the students and the teachers as well as the managers charged with the responsibilities of running them. Particularly, the number of Australian student have been said to double in the last one decade. This has resulted to the increment of number of universities in Australia. To deal with these challenges as mentioned earlier, in a review of higher education instituted by the government, it revealed the problems affecting the system of higher education. Again in a nut shell these problems include the lack of investment and performance capacity, losing competitiveness, lack of qualified personnel, expansion to local and remote areas, lack of funds for research, narrow subject fields among many others (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2004). The internationalization of higher education has been found very important. This is more so to the developed countries which have turned education like any other commodity in the market place. The need for more knowledge which is diverse the expansion of international university has become inevitable. The competition has even brought the need to rank the universities in a bid to establish the best one. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities journal, the ranking is done subject wise or according to the field of studies and then the overall in all categories. Globally, Harvard University is ranked the best. The globalization of education has been challenged by the need to remain competitive among other universities in the world. The students, staff and managers have been faced by limitation of resources in their bid to become globally competitive in this environment of conflicting tendencies. In Australia, for instance the institutions of higher education are seriously in the business of overseas selling. For a long time Australia has been a destination for higher education due to its vibrant and quality education. The country has tried to go against all odds and has managed to emerge and stand out. However the growth if international students has subject the higher education in the countries to the challenge of the experiences of the learners and the development of international education (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2004). In a case study of Middle Eastern Students’ Perception and Experiences in a Malaysian University, the globalization of education challenged the student of foreign countries through experiences of dilemma in education ventures and social context. The interaction of the local students and staff with international studies was depicted to have potential challenges. Globalization of education has also been found to extend the risk of brain drain which is also a big challenge. The internationalization has also contributed to a great percentage to the loss of cultural identity and erosion of indigenous values. This poses a challenge to the proponents of internationalization of education as it is expected to bring positivism towards current issues but on the contrary the process is destroying cultural values. However due to multiculturalism the students who have studies in foreign countries have better knowledge and experience in solving diverse problems. The internationalization has also bee challenged by international due to their inability to make cultural adjustments such as new environment for learning and socializing. Some international problems have also been challenged by the language problems, homesick, establishment of friendships and financial constraints. The international students have also been challenged by the experience of psychological aspects. According to a study conducted at University of Waterloo, it indicated that the international students who did not have local Malay friends suffered the highest stress levels comparatively. This posed a challenge to the shy and silent students who don’t get a chance to establish a relationship. Dealing with the situations of globalization of education can also be very challenging. The internationalization has resulted to global and financial impacts in the way forward within the higher education systems. Regardless of the importance attached to global education some of the challenges lack of sufficient finances has limited many potential students from accessing the higher education. On the countries perspective some are experiencing budget constraints and have no extra funds to sponsor students to higher education for further studies. The student who still want to develop their studies in foreign nations deal with this problem by having to enroll for part time educational programs so hat their can get some money to cater for their fees and other expenses during their studies(Altbach at el, 2005). Generally, the internationalization of education forms a crisis driven environment which is contradicting and confusing. The managers of the global higher education institutions need to devise way of dealing with the challenges. Consequently the higher education organizations need to formulate a way to work with the students, staff and society to resolve the challenges. In this case the government which comprises of the policy makers should formulate policies which are o govern the global institutions of higher learning. It should ensure that it creates the correct and comfortable environment which is safe for the local and the international students. The issues of language and discrimination of students should be eliminated by having a common language as well as equal facilities for all students. The research has shown that regardless of the efforts that have been made to better the global higher institutions of learning, there has not been achieved the expected results. This means that internationalization of education still remain a problem. According to practitioners they advocate for sacrifice to those who want to pursue education as international students because the challenges do not seem to be ending soon. Globalization in the context of education has been necessitated and pushed by several well known factors. According to Jane Knight in his book, ‘Higher Education n Africa: the international dimension’, they can be referred to as the factors driving to internalization. One of these factors is the knowledge society which is attributed to a particular area or community. Knowledge society means that a certain society is believed to have perfect know how about a certain concept such as the production process, construction or wealth creation (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2004). The other factor includes the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This factor includes the introduction of technological gadgets which are used for communication worldwide and give the same information at a click of a button. Market economy is also considered another factor for the globalization. In this context market economy means the increment in number of markets and influence on market based economies in the whole world. The need to provide the market with what is not produced locally results to the globalization. Trade liberalization is a factor to globalization. It involves the collapsing of trade barriers and development of new trade agreements which allows free movement of goods, service and know how among countries. Liberalization may also mean integration of the old distinct markets to form a new global one with favorable characteristics. Another factor to globalization is the structure of governance in force. It involves the creation of new international and regional government structures and systems. When the structure changes to accommodate the international communities the globalization becomes inevitable. There are several impacts which have been realized as a result of the factors to the globalization. According to Phillip Altbach, in his book, American Higher Education In The 21st Century, he postulates the following impacts of factors of globalization to education. The impact of knowledge society is that it grows emphasis on the continuing education, life long learning and continual professional development making a rampant unmet demand for post secondary education. It also brings the need to develop new skills for the new professional qualification (Altbach at el, 2005). The information and communication technologies have an impact on the education through the fact that it is through it that new technologies of delivery of education domestic wise of internationally are revealed. The market economy factor of globalization impacts education through the amplified commercialization of higher education as well as training locally and internationally. It also has the impact of increased import and export of education services and programs due to the removal of trade barriers. Liberalization impacts higher education through the change of the role of national level education. It makes the higher education to be recognized internationally as opposed to prior globalization where the level was only for local purposes. Phillip Altbach, in his book again asserts that there are contradictions and the push to internalization. Some of the proponents of the globalization of education are challenged by opponents of the same. It is common knowledge that everything has both pros and cons. Therefore the push to internationalization has been attributed to many developments and at the same time attributed to destructions. He also asserts that the internalization contributed to the stagnation of American system of education after discovery that most of the knowledge gained is used to attack them (Altbach, 2005). In Asian universities globalization has major differing impacts on the higher education. Some of the key issues in all universities across the country as discussed include the following. In china, for instance there has been a challenge for increased demand for higher education. The high demand is said to be brought by the college age students who have missed chances to get to the universities. According to Bao Keming, a Hainan executive vice principal governor, the challenge has been due to rising skills requirement and increased global competitiveness for improvement. This has impacted the system of higher education through introduction of new study areas to suit the skills and professionalism required (British Broadcasting Corporation, 1990). According to Shuxun Chen, in his book, China, the United States and the Global Economy, he asserts that one of the ways of dealing with the challenge of the increased demand in China is the integration of the smaller institutions. The consolidation will gather the resources and potential together and allow more efficient provision of higher education. In Malaysia, the demand of higher educations has also been a bother to the growing economy. According to Molly Lee, in his documented article on privatization of higher education, he postulates that the demand of higher education in Malaysia is a result of growth of multinational enterprises which necessitated the need for graduates. The government institutions in the country then could not meet the demand and therefore introduction of private higher education was the only option. The liberalization of the higher education sector was fuelled by the East Asian Financial Crisis which hit the country in 1997. The high devaluation of the Malaysian Ringgit made foreign education impossible and therefore the students had to remain in the country. This made Malaysia to lose it competitiveness and to bring it back it required expansion of higher education expansion through privatization. In Thailand the development of higher education has been on a high note. According to Sakda Prangpatanpon, in a documentary in the book Dissertations Abstract in Education, he shows the way higher education has developed over the years from a small insignificant beginning to well competitive levels. He asserts that the students have been faced by financial constraints which have formed the greatest problem in expansion and development of higher education system In Asia, the higher education system has been challenged by the financing difficulties in the country. According to Mark Bray in his book, ‘higher education in Macau, he postulates that the government of Asia has not been able to fund higher institutions of learning which requires a lot of money especially for research purposes (Bray and Comparative Education Research Centre, 2002). Consequently, the universities in Europe and America also face challenges though not to the same extent with others in other continents. Such challenges include globalization, social cultural issues, failure to meet the demand levels for graduates, failure to attain the required standards for higher education among many others. In an effort to fit in the global environment for higher education, the universities are bound to go by technological improvements which will aid in the way of service delivery. Some of the most common technological applications for global universities include the following. The use of internet has been a rampant technological application which has helped the global universities to conduct research more effectively. Internet has also aided the communication and transfer of information from one student to another in a different environment allowing experience sharing. Technology has also made it possible to develop more efficient research tools. The computer technology has enable software production which has friendly programs. In Australia the universities and other institutions have moved to new markets. This is in line with technological advancements which have necessitated the higher education system to shift to the e-learning programs. The technological wind has brown over the Indian markets and universities have to adapt by changing to compliance. According to Simon Marginson in his article entitled “E-learning: Expanding the Bottle to fit the Genie’, he asserts that e- learning has enabled more higher education by reducing cost, movement, enabling availability, sharing of experiences, creating on line lectures, posting of lecture notes on sites among many others. Internationalization has affected the quality of education a great deal. This has brought the question of quality assurance in the higher education. According to Judith Eaton, she says that internalization goes together with opportunity cost. This will include lack of social acquaintances in foreign countries, poor communication in studies and victimization. On the e learning some clarification may not be done directly therefore making understanding difficult. Again non attendance of lecture becomes rampant. This affects the level of quality of education but assurance is given by regulatory bodies which ensure compliance with legislations. Recommendations For the government of Australia to deal with the problems of higher education, it requires to formulate some reforms which seek better result from the resources invested in education. Such reforms will include setting national targets for attaining the degrees for the undergraduates, which allows participation of low status economic students as well as act as a bench mark with the other OECD countries for performance rating. A check should be established to monitor the performance and elimination of any deviation should take place immediately (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2004). To ensure that the number of degree qualifications increases all qualified students will secure a place with the commonwealth and receive a subsidy for their learning. Again the restriction of where one would want to take the studies from will be eliminated and diversification of courses should be allowed to result to expanded subject fields. The higher institutions will also be allowed to enroll as many students as possible provided they have the capacity to support them. The higher education should also receive more funding from the government which will allow more infrastructure building and also enable research programs that are limited by finances. The funding should also be extended to the students who have proved difficulties to support themselves. This will include the low social economic status students as well as others with high demanding courses. The funding should also be increased o cater for the regional and rural areas where the institutions consider viable potential realization (Altbach at el, 2005). To eliminate the problem of poor quality education and non qualified students all the institutions of higher learning should be accredited to avoid existence of non standard universities. There should also be established criteria for registration of these institutions. The funding of the institutions should be based on the performance and on the set targets. In case there is any institution that requires a structural change for its better performance the government should provide for funds. A national frame work will also be important in the formulation of solutions. For instance simplification of accountability will be important to allow the institutions to perform to their full capacity. The primary funding of the higher institutions will be charged to the Australian government as well as the regulatory responsibility. This will allow the operations of the higher institutions to run smoothly with proper monitoring and consequential dismissal of individual who portray behaviors which can jeopardize the process of learning. Standard audits and performance contract compliance should be incorporated in the systems on higher education programs. References: Altbach, P., Berdahl, R. and Gumport, P (2005).American higher education in the twenty-first century: social, political, and economic challenges. New York: JHU Press Altbach, P. (2008). Private Prometheus: Private Higher Education and Development in the 21st Century. New York: IAP Press. Bray, M. and Comparative Education Research Centre (2002) Higher education in Macau: growth and strategic development. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre Press British Broadcasting Corporation. (1990). Summary of world broadcasts: Far East, Part 3.Michigan: Monitoring Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation Press Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (2004). Internationalization and trade in higher education: opportunities and challenges. OECD Publishing Press. National Library of Australia and Commonwealth National Library (Australia)(1998). APAIS, Australian public affairs information service: a subject index to current literature. Melbourne: National Library Australia Press. Teferra,,D., Knight, J. and boston college (2008). Higher education in Africa: the international dimension African Books Collective Press University Microfilms and University Microfilms International. (1978). Dissertation abstracts international: The humanities and social sciences University Microfilms International Press Review of Higher Education Reforms. Retrieved from: http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Review/Pages/default.aspx Ranking of World Universities. Retrieved from: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number54/p2_Liu.htm Experience of students and the growth of international education. Retrieved from: http://www.usm.my/ijaps/default.asp?tag=2&vol=6 Read More

The institutions of higher education in Australia have been challenged by the narrow scope of the subject fields offered. Not withstanding the fact that the industry of education in Australia forms the third largest export industry it is discouraging to know that a quarter of the students are from other countries. This can be termed an area of concern because the students contribute greatly to the economy. This is a challenge to the long term survival of the industry because it can lead to inevitability of the industry in the long term.

The learning in the institutions of higher education has also been challenged by the lack of financial support for research purposes. Research is one of the most fundamentals of higher education through which new knowledge is got. In absentia of research the kind of education that is given to the student is very low and affects the student experience. Australian universities are founded on the national strategy and for research and innovation. Globalization of education Currently the higher education is increasingly becoming internationalized with more that 2.

7 million students acquiring education in foreign countries. This has been brought again by the ever increasing demand of labor force for graduate students all over the world. With the introduction of open system where one can get education from any corner the student mobility has continued to rise day by day. Nevertheless the globalization of education has not been without challenges both to the students and the teachers as well as the managers charged with the responsibilities of running them.

Particularly, the number of Australian student have been said to double in the last one decade. This has resulted to the increment of number of universities in Australia. To deal with these challenges as mentioned earlier, in a review of higher education instituted by the government, it revealed the problems affecting the system of higher education. Again in a nut shell these problems include the lack of investment and performance capacity, losing competitiveness, lack of qualified personnel, expansion to local and remote areas, lack of funds for research, narrow subject fields among many others (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2004).

The internationalization of higher education has been found very important. This is more so to the developed countries which have turned education like any other commodity in the market place. The need for more knowledge which is diverse the expansion of international university has become inevitable. The competition has even brought the need to rank the universities in a bid to establish the best one. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities journal, the ranking is done subject wise or according to the field of studies and then the overall in all categories.

Globally, Harvard University is ranked the best. The globalization of education has been challenged by the need to remain competitive among other universities in the world. The students, staff and managers have been faced by limitation of resources in their bid to become globally competitive in this environment of conflicting tendencies. In Australia, for instance the institutions of higher education are seriously in the business of overseas selling. For a long time Australia has been a destination for higher education due to its vibrant and quality education.

The country has tried to go against all odds and has managed to emerge and stand out. However the growth if international students has subject the higher education in the countries to the challenge of the experiences of the learners and the development of international education (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, 2004). In a case study of Middle Eastern Students’ Perception and Experiences in a Malaysian University, the globalization of education challenged the student of foreign countries through experiences of dilemma in education ventures and social context.

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