9th OECD/Japan Seminar

      All OECD countries are confronted with rapidly changing higher education systems and that lead them to consider how they want to shape their universities and other higher education institutions. In a fast changing and increasingly competitive world, the role of higher education in equipping the labour force with relevant skills, in stimulating innovation and supporting productivity and in enriching the quality of life is central. Some governments have started to think about the driving forces of change and desired future orientations for their higher education system.

      The aim of this session is to share national information on current higher education and to discuss the future issues of higher education and universities.

      The issue is whether universities will continue to perform these roles in the future or will take on new roles. The changes occurring inside higher education are directly linked to changes in society itself. Higher education is confronted with a range of driving forces for change as for example massification of education and of demand for learning; demographics such as diminishing numbers of young people, ageing populations, ethnic diversity; rapidly changing international skills markets; new technologies of production, consumption and learning; increasing private knowledge production and new forms of knowledge management; changing intellectual property rights regimes; changing patterns of public management, governance and citizenship; new forms of competence recognition, qualifications, and market signals; social fragmentation and/or solidarity and changing value systems etc. All the changes are affecting the three main missions of universities: teaching, research and services.

      These changes may also alter the values that are attached to higher education systems in unexpected ways. Thinking about the future of higher education involves a reflection on the evolution of the core values attached to higher education: how might they evolve in light of the above described changes? How might they be endangered or benefit from the future changes?

      The aim of the session is to create a common understanding of future roles of universities and the socio-economic changes affecting the universities and to help post-secondary education policy-makers and stakeholders propose adequate responses to these changes.

Helena Sebkova, Centre for Higher Education Studies, Czech Republic
Yiu Kwan Fan, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

Lilia Orantes Galvez, Ministry of Education, Mexico
Byung-Shik Rhee, Korean Educational Development Institute, Korea

(to be confirmed)
Futao Huang, Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan

Rene Bugge Bertramsen, Director for Higher Education, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Denmark
Dararatt Anantanasuwong, National Institute of Development, Thailand

      The OECD Secretariat will introduce a small number of preliminary scenarios for the future of universities. Especially, these draft scenarios introduced by the OECD Secretariat are highly inspired by the discussions at a high level OECD/CERI experts meeting on the 24-25 June 2003 on the future of universities.

      The aim of this session is to discuss and analyse probable and possible scenarios for the future of universities.

      This section will address how the scenarios can be managed in desirable ways seen from the point of view of students, employers, higher education institutions and policy-makers. It will focus in particular on the future role of governments in managing post-secondary education systems. How will/can governments seek to manage their post-secondary education system in a politically desirable way taking into account the future role of universities and driving forces of change.