The University of Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education Bologna 2020 Ghent, 19-20 May 2008 The external dimension: Positioning the EHEA in

The University of Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education

Bologna 2020Ghent, 19-20 May 2008

The external dimension: Positioning the

EHEA in the global higher education world

Simon Marginson


Innovation and the knowledge economy are moving to the centre of government policies around the world


We are seeing the emergence of an international ‘arms race’ in investments in innovation


China and the ‘arms race’ in innovation

‘Previous efforts in other countries to use educational transformation as a

mechanism either to maintain high growth or to initiate episodes of high growth have

generally been regarded as unsuccessful, but the focus has been primary and

secondary education, not tertiary. In China’s case, these latest efforts seem to be

motivated by a desire to maintain high growth by using educational transformation as

the primary mechanism for skill upgrading and raising total factor productivity. If

China succeeds, other countries may follow with higher educational competition

between countries as a possible outcome’.

-- Li et al., The Higher Educational Transformation of China and its Global Implications. NBER

Working Paper No. 13849. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2008, p. 4.


Higher education and research in China, and some other East Asian countries, are becoming more and more important on the global scale


Shares of world output:

1978China4.9% India

3.3%Japan7.6%

Western Europe24.2%

other29.4%

Russia9.0%

USA21.6%


Shares of world output:

2030China23.1%

India10.4%

Japan3.6%

Western Europe13.0%

other29.2%

Russia3.4%

USA17.3%


Rise of Asia-Pacific k-economies(not a threat but an opportunity)

•Between 1998-2005 the number of tertiary students in China multiplied by 4.4 times. Tertiary participation has risen from 4 to 20 per cent of young people since 1990.

•From 1996-2005 China increased investment in R&D from 0.57% to 1.35% of GDP. China is the second largest investor in R&D, growing at nearly 20 per cent per annum. The number of scientific papers produced in China rose from 9061 in 1995 to 41,596 in 2005, multiplying by 4.6 times.

•From 1995-2005 annual scientific papers multiplied by four times in Korea; and three times in Singapore, which spent 2.24% of GDP on R&D in 2003,which was a higher level than most European nations.

•By 2010, 90% of all science and engineering PhDs will be Asians living in Asia.


Annual rate of growth of scientific publications, 1995-2005

16.515.7

13.9

12.2

8.6

4.5

2.3 2.0 1.8 1.7

0.60.0

5.3

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

China

South KoreaTaiwan ChinaSingaporeThailandMalaysia

India

world average

Australia

European Union

Japan USA UK


Average annual growth of spending on R&D 1995-2005 (%)

[constant prices, OECD. China data for 2000-2005 only]

1.31.9 2.0

2.5 2.9 2.9

4.14.7

6.97.8

18.5

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

FranceUK

Australia Germany

USA JapanSweden Canada Korea Finland China


Catching up fast: Investment in R&D in China as a % of GDP

UNESCO data for 1996-2005

0.57 0.64 0.650.76

1.07 1.131.23

2.24

0.90

1.35

0.95

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Singapore 2003


In response to the new global spatiality a number of strategic options have emerged, for institutions and systems


1 Change the structures of global relations• Partnerships, networks, consortia• Online e-U’s on a worldwide basis• Regionalism, as in the case of the EHEA

2 Cross borders more often• Promote mobility of students and staff• Mobility of institutions, as by the UK and Australia

3 Build strength as a node within the global networks• National investment in innovation capacity• Research concentration policies• Knowledge city/university synergies• National ‘hub’ strategies, such as Singapore

Strategic options


The EHEA has plenty of scope to step up the engagement with higher education worldwide


Strategies for EHEA engagement

• Attract high flying researchers and foreign doctoral students on the American scale by lowering barriers and reaching outwards

• Attract the R&D business of global corporations

• Continue building active networks with institutions in other regions

• Develop mobile institutions, creating campuses abroad

• Open source courseware as at MIT

• Open source academic publishing as at Harvard arts and science

• Build research concentrations and knowledge cities

• Lead the development of a global higher education architecture based on mutual capacity building in which diversity is integral as in the EHEA

• Look outwards, seize the day, Asia, Asia, Asia …


The EHEA will not become the leading knowledge economy region in the world by 2020, even if all governments spend American levels of GDP on higher education and R&D (though it would partly close the gap).

This is because US supremacy as a knowledge economy rests on more than just education and research.


Others: Italy, Israel, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia each 1.

USA53%

UK11%

Japan6%

Germany6%

Canada4%

Sweden4%

France4%

Switzerland3%

Netherlands2% Australia

2%

others5%

Others (one each): Israel, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia

Shanghai Jiao Tong top 100 research universities 2007


Others: Italy, Israel, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia each 1.

UKJapan

USA

Shanghai Jiao Tong top 20 research universities 2007


Disciplines in SJTU top 100, 2008PHYS SCI ENGINEERING LIFE SCI MEDICINE SOC SCI TOTAL

United States 59 49 62 61 77 308

United Kingdom 9 7 11 12 11 50

Canada 2 6 5 6 7 26

Germany 7 1 6 6 0 20

Japan 7 7 3 2 0 19

Netherlands 1 3 2 5 4 15

Switzerland 3 2 4 2 0 11

Australia 1 3 4 3 1 10

Israel 4 2 2 2 0 10

China 0 9 0 0 1 10

Sweden 2 3 2 2 0 9

France 5 2 1 1 0 9

Belgium 0 2 3 2 1 8

Italy 2 3 0 1 0 6

Denmark 2 1 1 1 1 6

South Korea 1 3 0 0 0 4

Singapore 1 2 0 0 1 4

others 1 2 1 3 1 8


Meta-strategy

1. The EHEA could become not the leading but the most innovative knowledge economy in the world by 2020

2. The EHEA’s global competitive advantage in part lies in its superior cultural capacity to engage and collaborate

3. Open source rather than IP is increasingly the dominant mode

4. It is crucial to develop extensive and intensive relations with higher education and research in China and other Asian nations

5. The EHEA shares with China and other rising Asian knowledge powers an interest in the development of a more plural higher education environment

6. The EHEA could make a major contribution to the global architecture in the sector, which can develop only slowly

Documents

The University of Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education Bologna 2020 Ghent, 19-20 May 2008 The external dimension: Positioning the EHEA in