THE GLOBALISATION OF HIGHERF EDUCATION AND THE RECOGNITION OF
QUALIFICATIONS
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Introduction
Globalization of
higher education is one of the major trends of development in the academic world. It takes
many forms. To mention but a few, one is the rapid evolvement of transnational education,
coupled as it is with the advent of new education providers, mainly on the basis of
information technologies. The other is the increased mobility of staff and students, as
well as of study programmes. As a consequence of such new developments, the ways knowledge
is educationally provided and qualifications awarded tend to become global.
The Academic Recognition of
qualifications is faced, in such a ontext, with new challenges.
In the earlier stages
of the development of higher education systems, the issues of recognition were dealt with
inter-institutionally at the national level. It then became important to consider
recognition internationally mainly within various regions of the world. It was at this
stage that international organizations like UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European
Commission acted as venues for the international adoption and operation of regional
recognition conventions or other legal instruments. The question now, given the most
recent developments in higher education, is whether
a global look at the issues of recognition is
not timely and appropriate.
A global perspective on recognition
The response to such a
question cannot be but positive, due to the increasing globalization trends in today’s
higher education. The new types of higher education institutions (e.g. virtual, corporate,
transnational), the diversification of study programmes, of their delivery mechanisms as
well as of their awarding certificates poses new problems to recognition. At the same
time, students and study programmes mobility are not only within the regions, but also
increasingly more between regions. On these grounds, academic recognition should be also
seen from a global perspective and UNESCO is most suitable, given its mission and past
experience in the field, to deal with such a matter.
Proposal
Accepting the above
mentioned premises may imply the organization by UNESCO of a meeting of the Bureaus of the
Regional Committees for the Implementation of the Recognition Conventions (including that
of the joint Lisbon Recognition Convention) as well as of the ENIC Bureau and the NARIC
Advisory Board. UNESCO-CEPES and the Council of Europe are ready to take the lead in
jointly organizing such a meeting together with the corresponding section within the
division ED/HED. Two main topics may be discussed in the proposed meeting:
National, regional and global trends of higher education development;
Academic recognition faced with the
challenges of globalization.
The following outputs of such a meeting may be envisaged:
increasing the awareness on the topics;
identifying ways for extending international
and inter-regional cooperation in the field of academic recognition;
envisaging possible normative instruments
for facilitating cross-regional recognition of qualifications;
possibly, the setting up of a working party
with representatives from both Europe and other parts of the world to look at “global”
recognition issues.