Higher education institutions will increasingly work with media conglomerates to create educational material, a Dublin conference has been told. Dr David Woodhouse, president of the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education, said the size of many multinational companies meant their decisions could have more impact on education than governments.
Large multinationals "want to be able to move employees across borders, secure in the knowledge that the employees' qualifications will be accepted; to employ people for similar jobs in different countries and be assured of consistency of academic and professional competence; to set up their own extensive training programmes (or even a corporate university) and have these programmes mesh with the academic sphere generally, not just in one country", he said.
In this new situation, there was a need for a global higher education accreditation agency, or at least a tighter linking of national accreditation agencies, he said.
Dr Woodhouse told the conference, organised by the National Council for Educational Awards, that the "virtual university" would challenge campus-based institutions by using the Internet. It would enable "mass customisation" of education, with higher education institutions as "the marketing front end for a band of academics, institutional designers and support staff, resident anywhere in the world". Would traditional universities then become "relatively too expensive and of lower quality", he asked.
This Internet-led internationalisation of higher education raised issues such as "franchising, the portability of credentials, and international trade in education and professional services".
He said the private provision of higher education was "coming to the forefront of attention". Governments encouraged "private finance initiatives" for capital works, while "large media conglomerates move into the `edutainment' business".
Dr Woodhouse, a New Zealander, said the international experience was that "students pay increasing fees, take out loans and accumulate large debts. A `userpays' orientation takes hold: no one contributes to the next generation's education from their taxes but, instead, pay for it themselves, whether at the time they are studying or later out of their taxes when they are employed".
Within 25 years much, maybe most, learning would be provided in the home or workplace, he said, and called for "more employer commitment, including funding".