Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society

In today’s knowledge-driven global economy, countries need to build on tertiary education to generate innovation, sustain competitiveness and boost economic growth. A new OECD report, Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society, offers policy recommendations to help meet these goals:

Among its recommendations:
Goals – Ensure that tertiary education contributes to economic and social objectives: foster links to employers, communities and labour markets; promote effective university-industry links for research and innovation.
Governance – Devise sound instruments to steer tertiary education: improve the capacity of ministries to develop policy and evaluate performance; establish and maintain a balance between institutional autonomy and public accountability.
Funding – Develop a funding strategy to optimise the contribution of tertiary education to society and the economy: cost-sharing between students and government; a comprehensive student support system; subsidies related to the benefits tertiary programmes bring to society.
Quality Assurance – Emphasise quality and relevance: improve quality assurance frameworks; develop a strong quality culture; focus more on student outcomes.
Equity – Give greater prominence to equity in national tertiary education policy: systematically monitor equity issues; devote significant resources to address inequities.
Internationalisation – Position national systems in the international arena: develop a strategy and framework for internationalisation; encourage institutions to be more proactive internationally.