DOCUMENT RESUME

BD 096 932 HE 005 960

AUTHOR Cerych, Ladislav; McGurn, George V.TITLE Comparative Higher Education; Relevance for Policy

Making and Comparative Higher Education: A UnitedStates View. ICED Occasional Paper Na. 10.

INSTITUTION International Council for Educational Development,New York, N.Y.

PUB DATE 74NOTE 51p.

EDRS PT /CE MF-$0.75 HC-$3.15 PLUS POSTAGEDESCRIPTORS *Comparative Education; Decision Making; Educational

Philosophy; Educational Planning; Educational Policy;*Educational Theories; *Foreign Countries;Governance; *Higher Education; *InternationalEducation

ABSTRACTTwo papers are presented concerning comparative

higher education--one concerning its relevance for policymaking andthe other reviewing a United States view. The first paper reviewscomparative higher education in relation to studies of highereducation, the use of comparative studies of higher education inpolicymaking, factors of relevance and obstacles to be overcome, andsome research priorities as seen by policymakers. The second paperaddresses the question: What non-U. S. trends, programs ordevelopments in higher education would be of value to U. S. academicsand policymakers and would justify a comparative approach to thestudy of higher education? Emphasis is placed on a number of areaswhere it can be demonstrated that foreign experience would be ofcurrent interest to U. S. higher education. These areas include:access to higher education, education-job link, techniques ofeducational planning, the professoriate, internal governance andmanagement, and university-government relations. (NJN)

fi Csomparative Higher Education:

Relevance for policy MakingLadle lay Cerych

Comparative Higher Education:A United States ViewGeorge W. McGurn

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E0 Occasional Paper Number 10

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International Council for Educational Development

680 Fifth Avenue

New York. N. Y. 10019

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Comparative Higher Education:Relevance for Policy MakingLadislav Cerych

Comparative Higher Education:A United States View

George W. McGurn

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Copyright International Council for Educational Development 1974

Library of Convex% Catalog No. 74-83471

Printed in U.S.A. August 1974

CONTENTS

ForewordJames it Perkins

Comparative Higher Education:Relevance for Policy Making

Ladislav Cerycli

Comparative Higher Education:A U.S. View

George W McGurn

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BEST COPY AVAILABLEFOREWORD

With respect to comparative stuCies across national bound-aries, it is both proper and necessary to ask: W' 't can wereally learn from the experiences of other countries '

Since educational problems and solutions are in large partthe reflection of the distinctive societies that support them,comparisons that do not take :ull account of these differences can lead to dangerous error. And yet, that is not allthat can be said, not by any means.

Knowledge knows no real national boundaries. The univer-sity. as its name implies. has universal characteristics.Increased mobility of faculty and students represents animportant counterweight to parochialism. Members of manyprofessional communities come from all parts of the world.All this suggests that similarities as well as differences mustbe kept in mind. And, therefore, we can, with due caution,learn from others.

Two colleagues at ICED were asked to think out loud onthis subject. Ladislav Cerych is the European consultant andGeorge McGurn is the research director in the New Yorkoffice. They have written two interesting essays which arehere published in an Occasional Paper of ICED. They wrotethem to provoke comment. If comments are forthcomingICED may sponsor a wider dialogue on the future ofcomparative studies. But read these first

James A. PerkinsChairman

International Council forEducational Development

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Comparative Higher Education:Relevance for Policy Making

Ladislav Cerych

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I STUDIES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The study of higher education is a field which developedduring the past decade at an exceptional rate. Judging by thenumber of publications, of research centers and of individualsdevoted more or less exclusively to analysis and discussion ofvarious aspects of higher education, this expansion is withoutany parallel in the past.

Lewis B. Mayhew's survey of the literature of highereducation lists some 160 titles for the United States, for1971 alone.' A small publishing house created in 1967brought on the market within about four years some 60books on American higher education. More than 50 Amer-ican universities and colleges now have special departments orsections devoted to research and teaching of higher educa-tion, and award degrees in this livid. The 1972 annualconference of the American Association for Higher Educa-tion was attended by 3.000 participants. And there are nowin the United States about 6 monthly or quarterly journalsand one weekly entirely devoted to the study and discussionof issues in higher education.

The development in Europe is less spectacular, but heretoo the field is rowing rapidly. A major wee.,ly dealing with

I Lewis B. Mayhew, The Literature of Higher Education. 1971, SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass, 1071.

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higher education problems has appeared in Britain since thefall of 1971 tin addition to two or three journals). Severaluniversities, both in that country and on the Continent, havecreated research centers or units for higher education studiesand a number of ministries of education have set up more orless permanent bodies for that purpose.

Whether all these developments imply a birth of a newdiscipline distinct from the broader field of overall educationand from other social sciences remains to be seen. In manyways the facts and figures mentioned constitute indicatorswhich can he associated with the emergence of a disciplinein its own right" and which in the past accompanied the birthof many social and human or even natural sciences. An evenstronger indicator might be the emergence of a specialvocabulary and research patterns or questions not commonto other fields. On the other hand, it might be argued thatthe study of higher education is and should be. by essence.interdisciplinary because it is problem- or issue-oriented. Thismeans that the real breakthroughs and extension of knowl-edge in this field can come about only by making establisheddisciplines such as economics, sociology or social psychology,with their rigorous conceptual and methodological apparatus.hear on the selected problem areas in higher education(which, in fact, constitute also an enrichment and advance-ment of these established disciplines).

Comparatire studies in higher education: evtension of atraditional approach or a new dimension!

Conceptually at least. a comparative approach to the studyof higher education is in no way new. It draws both oncomparative education and on comparative studies in general

as they developed in various other social sciences.

As far as the first source is concerned, the list of authorswhose work is without any doubt of greatest relevance, both

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from the substantive and methodological points of view, canbe traced far back into the nineteenth century: Marc-AntoineJullien. Victor Cousin. Horace Mann. William T. Harris. arejust a few names of the early period of comparativeeducation. Michael Sadler. Wilhelm Dilthey, P. E. Levasseur,belong to the later genention which opened the way to themore recent work of Isaac Kandel. Nicholas Hans. PedroRossello, Robert Ulich. George Bereday. Torsten Husen, andothers. Finally, the most contemporary work of Harold J.Noah, Max A. Eckstein, Philip Foster, C. Arnold Anderson,and other authors connected with the Comparative Educa-tion Reriew, constitute a bridge between the old discipline ofcomparative education and those who approached variousproblems of education from the point of view of theirrespective social sciences: Friedrich Edding, John Vaizey,Edward F. Denison. Theodore Schultz, Frederick Harbison.among the economists; Burton R. Clark, Amitai Etzioni,S. N. Eisenstadt, Joseph Ben-David, David McClelland. MartinTrow, Seymour Martin Lipset and A. H. Halsey, among thesociologists; Gabriel A. Almond and Robert 0. Berdahlamong the political scientists.

This impressive although very incomplete and only illus-trative list of some of the main authors on which comparativestudies in higher education can draw is not always matchedby the nature of the literature and activities mentioned at theoutset of this paper. Among the 160 titles in the Mayhewsurvey on the literature of higher education published in1971 in the United States, none touches upon problems ofhigher education outside the United States; among some 85topics discussed at the 1972 annual conference of theAmerican Association for Higher Education, one only wasconcerned with an experience outside the United States;among several dozens of past and planned projects of themost important U. S. center for study in higher education.*

*Center for Resew& and Development in Higher Education. Universityof California. Berkeley.

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none could be said to deal with comparative higher educa-tion; none of the U. S. journals concerned with studies ofhigher education devotes any significant part of its content tohigher education abroad. However. interest in comparativehigher education among U. S. academics and research institu-tions certainly exists and is growing. The Carnegie Com-mission on Higher Education commissioned four volumes byforeign authors attempting to assess problems of U. S. higher

education in a comparative perspective: a journal such asSothdogi. of Education regularly publishes papers with acomp: native dimension: and a large number of scholarsworking in established disciplines are focusing attention on,or even specializing in, what can be termed "comparativehigher education." It might he of significance that this newinterest is often more visible among those names associated

primarily with traditional departments- economics, sociol-

ogy. social psychology, political science, etc.- rather thanamong "educators" and schools of education whose interestsremain often purely nationally centered (with the exception.of course. of the "comparative educationalists" proper).

As far as Europe is concerned, interest in comparativehigher education is decidedly increasing. The British weeklydevoted to higher education** regularly publishes news onhigher education issues abroaJ.2 Since 1972. a journal***based entirely on a cross-national view of higher educationhas been published in the Netherlands and some of the newuniversity centers specializing in research (or even teaching)

on higher education pay considerable attention to events and

developments in other countries. Last but not least, the work

**The. Times Higher Education Supplement.

2 However. some partial surveys on the opinions of readers of this

weekly have shown that the international section is given a rather low

priority.

** *Higher Education. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.

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SES1 CO MMC41°of different international organizations, both public andprivate, in comparative higher education currently representsa research effort of a scale and volume without any parallelsin the past.

Meaning of comparative studies in higher education.

But what really is or should be understood when speakingof comparative studies in higher education? Is there some-thing specific about it which, besides the subject matter.would differentiate this field from comparative education ingeneral or from comparative studies in fields such as politicsor sociology? These are more than rhetorical questions and asatisfactory inswer to them cannot he provided in this paperwhich tries merely to indicate possible linkages betweencomparative studies and policy making in higher education.An effort is required similar to the one by Noah andEckstein or to the Macridis book on comparative govern-ment.4 to Marsh's Comparative Sociology.' or to a recentcollection of essays on comparative methods in sociology' sothat a more coherent picture of the field can emerge. At thispoint only some preliminary remarks can be presented.

A comparative approach to studies of higher educationshould imply much more than a juxtaposition of descriptive(or even analytical) studies of higher education systems or of

3 Harold Noah and Max Eckstein. Toward A Science of Compara-tive Education. Macmillan: New York, 1969.

Roy C. Macridis. The Study of Comparative Government. NewYork: Random House. 1955.

Robert M. Marsh, Comparative Sociolog y. New York: Harcourt.Brace and World, 1967.

6 Ivan Vallier (editor). Comparative Methods in Sociology.Berkeley: University of California Press 1971.

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a particular aspect of these systems as appearing in differentcountries. This indeed seems to be by far the most frequentapproach of research centers which entered the field in oneform or another.' The really comparative approach ineducation has been used much more widely with respect tothe primary and secondary levels, as is clearly indicated bythe content of the Comparatire Education Review and of the"classics" in comparative education.

It is not quite clear why this should be so. To some itmight seem that there is a much greater complexity of andsubstantially greater differences between higher educationsystems of various countries than is the case of lower levels ofeducation. and that therefore higher education systems aremore difficult to put in a comparative perspective than theother segments of the education system. But more probablythe reason is historical: educational philosophers of the pastcenturies, and later social scientists of all disciplines, wereconcerned for obvious reasons with the educational processrelated to the largest elements of the population and to thefundamentals of the learning and teaching process. ratherthan to the part of the system affecting only a tiny minorityof society. Their successors simply followed in this direction.

But the situation has changed radically in the course of thesecond half or last third of the twentieth century. Up to 40percent of the age group are now enrolled in higher educationinstitutions whose crucial role in economic and socialdevelopment is now universally established and whose recentand protracted crisis or even disruption is most visible andpolitically most explosive almost everywhere. Clearly. therapidly growing interest in comparative higher education hasits strongest roots in this new situation.

7 See below, page 10 for some of the dangers of this approach inrelation to policy making.

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Undoubtedly much can he learned from the alreadyexisting work, even considering the still relatively smallnumber of available studies and of researchers and researchcenters involved.

There are, on the one hand. what might he called "bilateralstudies" which consist in a comparison and confrontation oftwo higher education systems only (the most frequentcombination seems to he the United States and Britain).' Theadvantage of this approach is that it allows a relativelyprofound analysis by a single author equally knowledgeableabout the two systems concerned. Although not related tohigher education. Tocqueville's study of the United Statesand France is an important model in this respect.'

For certain purposes, however, the bilateral approachmight not he sufficient. For example. in most cases theauthor is not able to identify general trends or to definecorrelations or complex relationships between some of thekey variables, such as degree of centralization and growth ofthe system or admission policies and student unrest, institu-tional autonomy and innovative capacity, etc. For suchproblems the two nation comparison is usually inadequate ormight even he misleading.

The "pluri-national comparison" or the "multilateralapproach" offers additional possibilities although it involvesgreater difficulties and other dangers. Its main protagonistsare certainly international organizations. in particular OECD.UNESCO and the various ir.ter-governmental or non-govern-mental bodies which it sponsors (International Institute for

3 The works of T. R. McConnell and Eric Ashby, for example.

Neil J. Snicker. "Alexis de Tocqueville as Comparative Analyst."Comparative Methods in .S'ociohigv. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 11)71.

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Educational Planning, International Bureau of Education.International Association of Universities) as well as theCouncil of Europe. To a great extent, these organizationshave been pursuing or sponsoring multilateral comparativestudies of higher education, not by design but by virtue oftheir constitutions and by nature of their programs, withouthaving formally developed any specific conceptual model orframework for such studies. In many cases the pattern oftheir work still leads to a juxtaposition of national studiesbut in many instances important elements of a trulycomparative approach can be identified: several national casestudies are prepared according to a common research outlinewhich facilitates a synthetic presentation; comparability ofeducation statistics has been improved: international typol-ogies and taxonomies related to higher education weredeveloped and, probably most important. a problem-orientedapproach became the most widely used method of com-parative studies in higher education.

It seems that this approach is in many ways the only onewhich will allow comparative higher education to overcomeits traditional weaknesses- -more or less identical to thosewhich Macridis attributed to the traditional approach incomparative government- namely to be essentially non-comparative, descriptive, parochial. static. and mono-graphic." The problem-oriented approach, of course, stillrequires an appropriate analytical scheme, i.e., th. definitionof categories of analysis (of problems or issues) which aresufficiently general to allow the inclusion of all systems ofhigher education in spite of their differences, but which atthe same time bear on the main variables which determinethe functioning of all systems and their relations with thesocio-economic and political context. Or, to use the struc-turalist approach. "the comparative method becomes, not thecomparison of types of societies or institutions (in our case

1° Macridis. up. cit.

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higher education institutions or systems). but comparisons oflogically deduced models: of logical relations freed of theircultural content rather than comparisons of empiricaldata."' But the comparative method must not only identifycategories of analysis which are general enough to allow allsystems of higher education to be included (thus not to benationally or culturally hound): it must permit at the sametime the analysis of variability. Clearly, this is the mainmethodological problem involved in comparative studies ofall sorts, one of the first preconditions of which seems to bethe development of a more general language and subse-quently the tracing of variations within the broader cate-gories of analysis.

It can he argued that comparative studies in highereducation cannot and should not ever have a commonmethodology because the intervention of several disciplines.each of them with its own methodology, is needed. However.it is precisely this interdisciplinary nature of comparativehigher education which postulates the establishment of asolid conceptual framework within which the comparativemethodologies of different social sciences could cross-fertilizeeach other and thus contribute to a better understanding ofthe phenomenon of higher education.

Comparative studies of higher education can be seen as apart or extension of comparative eduLAtion and of com-parative studies in general: they can also he considered as anindispensable dimension and tool of the study of highereducation. In both cases, they are of strategic importance tothe actual process of policy formations as will he shown inthe following section of this paper. That section should, it ishoped. also provide some additional elements for the

I I W. Davenport. "Social Organisations." p. 216 quoted in Marsh.op. cit. p. 26.

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definition of the appropriate content and method of com-parative higher education.

II. THE USE OF WAWA RATII-E STUDIES OFIIIGIIER V POLICY All KING

Most of the reasons justifying comparative studies in highereducation from the point of view of the planner and policymaker are identical to those which Iwought into being thewhole field of comparative education. They will he groupedunder three categories: 1 I I borrowing:12) generating politicalpressure: I 3) better understanding of one's own system.

Borrowing

Noah and Fcksteini = consider educational borrowing asthe main rationale of the second stage in the development ofcomparative education. For the policy maker and plannerthis rationale remains more or less powerful practically at anystage of history and in respect to higher education as much aswith regard to other educational levels. Exampks of the pastare well known and do not need to he discussed here. Assoon as the need for reform is felt sufficiently. the search for"foreign models" constitutes a natural tendency of almostany government and social group. And as the need for reformtoday is quasi-universal. to look at foreign solutions andexperiences. considering both their achievements and failures.is a highly desirable approach which most of the politiciansand planners have indeed followed. at feast partly. Almostany of the recent major national reforms of higher educationin Europe was preceded by missions to other countries tocollect information on "how things were done elsewhere.and reports of these missions appeared as integral parts of

2 I larold Noah Jnil Max Eckstein. Toward a ticiotee Comparctirehhautit op. cll.

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reform proposals (e.g.. a special in ernational annex to theRobbins Report 1.1

Sometimes, of course, these "looks at foreign models"served only to legitimize the refusal of any non-nationalsolution and of a "we know best" attitude, but during thepist years a more rational approach developed in manycountries. On several occasions the author has witnessed thekeen desire of policy makers to embark upon reform onlyafter studies of foreign patterns have been undertaken. Andmany it' not most of the conferences, seminars and studiessponsored by international organizations are supported bymember governments precisely for that reason.

Descriptions and analyses of foreign solutions. to he reallyuseful in order to learn "what to do and what not to do." areeffective only under certain conditions which by themselveswould deserve a careful study. If undertaken by specialists ofthe foreign country. these descriptions and analyses willoften put emphasis on points and problems highly relevant inthe respective country. but of little importance for thepotential borrower: moreover, they might omit to stress

because they take them for granted those aspects whichfrom the point of view of the borrower could constitute thetrue originality of the solution or which are the conditions.sine qua non of its functioning. It'. on the contrary. thedescriptions arc done by nationals of the receiving country.they might represent a superficial retranslation of the foreignexperience in national terms. thus missing the true dynamicsof this experience. Ideally. only a person with perfectunderstanding of the two systems and of their historical andpolitical context should he asked to present the foreignexperience to national policy makers: in practice, at least. a

3 Committee on Higher Education (Robbins ('ommittee). nigherEducation: Report of the Committee. Appendix 5: Higher Educationin Other Countries. London: HMSO, 1%3.

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(reciting polititui ',rewire

This aspect of the relevance of comparative studies inhigher education is not widely, and certainly not officially.acknowledged. although it is far from negligible. The phe-nomenon can be observed in many other fields, both on thenational level and on the level of institutions and socialgroups. When a comparative account of achievements anddevelopments of all kinds is presented. even if its purpose is apurely academic or analytical one. such an account will oftenhave a psychological impact on the countries. institutions orgroups concerned. Thus. if a particular country appears in aninternational table comparing higher education enrollmentratios at the bottom of the list, while its GNP per capitaranks it rather high. this simple fact will ultimately con-tribute to create a pressure for policies facilitating the growthof enrollments.

A similar effect might he produced by a comparative tableshowing the proportions of students from lower incomefamilies in universities, by a table giving the amounts ofpublic funds spent per student, or the percentage of GNPspent on higher education. In most cases. the first reaction ofthe country for institution) concerned will he a rathernegative one, either putting in doubt the data presented bythe authors of the international comparison or. more often.criticizing them for not understanding or misinterpreting therespective national systems. However, provided that ¶he

information is backed by solid evidence and that the mainprinciples of comparative studies have been folkmed. themore or less unfavorable international comparison will betaken tin sooner or later by public opinion in particular thejournals and the press as well as the planners and policymakers themselves. This will eventually either contribute to

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the formulation of new policy measures or at least help in abetter understanding of the factors which make the respec-tive country appear "at the bottom of the internationaltable." Many examples of this process could be quoted. Thusthe comparative work of Friedrich hiding h.41 undoubtedlygreat impact on policy making in Germany; several countriesand curriculum planners were deeply disturbed by thefindings of the International Study of Achievements inMathematics and Sciences, and many of the comparativestudies published by international organizations becameimportant points of reference in the defining of nationaltargets. The latter type of influence of comparative studiescan he considered to reach beyond the mere creation ofpolitical pressures; in this sense, these studies become animportant factor of the process of goal setting. Of course. nocountry will plan its future higher education enrollmentssolely to match a ratio reached elsewhere nor will it projectthe creation of institutions of a certain type because suchinstitutions exist somewhere abroad. But certainly the mereexistence of higher ratios or of particular institutions in othercountries' provides additional credibility and rationality tothe national plan or projections, and thus greater chances ofimplementation.

The argument can he made that this process of goal settingby implicit or explicit reference to foreign achievements orsituations, in the same way as borrowing of foreign solutions,has always been taking place and will continue to take placewith or without comparative studies. However, if this is so,comparative studies arty even more justified because theyalone can contribute to the rationality of these processes.that is, to the elimination or attenuation of a process of goal

14 A very significant example in this respect is the British OpenUniversity which stimulated plans for the establishing of similarinstitutions in many other countries.

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setting and selective borrowing based principally on more orless arbitrary fluctuations of different innovation trends, oreven fashions.

Better understanding of one's own system

Even if policy makers and planners have no intentionwhatsoever of adopting or of adapting to foreign models, acomparative approach throws significant light on the reallybasic forces which foster or resist innovation and on themechanisms which command and explain, beyond the purelynational circumstances, the behavior and problems of almostany higher education system in the socio-economic contextof the last third of the twentieth century.

This can he clearly, even if only indirectly, demonstratedby a number of examples drawn from the practical experi-ence of the author.

Thus. a comparative study of two- or three-year non-university institutions of postsecondary education' tryingto provide terminal vocational education and!or the firstyears of university studies has shown that in almost all.' ('entries these institutions suffer from a lack of status whichwas usually considered to result from particular national orlocal circumstances. By isolating and controlling several vari-ables. the comparative analysis demonstrated the existenceof deeper factors and interrelationships which have to heinfluenced by policy measures if any more permanent changeis to he achieved. The fact that. say. a British polytechnicencounters a number of almost identical probiems as a U. S.community college. in spite of all the differences whichseparate these two types of institutions, was not only

lc OECD. Short-Cycle Higher Education. A Search for Identity.Paris. 1473.

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intellectually reveaiii,g, it also pointed more clearly than anypurely British or American study toward the le /craw pointswhere action could or should he taken.

Another example might be taken from the comparativestudy of enrollment growths in higher education. Theconelwions of such a study" demonstrate. among otherthings, that during the past 20 years there, was practically nocorrelation between economic development and the rates ofexpansions of higher education, and that higher educationsystems generally responded very poorly. if at all, to policymeasures tending to orient students toward types and fieldsof study which were presumed to correspond to priorityareas of manpower needs. By purely national studies it wouldbe very difficult to establish why the policy measures takenwere inadequate and to unveil the complexity of therelationship between economic growth and the growth ofhigher education. A comparative analysis does, however.throw some light on these questions mainly because itpermits one io isolate some strategic variables and to observetheir impact.

Comparative stitdies are also highly relevant for deter-mining the relative advantages and drawbacks of the threewell-known methods of planning u!' higher education: thesocial demand approach. the manpower approach. and thecost-benefit approach, and of the conditions which make oneor the other. or their particular combination. more or lesseffective and operational. National studies alone tend toattribute the good or poor results of each of these methodseither to their purely methodological aspects or to specificpolitical circumstances of the country concerned. In aninternat i011Al CO in para t ive perspective it becomes much

I 01:('I). nereltpmei 11. Educati 19511-1M 7. ..1 nalvtiaRep ort I ')7 I .

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clearer which factors and features of the higher educationsystem constitute the real bottlenecks for the practical use ofthese methods.

To summarize the argument in favor of comparativestudies as a tool for better understanding of one's ownsystem. it could possibly he said that this tool is one of thevery few which allows one to identity a certain number ofstrategic parameters and to test, at least partially, theirbehavior under different stresses. socio-economic and educa-tional configurations. before costly and eventually inefficientpolicy measures are taken. Or. quoting Radcliffe-Brown: "Itis only by the use of the comparative method that we canarrive at general explanations. The alternative is to confineourselves to particularistic explanations similar to those ofthe historian. The two kinds of explanations are bothlegitimate and do not conflict: but both are needed for theunderstanding of societies and their institutions."'

F.1(TORS.1V 1) OBSTACLES '/0 BE OrER(VME

The main arguments against policy relevance of comparativestudies in higher education are implied in several of thepreceding considerations. The "we know best" attitude, thesuperficial descriptive approach. the mere translation intonational terms of the foreign experience and, in general,comparing what is not comparable (e.g.. a doctorate in onecountry with a doctorate in another) are some of the mostobvious dangers of comparative studies in higher education asindeed of any comparative study.

7 A.R. KAICIlite-BMW11. el Namral Science of Society. New York:Free !Ness. I'157. pp. I I Radcliffe. Crown does not, of course,refer to higher education specifically but to the comparative methodin anthropology.

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Most of their dangers are of a methodological nature andcontinuous theoretical work is necessary in order to eliminatethem as much as possible. This work requires an effort notonly of comparative ..,ducationalist:. but of comparativesocial scientists of all disciplines: and it requires. probablymore than anything else. the encounter between the tradi-tional discipline specialists economists. sociologists. psychol-ogists On the one hand. and the problem specialists theexperts in higher education on the other.

The "we know best" attitude is essentially of aINAmlogic;il order and probably of greatest importancewho discussing the relation between comparative studies inhigher education and policy making. It takes several formswhich might he illustrated by a number of common andfrequently heard statements:

.`.tens 1. No pal ticulin and dills:tent from all thoseJhtoad that no useful comp:orisons wit he made.-

.1)111 s% stern Is SO COIllple\ that putting it into anyinternational comparison becomes meaningless.**

-Om s stem is so much related to out social (historic.cultural. ekonomic. politic:ill contest that it ciliumt hecompared In isolation from it land thus cannot hecompared at all

Clearl. a %Aid answer to these and .imilar arguments willdepend on the existence of an appropriate methodology usedin comparative studies of higher education. But it will alsoresult from a more widespread acceptance of considerationsformulated in the previous section of this paper. This. inother words. means to identify the main factors of relevanceof comparative studies in higher education for policy making.

l=our questions seem to point in the direction of the searchfor these factors:

17

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education having more or less impact for no impact at all) onpolicy formation?

2. What are the countries. institutions, and social groupsmore or less open to for resisting) findings derived fromcomparative studies in higher education?

3. What are the situations economic. social, and polit-ical in which these findings seem to he more or less readilyreceived?

4. At what points of the quantitative and qualitativedevelopment of the higher education system can more or lessreceptivity to comparative studies he noticed?

Only a few tentative answers to these questions, basedmainly on personal impression, can at this point be offered.

I. Comparative studies must not he too abstract or generalnor too specific, to he really considered by policy makers.The former might he disregarded as not practical enough: thelatter might easily he taken as "not applying to ourconditions." Studies concerning curriculum questions,planning methodologies or financing, have usually morepolicy impact than those dealing with structure and status oithe teaching body. with admission criteria or governance ofinstitutions.

2. Smaller countries are, as a rule. more receptive tocomparative studies than bigger ones. but importantexceptions to this rule (Japan. Germany) can he observed.There does not seem to he any particular kind or size ofinstitution that is clearly open or clearly resistant tocomparative studies. Among the main social groups involvedin higher education. students often appear very interested incomparative studies.

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3. In very general terms it can probably he said that "crisissituations" (e.g., a financial crisis) are associated with moreextensive use of comparative studies. Violent crises. however,do not usually represent an appropriate climate in this

connection.

4. Greater receptivity to comparative studies seems tooccur at practically any stage of the quantitative andqualitative development of the system, and at all stagesresistances to their use can he observed. These studies seem,however. to have a larger policy potential at certain breakingpoints. i.e.. when the growth curve implies a change in thenature of the clientele and/or of the teaching content of thesystem (e.g.. a passage from elitist to mass higher educationor from an eNsentially academic and humanities-orientedsystem toward a more professionally and technically oriented

one).

The tentative nature of all thew qtatements is evident.They all need substantiation and can, at best, be considered

as working hypotheses or elements of a possible researchframework.

Such research, it is believed. could produce mostsignificant results by showing the factors contr'buting to the

development and use of comparative studies in highereducation as well as some of the contextual obstacles in thisrespect. Interpretation of these research results might alsoprovide important indications on the nature. and method-ology of comparative studies of particular relevance to policy

making.

/V SOME RISEARCII PRIORITIES AS SEEN BY POLICY

MAKERS

Not all comparative studies in higher education are. ofcourse. of direct and/or immediate relevance to policy

Bo ra"mlmakers and platmers. In certain cases such relevance willemerge only in the long run: in other instances the impact ofcomparative studies on policy making will remain always veryindirect. In this respect comparative studies of highereducation arc in the same situation as research in any otherfield. and it would certainly not he a wise approach to try todetermine the specific areas of study soMy by the needs ofpoli makers. llowLver. these needs do represent a valuableorient:MOIL especially at the present stage of a scarcity Ofresearch funds.

An illustrative list of research areas. corresponding to anumber of the issues for which planners and policy makersare sccking answers. follows. In practically all of the areasMO1110110.1 the ,:omplrative approah can help considerably,both as an analtical tool and as a factor of innovationthlitiNion I

I. Coordination and Comprehensive Nanning of Higher1-duration

(Appropriate methodologies and institutional mechanismsof planning: planning and decision making: plans and theiriniplenlentation: planning and institutional autonomy;planning for change... )

2. Non-Traditional Forms of Iligher I.ducat ion

(Open linnersity. UniverAtt Without Walls. work-studyschemes. external degrees. and similar arrangements: theircurricular implications particularly in connection withnew concepts of credit units and a system of "recurrentLducation-: their cost and financing implications: theiriciatious with traditional forms of study; :onsequencesfor access conditions and faculty recruitment... 1

I !lie numbering does not imply ;my order of priorities.

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3. Access to Postsecondary Education and Equality ofOpportunity

( Formal criteria and actual flows; stated policies andstudents' intentions and behavior: a system-wide view ofthe admission process: the problem of admission in aperspective of "recurrent education"... I

4. Excellence in Mass Higher Education

(Role and place of research in mass higher education:"noble" and "less noble" segments of higher education:institutional hierarchies; correlates of excellence: inter-national and interinstitutional cooperation or coordina-tion as a factor of excellence... )

5. New Technologies in Higher Education

(Their impact: factors contributing to their effectiveness;resistances to their introduction; their cost implica-tions...

(). Cost and Financing of Higher Education

(New sources of financing: costs of alternative structuresof higher education: different possible student supportschemes; new trends concerning relations between local,state. and national (federal) financing: relations betweeninstitutional autonomy and particular sources of finan-cing; accountability... I

7. Content and Relevance in Higher Education

(New approaches to curriculum structure and develop-ment; curriculum implications and .basis of practically allpoints above... )

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K. Institutional Research and Evaluation

Its various forms and methodologies: its effective linkagewith the planning and decision-making process: frominstitutional to system-wide research and evaluation... I

9. Other Topics

((Government of higher education institutions: institu-tional management: student participation: teachers inhigher education. ..

For most if not all these topics. one specific methodo-logical consideration seems of particular importance whenenvisaging the issue of policy relevance of research incomparative higher education: the formal versus informalaspects of each of the problems. Only by dealing with bothof them. i.e.. with the manifest and latent relationshipsoperating with respect to the different issues, can researchbecome truly policy relevant. The main gap. it is suggested, isnot between too theoretical research and practical politicsbut between r search which disregards the hidden parametersof reform feasibility and research which does not: betweenresearch which takes into account the informal powerstructures. the latent curriculum." the undeclared resis-tances and unintentional goals. and research whichconcentrates merely on the apparently rational factors ofeducational developments. The relatively new discipline ofPolicy Sciences and all the related literature on policyformation might represent a strategic contribution and openup new ways in this respect."

" See. for example the work of Yeheikel Dror and the moststimulating hook by Guy Benveniste. The Polities (4. Expertise.Berkeley: The Glendessary Press. 1472.

essl °314

Comparative Higher Education:A United States View

George W. McGurn

8111 COM AVAILABLE

This paper addresses the following question: What non-U.S.trends. programs. or developments in higher education wouldhe of value to U.S. academics and polio. makers and wouldjustify a comparative approach to the study of highereducation!

The justification of comparative studies must lie in newinsights to be gained from worldwide comparisons that showhow different cultures work out distinctive answers tocommon problems. Since the approach tends to show thebroad contours common to cross-cultural and transnationalcomparisons, the danger exists that comparative analysisbecomes impressionistic or pretentious theory. This depends.like all other research, on the talent and expertise of theresearchers. Development of comparative approaches of thepast decade has seen the completion of Bereday's' suggestedthree stages of research development: ( I ) broad descriptivedata: ( 2) social scientific interpretation: and (3) simultaneousreviews and juxtapositions.

The International Project for the Evaluation of Educa-tional Achievement (IEA).2 under the direction of Torsten

George Z. F. Beieday. Comparative Methods of Education, NewYork: Holt. Rinehart and Winston. 1964.

2 The 68th Annual Yearbook. part 2. Educational Evaluation: NewRoles, New Means, The National Society for the Study of Education:Chicago. Illinois.

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llusen, has developed comparative analysis still further bytesting hypotheses among national systems. Measures ofcognitiVe and non-cognitive variables were related to compre-hensive sets of input variables showing strong correlationbetween social class, educational performance and participa-tion. Multi%ariate analysis provided useful insights into hmeeducational outcomes are related to inputs. The WA projectindicates a trend toward a more rigorous. comparativeapproach to poiicy questions, and also suggests justificationfor comparative studies based on a current academic need ofU. S. higher educaticn.

Social science research has often been unrelated topolio concerip., too discipline-oriented or reductionist tohe of use to polio makers concerned with the broatkrview. An explicit effort to incorporate comparative per-spect i%cs into social scientific analysis could help socialscience lilt the void that Stephen K. Bailey' suggests ithas created between a public philosophy and practicalmanagement hints. The reason for this is that a solidcomparative perspective cannot look at policy decisions inone context and add them to the policy options ofanother without a clear understanding of the inner life ofthe systems being examined. Comparative studies mustencompass the economic. cultural and social applicationsof policy and are at least one method of fostering a validinterdisciplinarity in the social sciences as a whole.

This also suggests that comparativists should keep firmhold on the first stage of the broad descriptive data thatBcreday suggested) as their analysis becomes more rigorous.Experience in the social sciences cautions about focusing onmethods at the expense of posing insightful questions on

Seplicii K. Binle. speech dein:tied at the Allow! Meeting of theAmelican (*otincil un hiticallon. Winliington. D. .. Oc!oher 073.

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which to apply them. The problems precede the methods andthey are.always less dubious than the data.

At this stage. common frames of reference and taxonomiesmust he developed in the field of comparative highereducation to permit transnational, cross-cultural analysis ofspecific problems. There will not, of course, he any neattransfer between the successful experiences of anotherculture and the specific needs of the United States. But thereare common problems and the solutions to these problems.or the lessons of their failure, do have relevance to the UnitedStates. In a comparative perspective, higher education hastwo basic functions: (I) specific skill training for identifiablejob markets: and t 2) dissemination and advancement of thearts and sciences.

The first function points to a comparative perspectivewhen industrialized societies are considered. Post World WarII economic growth made increased educational 'expendituresfeasible in industrialized countries. Higher education con-sistently grew most rapidly. The fear that underinvestment ineducation would hinder economic growth in a period ofincreased labor market complexity led to the worldwideincreases in national education expenditures. These phenom-ena cut across economic and social systems. Yet a remarkableuniformity of objectives supported this expansion. Theconvergence of concern for the provision of skills requiredfor economic growth assumes the ascendancy of technique.the rise of bureaucratic skill, and the influence of scientificand technical elites. In all industrialized countries, specificskil! training for the requisite manpower has come to rely onhigher education to an increasing extent. It does seemprobable that a comparative perspective in higher educationmay indicate useful policies responding to the technologicaland skill requirements of a modern economy and job market.Perhaps most important, the questions raised are eminentlyresearchable.

17

IfF Can AVAILABLEThe cultural function of r education can perhaps he

used to argue against the relevance of comparative perspec-tives because national educational systems are so embeddedin their own culture's symbols and intellectual agreementsthat they do not easily _translate into another nationalcontext. This probably indicates why Edward Sheffield ofthe University of Toronto suggests that innovation in highereducation can he imported by planners and academics whohave knowledge of their own situation and understanding ofthe context of the proposed import. But such innovationscannot he readily exported. On the other hand, insights canhe gained by juxtaposing the U. S. system of higher educa-tion against very diverse systems. It need not always searchOut similar problems or cultural affinities. For instance, whilediscussing the vocation of scholarship and science inGermany. Max Weber compared it to the American academicresearch career. He began, -In order to understand thedistinctiveness of the Gernhan situation, it is useful toproceed comparatively and to picture to ourselves how thematter stands in the U. S. where the divergence fromGermany in this respect is greatest.'

The problem-oriented aspect of comparative studies some-times leads to the basic argument against their usefulnas forpolicy or decision making. It is often said that policyrelevance is improbable because any practical conclusionsreached are dismissed: they may have worked someplace elsebecause the conditions are different; attitudes are notapplicable: traditions are not compatible. This could just as

well he said of policy makers who attempt to implement anynew ideas within a U. S. system. It is not uncommon foreducation officials in New York State to he told that ideasthat work at the State University of New York cannot work

4 Matt weber. Wissenschaft ells Bent!. Munich and 1.eipiitt: Dunkerand lloinhoh. Dille. p.

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at the City University of New York. When the New YorkBoard of Regents tried to introduce an external degreeprogram, it was said: it might work in California, but it is notfeasible in New York. These examples suggest that theimpracticality of comparative studies is not the real problembut rather inertia, underlying fear of change, and lack ofknowledge about the process of innovation-diffusion withineducational systems.

In some cases, cross-cultural comparisons may be pre-ferable since it is often easier to view policy considerationsoutside of the complexity of common social and economicsystems shared by competing institutions. It is often difficultto consider transference of innovative solutions within asystem of differentiated educational institutions when po-tential student and faculty flows among them can jeop-ardize their survival. Many of these complexities can beavoided by a common focus on non-competing alternativemethods provided by comparative analysis.

A communications link between university-basedresearchers, policy makers and government planners shouldbe a basic part of any growth an comparative higher educa-

tion. The same argument can, of course, be used in relation toresearch done on domestic aspects of U. S. higher education.The reasons for this are quite straightforward. As the decadeof the fifties began, public spending for higher education wasS2. billion. Today it is S 16 billion. Attendance at privatecolleges dropped from half to one quarter of total enroll-ment. Public power and influence has acquired a newsignificance to education. It could even be argued, forexample, that the U. S. system of higher education of the!970s is more similar to the present-day French system ofhigher education than to the system found in the UnitedStates in the early 1950s. In general, almost any system withwhich the United States compares itself will provide moreinsight into the problems arising from higher education-

2)

Gm ROUBLE

government relations than consideration of U. S. tradition oreducational history alone.

The following sections of this memorandum will suggest anumber of areas where it can be demonstrated that foreignexperience would be of current interest to U. S. highereducation. The selection is based on actual or potentialpolicy concerns. Research into these subjects is likely to heboth useful and academically justified because of thefollowing criteria: ( 11 indication of options to he exercisedby decision makers: ( 2 ) suggestion of trends to he encouragedor discouraged: and 13) insight into the process by whichactions have been initiated and institutionalized.

.le to.% to Higher Ecluctiliun

No comprehensive study of access to higher education hasbeen undertaken since the Bowles` study that was based ondata from the 1950s. Since that time numerous new policyorientations have holstered universal expansion of highereducation systems: open admissions in the United States:tuttnertt% claim's in Germany comprehensive secondaryschool tracks aimed at equalizing access across social strata inSweden, France and Italy. After near'y two decades ofconstant expansion, most industrial countries began thedecade of the 1970s with constant or even decreasingenrollment. There is, to date, no index available that relatesthe average skill requirement of a modern economy withthose of an average worker in the economy. The averageworker with an average skill of course does not exist, butthis is clearly a researchable question and such comparativeindices would be useful to U. S. planners and academics ifth...y facilitate an analysis of: ( I ) the effects of differing ratesof participation of traditional age groups; (2) the effect of

I ank Houle.. Access to Higher hhterition. Paris: (NI'S(*() andThe International Association of linnieisities, 111(13.

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the job placement of graduates when the systems becomelarger mirror images of traditional structures; and (3) theimpact of minority participation and women on skill-providing institutions which have traditionally guaranteedaccess to social preferment. The question of access to highereducational institutions is being posed more and morefrequently in terms of lifelong opportunity for individualsrather than attendance limited to traditional age cohorts. Aclear appreciation of the conditions which have led mostindustrialized countries to advocate lifelong access couldclarify the relationship between experience gained outsidethe educational system and its applicability to traditionalcurricula. The recent study, Itinrk in America,' has broughtto prominence questions of worker advancement and jobredesign. Comparative higher education has much to learnfrom institutional arrangements that have already dealt withthis subject in many different countries.

Adult access questions have led to new legislation designedto facilitate attendance of specific groups, particularly theworking population. Thus, the Laws of July 16. 1971 inFrance should be studied to assess the notion of vocationaltraining as an integral part of lifelong education. Theirpurpose is to enable workers to adapt to changes intechniques and in conditions of work. A major collectivebargaining and political question in the future will be theextent to which it should promote worker advancement andparticipation in cultural, economic and social development.Other examples are the Industrial Training Act of 1964 in theUnited Kingdom, as well as legislation in the FederalRepublic of Germany, Denmark and Canada attempting to

6 Mirk in America. Report of a Special Task Force to the Secretaryof Health, Education, and Welfare. Prepared under the auspices of the

W. E. Upjohn Institute tin Employment Research, Cambridge,

Massachusetts: MIT Press. 1973.

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provide for the initial training and retraining of employedworkers as well as for unemployed persons seeking employ-ment.

Several countries in Eastern Europe could also provideuseful insights. In Poland, a resolution of the Council ofMinisters in l%5 provided for further training on a com-pulsory basis for certain types of workers. for example, thoseemployed in branches of economic activity where rapidtechnological change makes it particularly important forthem to acquire a wider range of skills and knowledge.

A 1971 law adopted in Romania provides further trainingfor workers at all levels, from senior management staff toproduction operatives. This training is provided in socialistorganizations, government ministries and other public bodiesfor all sectors of the economy. The law makes it compulsoryfor all public organizations to provide training for theirpersonnel.

Paid educational leave in the USSR is covered in generalterms by an Act of the Supreme Soviet adopted in July 1971.Paid educational leave for managerial, technical, and scientificpersonnel in the USSR has been regulated by various orderssince 1959.

If one is correct in assuming greater emphasis on thesequestions in the United States, there is surely much to belearned from the experience of other industrial nations whichhave already attempted to translate objectives promotinglabor force access to higher education into institutionalforms.

Finally, minority group access has been a major policyconsideration of many countries over the last two decades.U. S. planners have much to learn that would be of use in

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implementing the ambitious programs already undertaken inthe United States. For example, the Indian Government'sattempts to provide strong programs of "reverse discrimina-tion" in education and in the employment sector for the"untouchables" have been in effect for nearly twenty years.Recent Chinese experience providing educational advantagesfor working class and peasant students may also he inter-esting.

Eastern European countries have also experimented withpreferential access arrangements for children of workers andfarmers since the 1950s: they present a phenomenon ofparticular interest to U. S. policy makers. As soon as quotasystems fixed by administrative fiat are no longer vigorouslyenforced because of diminished political pressure, the per-centage of working class and peasant children drops. InPoland, this situation has led to a Fta ries of admir.istrativeadjustments to facilitate or refacilitate access to highereducation establishments for these groups. A comparativestudy which inventories the administrative adjustments thatappear to be necessary, and evaluates the proliferation ofextra-academic criteria used to obtain policy objectives,should be instructive to the U. S. system which is delicatelyperched on the threshold of quotas.

Education Job Link

Access criections which have focused on working popula-tions and policies abroad can he of some use to the U. S.academic and intellectual :ommunity. Perhaps more impor-tant, however, is the wealth of experience in other industrialcountries which have traditionally had a much tighter linkbetween academic training and job-oriented knowledge thanin the United States. This is a fascinating line of researchbecause systems which have recently expanded from elite tomass student populations are tending to explore ways of loose-

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ning this !inkage and find the U. S model of great interestThe U. S. system, commonly called universal, appears to besearching for ways of tightening the education-job link, asevidenced by recent policy considerations concerning "careereducation."' Comparative analysis offers many usefulexamples. A brief summary of some actual programs aboutwhich little is known in the United States follows:

Initial vocational education in schools with close coope-ration between unions and industry such as "formationprOrofessionelle" in France and "Berufliche Grund-hildung" in West Germany.

Ineustrial training organized within industrial enterprisessuch as the industrial training boards in Great Britain,"St udentenaushildung im Rahmen des dualen Systems"in the Federal Republic of Germany and the "Beruf-saushildung" in the Democratic Republic of Germany.

Integrated occupational and humanistic studies such asthe integrated secondary education in Sweden and the"kollegstufe" in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Vocational education as part of general secondaryeducation that reflects both a new vocational orientationand new access and social policies such as "enseignementpolytechnique" in France, several programs in EasternEurope, especially Poland, and recent experiments inHesse, West Germany.

Baccalaureate and vocational certificates aimed at pro-viding direct access to the world of work for secondaryschool leavers, with guarantees of return to highereducation at some later date, such as "perito indus-triale" in Italy, "baccalaureat de technicien" in France,and "technicien A2 in Belgium.

Martin Trow. "Reflections on the Transition from Mass toUniversal Higher Fducation: in The Embattled University. edited by S.Graubard and G. Ha Hotta, New York: Brazi ller, 1970.

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Short-cycle higher education such as sandwich coursesand the diploma of higher education in Great Britain;"diplome d'kudes universitaires generates" and the"diplome universitaire de technologic" in France; short-cycle education in the Federal Republic of Germany;and Swedish and Quebequois attempts to integrate

short -cycle higher education into a comprehensiveeducational system.

Higher education without walls, such as the OpenUniversity in Great Britain. or experience credit in

Sweden.

Alternative models of recurrent education such as theU-68 proposals from Sweden, the Laws of July 16, 1971in France, an Labour's program for adult education inthe United kingdom.

Techniques of Educational Planning

After a decade of heavy reliance on manpower forecasting,a general malaise is evident about the potential of this policytool and its applicability to higher education. The almostuniversal use of manpower forecasting provides a rare basisfor comparative study across differing social, economic andcultural system% The almost universal failure of manpoweranalysis provides a framework for analysis of differentsystem reacting to the pressures of miscalculation. Ofparticular interest here is the question of what plannersshould assume are the important things taught in educationalsystems that are useful in specific jobs after leaving thesystems. Is the curriculum important? What does the recentexperience of generalizing the curriculum tin the USSR andEastern Europe). and thereby placing manpower analysis on amore abstract basis, mean for the United States and its heavyreliance on student choice? Why does the French experience,which relies heavily on expert opinion rather than abstractmathematical modeling, appear to be relatively more success-

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ful than more technocratic approaches to manpower fore-casting? Finally, when mistakes in manpower forecasting leadto unemployment or underemployment, where is the burdenof adjustment? Do the students adapt to the job marketsituation (Poland), or do they tend to remain in theeducational system rather than confront the world of work(France)? Does a growing educational proletariat become a

political force (Sri Lanka)? Do fears of underemploymentand accompanying psychic costs arise (United States, UnitedKingdom), or does the governmental bureaucracy swell byabsorbing graduates ( India)?

What new approaches are beginning to appear as a responseto the failure of planning techniques? Is there some relation-ship to the planning failure and the movement to recruitstudents from working situations rather than secondaryschool systems? Swedish, French, and German approaches torecurrent education suggest that they are, in part, an attemptto import specific job characteristics into the educationalsystem through students rather than providing skills impliedby manpower projections that are dependent on a job marketmore flexible than educational programs. Even in the UnitedStates there is a spontaneous movement in this direction. Atthe State University of New York, for example, an estimatedone-third of total enrollment is over 25 years old.' Whatpolicies are evident abroad that could encourage or re-orientthis trend?

The Profr.ssuriale

A common trait among all institutions of higher educationis that the faculty resource usually accounts for 70-80percent of the total resources available to implement the

Ernest L. Boyer. "Access and Public Support." in HigherEducation: Crisis and Support. New York: International Council forEducational Development. 1974. p.28.

ih

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objectives of the system. The allocation of faculty time,therefore, is crucial to understanding what the parameters ofany reform movement will actually be. Implicit in this, ofcourse, is the notion of faculty autonomy and its traditionalconception as an elite liberal profession. A comparative studyon the procedures for hiring, recruiting, and promotion offaculty, and the effects of specific country orientations, canprovide a useful analysis of how higher education objectivescan be achieved.

In spite of its acknowledged importance, there has beenvery little research on the nature of the professoriate todate. The Carnegie Commission's study of faculty in theUnited States' is one of the first large-scale inquiries into theopinions, social origins and other characteristics of faculty.Comparative studies could provide some useful insights intothe potential role of professors in different cultures.

The direct political foie of faculty in Thailand and Indiaand other developing countries might point to some ways inwhich the U. S. professoriate may become involved at somefuture time. In France, the fact that professors are civilservants explains somewhat the difficulty in assuring vigorousadministrative leadership at the institutional level. It alsosuggests future problems for the 80-90 percent !,:nured U. S.statewide systems projected for the next decade.

Part-time faculty are preferred in many of the technicallyrelated academic programs in many countries, such as France,Sweden and the Netherlands. Does this, in fact, result inflexible career training provided by their higher educationalinstitutions?

Seymour M. Upset and Everett C. Ladd. Jr.. The DividedProfrssoriate. reprinted from Change, Vol. 3. No. 3. pp. 54440. May1971.

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The impact of differing tenure arrangements also kndsitself to comparative analysis. In the USSR, faculty arerequired to apply for reappointment every five years; theimpact of this policy on the teaching and research activitiesof the professoriate would provide useful insights into facultyresponse to incentives. This would he particularly timely aslive-year contracts for high-level administrators are eval-uated, with the possibility of generalizing this approach toother members of the academic community.

As the quality of teaching in U. S. colleges and universitiesbecomes a matter of concern both to students and profes-sional associations of university professors, experiences inother countries which explicitly confront this question mayhelp to improve American teaching. Some of the programs'in various countries which deserve a closer look are thefollowing:

Britain: The University Teaching Methods Unit of theUniversity of London Institute of Education which pro-vides short courses for new lecturers in London's highereducational institutions. The United Kingdom polytechnicsrun staff development programs for their teachers. Typicalcourses are composed of modules stressing learning/teaching situations in relation to educational objectives,students. educational technology, assessment in education,further and higher education and new ideas in education.

The Netherlan,1%: All 13 university-level institutions havepedagogical service units, employing nearly 100 pro-fessionals.

idert Repubiit Gern!an: The new Reform Lawproposes that each university should have a center of

1dwed F. Sheffield. "Approaches (Mostly Elsewhere) to theImprovement tit 'leaching in !fight!! Education,- in improving Odiegeand (`nirercitt. Teaching.'ol. 2 I No. I Winter P)73. pp. 5m.

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Denmark: The Institute for Studies in Higher Educationoffers a voluntary year-long course aimed at teachingimprovement.

Sm'iet Union: A 196(1 decree of the Supreme Soviet madeit obligatory for every teacher in every higher educationestablishment in the Soviet Union to spend one term ineach five-year period improving his or her teachingqualifications.

.Sweden: The Office of the Chancellor of the SwedishUniversities In-Service Training Division provides for thepedagogical training of university teachers. It consists of abasic course of two weeks for all teaching members inSwedish universities and a supplementary course of sixweeks for senior teachers and department directors ofstudies.

internal Gorernance and Management

Universities in many countries have numerous commonelements, but also reflect differences in orientation andgovernance. As some U. S. universities consider alternativestructures, or are forced to change due to financial crises, itmay he possible to gain some insights from foreign examplesof governance and management patterns. For example, therecent German effort it representing all elements of theacademic community (including students and non-academicpersonnel) on governing bodies has been evaluated and evenbecame the subject of a landmark court decision on the rightsof the professoriate. Swedish experiments with studentmanagement of many of the services of the higher education

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sector, such as housing and counseling, could point to a moreeffective division of labor within the academic community.

A comparative study of the governability and efficiency ofsystems of higher educatio. with differing arrangements forhandling research would be of interest to U. S. planners. TheSoviet research apparatus is almost totally divorced from theteaching institutions and is carried out in specialized net-works. The French research effort is coordinated by theMinistry of Education at the Conseil National de RechercheScientitique which is separate from the universities so itclearly delineates teaching and research functions of pro-fessors. The German reforms offer an interesting example ofthe limits of structural reform if research is to remain withinuniversity institutions. Limitations of professorial powerwere accompanied by mushrooming autonomous researchinstitutes beyond the contro! of traditional higher educa-tional institutions.

As more and more higher educational systems are pro-viding institutional data on efficiency and productivity, it isbecoming feasible for the first time to undertake comparativestudies of institutions with differing structural forms and toevaluate their performance on a transnational basis. In an eraof extreme pressure on American institutions to increasefaculty productivity and institutional effectiveness, a com-parative approach to institutional management can perhapsprovide some new guidelines for constructive policies. Institu-tional data is just now becoming available.

I Iniversity-Government Relations

As both voluntary and mandatory coordinating agencies(especially State 1202 Commissions) proliferate in the UnitedStates, it may be relevant to examine the experience of othercountries, many of which have a much higher level of directgovernment involvement. The experiences of specific Uni-

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versity Grants Commissions in the Commonwealth countriesare perhaps of greatest interest here. In some cases, such asBritain itself, the mechanism seems to be quite successful as a

means of regulating university-government interactions. Case

studies of government involvement in higher education inSingapore, Burma, and France prior to 1968 may indicatesome direct consequences of -overinvolvement" of govern-ment coordinating agencies and may provide some neededcaveats for U. S. planners.

Finally, studies of mechanisms to insure a measure ofacademic autonomy in various countries such as France, West

Germany and in Eastern Europe, where there is a great deal

more direct government involvement in educational institu-tions than is the case in the United States, could be useful in

exploring the effective limits of intervention.

Curriculum

This is an area which has received almost no comparativefocus. The experiments in curriculum in various countries canoffer Americans some interesting examples of particulaidetailed innovations. The following are among the develop-ments overseas which might be useful to U. S. higher

education:The recent !EA comparative study of mathematicsachievement (which was focused at the primary-secondary level) might usefully be replicated for par-ticular subjects at the higher education level.

Experiments with new patterns of general education inJapan and India have had mixed success in recent years.Some of the reasons for this situation might illuminatethe continuing American discussion of the liberal artscurriculum.

New curricula developed for the Open University inBritain in a range of disciplines may be relevant fornon formal higher education in the United States.

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s.

edentiamg

is increasing concern amongerBESn

inCOPYthe

UnitedThere Statesacademic decision makers as well as students about creden-tialing and the burden it places on the higher educationalsystem by requiring degrees that are unrelated to criteria ofjob performance. To date, little research has been done onthis phenomenon. A current research effort by the highereducation section of OECD in Paris is attempting a firstcomparative assessment of the impact of credentialing aimedmainly at European systems of higher education that haverecently expanded from elite to mass systems. It is notsurprising that the experience in the United States is of greatinterest to them. It is also possible that some recentlyimplemented policies for financing further expansion ofhigher education activities could indicate ways in whichcredentialing could be controlled if not reduced. (One suchfinancing scheme is to be found in the French Laws of July16. 1071 for "education permanents" by which employersare required to subsidize educational activities of workers bya variable tax based on the total wage bill.)

The first "Newman Report"" offered details of thecredentialing process for some 500 licensed occupations inthe United States. Depending on the state, different sets ofrequirements having different prerequisites foster a systemicinefficiency as well as substantial cost to individuals in thehighly mobile U. S. society. If the credentialing trend cannotbe reversed we might as well make it more efficient, and thatis exactly the problem the European Economic Communityis coping with at the present time. The Janne Report to the

Is Report on Higher Education. U. S. Department of Health.Education. and Welfare. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government PrintingOffice, 1471 .

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EEC Commission' = suggested a fresh approach to deal withthe question of equivalency. of degrees and diplomas. Theprocess by which European educational authorities reachagreement on academic equivalency of degrees and diplomasas well as the criteria for comparing degrees and diplomaswould he of interest to Americans concerned about morerealistic requirements for professional and paraprofessionaloccupations on a nationwide or regional basis.

This paper attempts to build a case for the relevance ofcomparative higher education to policy processes and issuesto he found in higher education in the United States. Whilenot arguing for a one-to-one fit. it appears clear thatAmericans do have a great deal to learn from the experienceof other countries. which has simply not been available due tothe insularity of our debates. The time has come to begin tomake available useful data, statistics and interpretations ofthe experiences of other countries so that the insightsprovided can become an input into decision making in U. S.higher eduation.

I 2 hit' Gannntnity MO. (at Educatinn. Bulletin of the EuropeanCommunities. Supplement 10,73. Brussels: Commission or the

European Communities, 1073. Professor Ilenri Janne was Chairman ofthe study.

43

BESI COPI MitiutoLE

International Council for klucational Development

The International Council for 1-ducational Development(KIM is an international non-profit association of personswith a common concern for the future of education and itsrole in social and economic development.

RID\ three major interests are strategies t'or educationaldevelopment: the modernisation and management of systemsof higher education: and the international programs andresponsibilities of higher education. In each area. ICLD'spurposes are to identity and analyee major educationalproblems shared by a number of countries, to generate policyrecommendations, and to provide consultation, on request,to international and national organizations.

ICI Ws activities are directed by James A. Perkins. chiefexecutive officer and chairman of an international hoard.Philip I1. Coombs is vice chairman. The headquarters office isin New York City.

The main support for ICED to date has come from theFord Foundation. the International Bank for Reconstructionand Development. UNICEF. and the Clark Foundation.

'James A. AdkinsAnd of Ms Bawl

*Philip H. CoombsVies Masao of the seed

Abbas M. AmmarForme Depot*. altectoKteneral

Lebow OfficeCowes Suriteedend

Eric Ashby Mord Ashby of filmdom)Mader of Clue Calks.Cambridge. England

Vincent M. Barnett. Jr.James Homey Balder IllProfessor of History andPublic AffenVlillions Colima

Minsachusetts

'Ernest I. BayerChancellorState Untsarsity of New YorkAlbany. New York

*Harlan ClevelendDirector*Aspen Program InInternational AftersPrincetoo. New Jew

Rkardo Dies HochisitnerDirectorEdocatiom and InternationalParmaFundacion General MedttemeamMadrid. Sporn

*Alvin C. EusichPremleuAcademy for EducationalDevelopmentNew York, New York

Edward K. HamiltonreeoldettGriffenbageoKroeger. Inc.San Francisco. California

*Mamba of the Executive Committee**Effective September 1,1974

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110A1D Wiz TIOLISTIMS

Felipe HernialJniveesidel CelebesUalmesided de ChileSaudis% Odle

Coordinator GeneralEC1EL PdstramRio de Jaiette. prwfl

Tanen HullsProfessor of IntenutlesalEducationtinandty of StockholmStockholm, Sweden

'Lady Sieben Weed JacksonProddedIntemational Imitate foeEiterommontal AttainWadies. Embed

Henri JanneLe Presided du CallaoScientifiquelomat de SociolosieUniande Libre de linralleaBasch. Belem

Cloth KerrMennenCaonegie Camel on PolicyStudies is Mew EducationBerkeley, California

Men KohmstatorohealedEuropean UnnatesIty InstituteFlamm. Italy

Peter F. KroghDartSchool of I memo SameGeoigetowa lintveisityWashington. D.C.

Alex A. KwapongVicaChaacellorUnemesity of Ghanabison, Ghana

Hans laoseinkFemme Misdate ofEducatioa and ScienceKarlsruhe, West Gloomy

Sol M. LimowitaCaudell HeathenWashington, D. C.

Robed S. McNamaraPreiidentIntensettomal Bask forRmonsttectleo andDevelopmentMattawan. D.C.

Martin MammaPaddedUnheirdty of reensybenisInfils141Phia.Feanalvells

Michio NagaiItemiseEditorial loudlies Asshiihkeition PumaTokyo. Japan

*Mhos° °ammo LoadosioPaddedFeeder:Jim pea alDessersolo ladsatrialCali. Colombia

Paola Coppola PignatellProfessor of Architectural

Moeda of SomeRome. Italy

*Joseph E. l WetPresidedAmen Institute forHumanistic studiesNew Volk, New York

Jan SecrepainkiDirectorInsatut Filasofiereeks Akaderala NookWarsaw. roamed

Pm' UllindsakonsFaculty of EconomiaThantmasat UneasilyBangkok. Thailand