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NSF Workshop Intern. STEM graduate education
Washington DC, Feb 6, 2011
International university collaborations as a policy tool for higher education reform and innovation leverage
A snapshot of the MIT-Portugal Program
MIT-Portugal ProgramMIT Technology & Policy ProgramMIT Teaching & Learning LabHarvard Program in Science, Technology, and Society
Sebastian Pfotenhauer, [email protected]
NSF Workshop Intern. STEM graduate education
Washington DC, Feb 6, 2011
An MIT traditionMIT has engaged in large-scale collaborations for decadesIndia, Egypt, Argentina, Iran, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, UK, Abu Dhabi, Portugal, Russia (?)
Different purposes:• Capacity building in STEM education• Excellence-building:
Transfer educational best–practices & institutional governance• Internationalization• Systemic change for national HE & innovations systems• Innovation & entrepreneurship leverage
Experimental “one of” character of collaborations – no unified strategy?
NSF Workshop Intern. STEM graduate education
Washington DC, Feb 6, 2011
MIT-Portugal in a nutshell
• MIT + 6 PT universites + 20 research centers• Faculty: 236 @ PT + 59 @ MIT• Students: 350 @ PT, 140 @ MIT• 50+ industry affiliates
• 4 Engineering Systems focus areas • Innov.- & mobility-centered
curricula• 5 year funding period• 58.9 M€ (81.0 M$)
Key facts:
NSF Workshop Intern. STEM graduate education
Washington DC, Feb 6, 2011
• 2004: Portuguese “Technological Plan” and “National Plan for
Employment”
• 2005-06: OECD Review of tertiary education sector
• Nov. 2005: MIT approached by Portugal
• Feb 2006: agreement to conduct assessment:
Identify feasible areas of collaboration
• February-July 2006: faculty visits in both directions
• October 2006: launch of 5-year program
• Sep 2008: launch of program assessment
• 2011 renewal negotiations for Phase 2
MPP timeline
NSF Workshop Intern. STEM graduate education
Washington DC, Feb 6, 2011
Why MPP?
2007
2008
2009
2010
2%
21%
38%
38%
98%
79%
62%
62%
Internationality
International Portuguese
non-MPP: 9%Why university-based strategy in Portugal?• Human resources: Mismatch between engineering education and
innovation/industry needs• S&T capacity: Key role of universities in production of knowledge and
technology in catching-up countries• National systems trajectory + international reform pressures (Bologna, Lisbon)• New roles for universities in national innovation systems
Some achievements: • Raise student internationalization and selectivity• Targeted human resource formation in innovation & entrepreneurship• Increase networking between students & institutions, and industry linkages• Excellence formation and critical mass-building: overcome tradition of
research isolation and sub-critical funding dispersion
• Mobility: Shift from sending to receiving country• International visibility and benchmarking• Spillovers into the system!
NSF Workshop Intern. STEM graduate education
Washington DC, Feb 6, 2011
Challenges, lessons, research needs
• Cultural differences, esp. in innovation & entrepreneurship• Program objectives vs. administrative and legal framework conditions
(multiple stakeholders, absorptive capacity of system, political interference)• “Teaching the teachers”• Slow program take-off vs. extremely high expectations & steep learning curve
• Real-time program assessment is crucial:– Demonstrate impact– Foster organizational learning– Study the generalizability of MIT-Portugal framework
• Problem: temporal lagging of effects & attribution problems• Tools: comparative student surveys, special-purpose surveys, faculty interviews
• “One of” problem: unique character of international programs
• MIT Technology & Policy Program, MIT Teaching & Learning Lab, Cisco: Launch project on creating a “best-practice manual in international university collaborations” to systematize and preserve a set of unique lessons
