1. Where have we got to in attaining and sustaining mass
higher education?
Institutional Management in Higher Education
General Conference
OECD, Paris, September 2012
jose.mariano.gago@cern.ch
gago@lip.pt
INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TÉCNICO
LISBON PORTUGAL

2. Where have we got to in attaining and sustaining mass higher education?
How is the world of HE developing and changing in response to evolving
demands for HE in different countries and regions?
>FAST AND IRREPRESSIBLY
How are economic development, regional trends and globalization patterns
reshaping the HE sector?
>WIDENING PARTICIPATION, DEEPENING DIFFERENCES, BECOMING A
KEY (POLITICAL) PLAYER
How important is mass HE as an underpinning for economic
competitiveness and social progress?
> UNAVOIDABLE (CRITICAL AT A GLOBAL SCALE)
What roles do broader access and equity need to play in the shift towards
mass HE?
 POLITICAL

3. Questions
Is HE always a good thing for all countries, at all times?
No, but the demand for higher education responds to “good” social aspirations, not to the
assessment of their (local) fulfillment for present generations
Can a trade-off be achieved combining mass higher education with excellence, equity with
selectivity?
Yes, if resources are available, and if distinct social constituencies and aspirations are made part of
the same development policy: widening and diversifying the base for HE, on the one hand, building
up high level research capabilities and evaluation systems, on the other hand.
What to do with “long tail” of students badly prepared and unable to cope with minimum decent HE
standards?
HE development policies require considerable efforts in pursuing quality and inclusiveness in
general education . Anyhow, mass HE will always require institutional segmentation and different
(although interconnected) higher education pathways.
Demand for mass HE entails unrealistic public expectations: diplomas may not translate into jobs.
What should policy makers do?
In many countries, aspirations to social mobility or to middle class social reproduction and
expansion lead to mass HE, although such aspirations will not be fulfilled. Frustration at a very
large scale may trigger political revolution that can liberate the economy and provide, in the long
run, fulfillment of initial aspirations, for future generations.

4. Questions
But, after all, what can policy makers do?
- Do the best they can to steer social aspirations into the development of better knowledge
institutions, namely by:
.Diversifying and interconnecting higher education pathways and outcomes, namely by providing
vocational courses short cycles, and professional and technical diplomas, eventually to be
embedded in traditional courses
.Combining the widening of HE base with the strengthening of the top
.Defining and enforcing realistic and evolving regulatory and quality assurance mechanisms
.Focusing on the virtuous process of job creation for new teaching staff (induced by mass HE)
combined with career development processes based upon the requirement of a research or a
professional degree
.Fostering decent capacity building international partnerships
.Supporting quality research, namely by providing external steering and evaluation to research and
international scientific cooperation
.Helping the building up of a “constructive” social constituency, for the development of science &
technology as well as for widening the access to higher education

6. The world of knowledge is changing rapidly (1)
a larger fraction of humanity aspires to education and
higher education is increasingly perceived as tomorrow’s general
education
in 2010: 177 M (+77% since 2000)
students enrolled outside their country of origin: 0.8M in 1975, 2.1M (2.1%) in
2000, 4.1M in 2010 (2.3% )
HE has become an aspiration for all, and not exclusively for the social elites
HE is increasingly perceived as a social, economic and political driving force
for progress in developing countries – providing a renewed constituency for
scientific development, political democracy and justice, and for the quality of
general education
higher education is becoming a major political actor in part of the
developing world

7. The world of knowledge is changing rapidly (2)
science is increasingly global and increasingly perceived as linked to
human, social and economic progress
2002 > 2007
5.7 > 7.1 M researchers (+25%)
780 > 1150 b US$ (+45%)
1.1 > 1.6 M publications (international cooperation: 8% in 1987, 20% in 2007)
Where? Asia, Latin America, Africa

8. The world of knowledge is changing rapidly (3)
changes in the constituencies for knowledge and renewed science policy
agendas:
.Risk Governance (prevention, mitigation, response, trust) is a new
driver of science policies: health, natural and industrial disasters, industrial and
other major public risks, quality and availability of water and food, energy.
.Data intensive science has spread from particle physics and
astrophysics to the biological and environmental sciences and many other
areas. ICT and Science become closely interlinked (but: infrastructure, IPR,
inequalities)
. Science & Academic networking at world level: institutional networking
for capacity building is becoming key; new patterns of institutional capacity
building programmes are now added to the traditional fluxes of individual
students.

10. Where have we got to in attaining and sustaining mass higher education?
Mass higher education…
1.Became an irrepressible and inevitable social response to globalization
2.Shapes political evolution (and revolution) in the developing world
3.Crystalizes aspirations to social mobility and promises of social progress – that will
remain largely unfulfilled
4.Opens up new opportunities for socioeconomic and education policies: HE institutions
as economic enablers, diversifying and interconnecting education pathways, linking
education and work, fostering community action
5.Helps women in approaching gender equality
6.Is a curse and a challenge, both for government and for HE staff and management
7.Will become a universal battleground for religious and ideological fanaticism
8.Will trigger large world migration fluxes of qualified human resources (but may help
mitigating brain drain)
9.Will allow for a new political role of interconnected researchers and academics at world
level and for renewed North-South HE partnerships
10.Brings about the conditions for unprecedented science development
11. May change the world of knowledge and the world at large (might it bring Peace!)

11. Mass higher education
May change the world of knowledge
and
therefore
the world at large
(might it bring Peace!)
But when the bell was thus broken off it lost all its magic power; it might ring henceforth, but
never might it bring peace to the heart of man more. Yet so had Iseult willed it, that true and
faithful lover, apart from Tristan would she not be joyful, for all her heart and life had she given
unto him (…)
( Tristan, part X; Gottfried von Strassburg, c 1210)

12. Praise the joint efforts by UNESCO and OECD
Thank OECD for its extraordinary work
in education
and in science, technology and innovation
for Knowledge
Statistical Sources used:
OECD, Education at Glance 2012
OECD, Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2011
UNESCO, World Science Report 2010
UNESCO, Trends in Higher Education, 2009