Explain how the privatization of higher education in the Netherlands is contributing to the process of de-professionalisation and de-skilling of the faculty.
I also agree with Luis that `talking up quality’ is an interesting point in the article. However, I think another possible way of measuring the quality could lie in the involvement of the parents in primary and secondary education. It is known that higher parent involvement in a students education increases the students own engagement in their education. I read another interesting article from the Center of International Education Benechmarking. It states that parents in the Netherlands take their role in their child’s education very seriously and participate more in schools and national groups. The Association for Public Authority Education (VOO), a national group that has a membership of about 25,000, conducted a survey of 787 parents and indicated that 90% of respondents participated in school activities or volunteer opportunities.
What are other measurements of accountability? What incentive systems need to be incorporated to solidly prove the “quality” in order to achieve this international competitiveness?
I know we are all busy these last few weeks but if you have 17 minutes, you can watch a Tedx Video on Dutch Policy and the Future of Education in the Netherlands.
According to the article, what is the reason behind the policy and why is this question never asked? Is the reason really enlargement of scale in order to lower production costs which will then lead to a growing number of students with competitive capacities? Or is this something fictional?
What is your opinion on Europe’s world-wide standardization of “values” produced by each national higher education system? Do you feel it’s needed in order to make European Universities more competitive? What are the advantages? Disadvantages?
At most US colleges and universities, the faculty wield quite a bit of power. The Dean of Faculty is considered one of the most senior positions, and when professors earn tenure they often sit on committees that sway a lot of institutional decision making. Could American administrations ever succeed in wrestling power away from faculty, as the Dutch have?
“Talking up quality” is one of the more interesting points in the article. It seems that many Dutch, educational public relation offices are comfortable positioning themselves among the best in the world for enrollment purposes. We see this happening in the US too [ex. “UMBC (University of MD Baltimore College) is again recognized as a top university for undergraduate teaching in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges guide, ranking 8th nationally, tied with Duke University”]. Are rankings and bold statements unethical or a fair way of expressing institutional pride?
http://about.umbc.edu/what-others-say/
1) According to the article: the Dutch case can in principle be seen as a foreshadowing of what lies ahead of the otherEU-countries if the Bologna agenda will be ‘successfully’ implemented. Do you agree that the Dutch case is a representative model of what will occur in the EU countries considering that it only covers one country with a shared linguistic heritage as well as many other commonalities?
2) Do you think that the categorization of higher education as a service or marketable commodity will benefit or harm European educational institutions in the future?
One of the explicit goals of the Bologna Process is to allow for mobility of students, faculty and administration. According to the article, the Dutch universities have current saving policies in place and that faculty members may have a harder time being mobile; not only because in practice travel budgets have decreased, but also because of the financial responsibilities assumed by any Dutch faculty member who wants to become mobile. The cost of mobility is not a problem faced solely by the Dutch. Over the last couple weeks we have discussed how technology can bring people together. Do you think that the use of technology is a good solution for this problem? Or is it a secondary solution until (possibly) additional funding can be provided to faculty?
What are your thoughts about the Dutch’s legal privatization of universities? In talking to this point, the article mentions the removal of tenure position for faculty. What are some possible benefits of changing faculty positions from civil servant status to private employee status? What are some disadvantages?
