The Expansion of Higher Education in the Developing World: What can Distance Learning Contribute?

Abstract

CHEA INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION CONFERENCE 2007, 1 February 2007, Washington, DC, The Expansion of Higher Education in the Developing World: What can Distance Learning Contribute? Sir John Daniel, Commonwealth of Learning // One of UNESCO's functions is to develop what are called, somewhat grandly, 'global public goods'. For all countries an important public good is a higher education system in which students, parents, employers and governments can have confidence. In that context globalisation presents new challenges. It is accelerating the expansion of higher education and driving it to greater diversity of provision. // I am going to explore the processes of expansion and diversification of higher education in the developing world. The effect of these will be to make it harder for students to make wise choices and avoid fraudulent providers. Stamenka will explain what UNESCO is doing to help them by describing a series of tools that already exist or are in preparation. // This is the International Commission so I shall focus particularly on the developing world and most especially, for starters, on India, the world's largest democracy. My title is The Expansion of Higher Education in the Developing World: What can Distance Learning Contribute? // In an article that we published in Change Magazine last summer (Daniel, Kanwar and Uvalić-Trumbić, 2006) with our colleague Asha Kanwar, Stamenka and I argued that the growth of higher education in the developing world is a tectonic shift that will break up the old order. In a decade or two most university and college students will be in the developing world, which will, by definition, redefine the norms in higher education globally.