3.3.2.4 ‘Local Ownership’
3.3.3. Educational factors
a long-‐‑term strategic approach based on transfer of foreign models (Bertelsen 2009). Furthermore, pre-‐‑war HE may be judged to have been defective, backwards, or an element in conflict causation. This concern with pre-‐‑war HE quality leads to the subject of the next section; the role of educational features in shaping post-‐‑conflict environments of HE and recovery.
3.3.3. Educational factors
In this section the educational features of access, equity, and quality will be analysed in terms of their theorised role in hindering or enabling HE’s contribution to post-‐‑war recovery. To begin, the issue of access will be considered.
3.3.3.1. Access
Access may be viewed as a factor mediating HE’s contribution to post-‐‑conflict recovery. It can be expected that in low access systems HE’s potential impact on recovery is lower while in high access systems potential impact is greater. However, it may be contended that very high access may lead to over-‐‑production of graduates, increasing unemployment and therefore hampering economic recovery. Issues of access, demand, and expansion will now be briefly explored.
In many post-‐‑conflict countries capacity for HE provision is low and weakened by conflict yet demand is high leading to expansion. A few examples illustrate this dynamic. In its first post-‐‑independence year the University of East Timor enrolled students in the absence of proper admissions standards to cope with huge demand which caused practical problems of over-‐‑enrolment (Nicolai 2004, p.87). Similarly, Afghanistan’s tertiary enrolment in 2001 was 7,881, down from 17,370 in 1995; a very low figure globally for a country of 28 million (MoHE-‐‑A 2009, p.1). Emerging from war in 2001, Afghanistan’s very young population, long denied HE opportunities, drove high demand. Consequently, 20,000 prospective students sat
university entrance examinations in 2002 (UNESCO 2002, p.17) and enrolment almost doubled during 2002-‐‑2006 reaching 62,000 in 2009 (MoHE-‐‑A 2009, p.1).
Rapid post-‐‑conflict enrolment expansion may be explained in several ways. First, conflict ending increases optimism about future prospects leading to long-‐‑term human capital investments becoming rational at the individual-‐‑level. Second, facing high youth unemployment typical of post-‐‑conflict states young people choose to enter universities and defer job-‐‑searching (Tierney 2011). Third, expansion may occur due to public policy with low human capital stocks and need for highly-‐‑ skilled individuals viewed as obstacles to development. Fourth, governments may increase access as part of a ‘peace dividend’ to reduce youth grievances related to educational exclusion.
However, despite the trend of expansion most post-‐‑conflict HE systems do not have capacity to meet demand due to conflict impacts on capacity and enrolment plus various post-‐‑conflict challenges. For example, despite rapid expansion in post-‐‑war Mozambique HE opportunities were insufficient, with 10,974 applicants for 2,342 places in 1999 (Mario et al 2003, p.18). In particular where state regulatory authority is low private HEIs emerge to meet excess demand and in some cases account for the majority of expansion.
While expansion may be viewed as necessary in situations of low capacity and high demand, rapid growth can bring problems. Increased quantity in particular where expansion is uncontrolled, can lead to reduced quality. For example, in Bosnia there was a ‘mushrooming’ of HEIs due to HE system fragmentation along political and ethnic cleavages, leading to inefficiency, over-‐‑stretch of resources, and poor coordination (Tiplic & Welle-‐‑Strand 2006). Similarly, six new universities were established in Nicaragua during 1990-‐‑1993 leading to duplication, concentration of graduates in over-‐‑subscribed disciplines, and consequently increased unemployment (Arnove 1995). This dynamic constitutes a trade-‐‑off between controlled growth concentrating resources on recovery priorities, national universities and elite institutions to maintain higher quality and rapid expansion to
fail to address existing inequalities, an important dynamic examined in the next section.
3.3.3.2. Equity
Equitable distribution of HE opportunities may be posited as an influence upon HE’s contribution to post-‐‑conflict recovery. Conflict can lead to uneven disruption to education resulting in a more selective post-‐‑war HE admissions system with greater exclusion of minorities, the disabled, displaced persons and other groups (IIEP 2010, p.277). Highly unequal access to HE can lead to significant grievances that are destabilising factors in fragile transitional contexts. In particular, where social divisions in terms of ethnicity, religion, place, or class were significant factors in the original conflict inequalities in access to HE stratified along these cleavages can reproduce the social bases of conflict.9 Ensuring equity is therefore important to
conflict-‐‑sensitive strategies of HE development in post-‐‑conflict societies.
Moreover, improving equity can strengthen public perceptions that post-‐‑conflict institutions advance social justice and thereby constitute part of a peace dividend. This may be achieved through affirmative action programmes and academic enrichment to equalise educational levels (IIEP 2010, p.277). Furthermore, where HE provision reflects imbalanced regional development opening new universities or branch campuses in under-‐‑served areas can redress inequity. In Angola in 2002 after a 27-‐‑year civil war there was one university in the capital Luanda. The government’s post-‐‑conflict strategy was opening new universities in various provinces and science and technology institutes in oil-‐‑rich provinces (AFP 2002).
However, others argue that class differences in distribution of HE opportunities are a major impediment to achieving educational equity in post-‐‑conflict societies and that therefore public HE expenditure should be reduced. For example, Stewart, Brown and Cobham (2009) argue that post-‐‑conflict inequalities may be reduced
9 See chapter two section 2.3. for analysis of HE and horizontal inequalities in conflict-‐affected
through progressive taxation and financing options, including reducing subsidies to HE systems because the poor have low access to HE. Beyond issues of access and equity it is important to now turn to HE quality.
3.3.3.3. Quality
HE quality can be expected to strongly influence the HE-‐‑recovery relationship. Higher quality HEIs are held to produce better graduates with more advanced skills and knowledge and produce stronger research outputs which both function as valuable inputs into recovery processes. It should be qualified that ‘quality’ is a contested and multi-‐‑dimensional concept. However, with regards to teaching three central aspects of quality are inputs, including teaching standards and facilities, outputs including graduates with relevant skills for economic and social development, and processes of how students are taught (Green 1994, p.18).
Pedagogical practice is a major aspect of HE quality. Didactic instruction methods including rote-‐‑learning and heavily teacher-‐‑led classes are often identified as objects of reform in post-‐‑conflict contexts including Cambodia (McNamara 1999, p.90) and Kosovo (Breca & Anderson 2010). Another example, Swenson and Sugerman (2011) find Afghan legal education is characterised by didactic pedagogy, rote memorisation, highly-‐‑theoretical classes, and over-‐‑reliance on lectures. These ‘outdated’ methods can be argued to limit the potential of student critical thinking skills. It may be argued that this produces individuals more likely to accept violent ideologies and agendas and in so doing increases conflict risk. Participatory learning approaches including student-‐‑centred classes are held to have the potential to improve quality and transform student-‐‑teacher relations.
Relevance of curricula and research to social, economic, and developmental needs is a further dimension of quality. Under conflict and isolation course content and curricula can remain static for many years. There is therefore often major need for updating curricula to redress pre-‐‑war weaknesses and also reflect the altered post-‐‑ conflict context. Similarly, adaptation of national research priorities to reflect
transitional and recovery needs is important for maximising wider social impacts of research outputs.
To improve quality the implementation of quality assurance institutions is an increasingly common form of HE governance including in post-‐‑conflict states. Hopper (2006, p.56) warns that while quality assurance mechanisms can be effective in post-‐‑conflict contexts including Mozambique and the West Bank, in others they are inappropriate due to the immensity of other challenges facing the sector and limited capacity to meet those challenges. This variability in the appropriateness of a major post-‐‑conflict HE policy response highlights that some contexts are structurally-‐‑constrained leaving less space for creative agential responses, a recognition that connects with consideration of structural aspects, the subject of the next section.
3.3.4. Structural Features
Structural features are defined as those emerging over a long time period and are difficult to change. Structural features relevant to the HE-‐‑recovery relationship include state strength/weakness, demographics, culture, and history. Firstly, socio-‐‑ economic structural features will be considered followed by contextual structural factors.
3.3.4.1. Socio-‐‑Economic
To begin, demography is an important structural aspect of the post-‐‑war environment; post-‐‑conflict countries characterised by very large percentages of young persons or a ‘youth bulge’ face a greater challenge of providing sufficient HE opportunities to meet youth expectations. Structural economic features also affect post-‐‑conflict HE. It may be predicted that countries with higher GDP levels and GDP growth rates should experience more effective HE reconstruction and greater