EHELF-2014
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Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education is delighted to present the publication of the third annual Eurasian Higher Education Leaders’ Forum. The conference proceedings present papers written by distinguished local and international contributors that attended the Forum in 2014. The papers are grounded in theoretical argument and empirical research and written to provide debate and discussion among policy makers, faculty, students, and staff. Around 350 speakers and delegates and participants from more than 15 countries attended the Forum in 2014. Attendees discussed global trends in higher education and presented their understandings and interpretations of a successful academic institution. The Forum has been divided into five plenary sessions: 1) What is ‘a Successful University’? 2) How to Build a Successful University: Start from a New Institution or Build from the Existing One? 3) Students’ Perspectives on a Successful University; 4) Faculty’s Perspectives on a Successful University; 5) Successful Research Universities. We hope that the annual Forum and its conference proceedings will serve as a valuable resource for higher education leaders, faculty members and policy makers. We invite everyone who is interested in reflecting on the continuities and changes in education development and taking strategic actions to improve their national and local educational environments.
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Item Open Access WHAT MAKES A UNIVERSITY SUCCESSFUL FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF TEACHING AND STUDENT LEARNING?(2014-06) Vermunt, Jan"In this contribution I would Like to focus on the quality of student Learning at university, the pedagogy and quality of university teaching, and the relationship between those two components of a successful university. The pedagogy and quality of university teaching are mostly taken for granted. The dominant view is that good researchers are good teachers almost by definition, a view with which I profoundly disagree." --Item Open Access WHAT IS 'A SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY'?(2014-06) Parmenter, lynne (Линн); Orunkhanov, M.; Kurakbayev, Kairat"The aim of this paper is to provide a basis for discussion and debate on definitions, characteristics and criteria of measurement of a successful university. While the core mission of universities indisputably remains teaching and research (Shattock 2010), universities in the 21s t century are increasingly called on to assume expanded roles as key players in knowledge societies and the knowledge economy. As universities take on these diverse roles, it becomes more difficult to agree on definitions and characteristics of success, and on valid and reliable criteria for measuring how successful they are. While this issue of defining success and its characteristics is implicit in many studies of various aspects of higher education, there is surprisingly little literature directly addressing the issue in a comprehensive and systematic way. As Shattock (2010: 7) has observed, "we feel instinctively we can recognise successful universities when we see them", but it can be challenging to provide justification and evidence for these judgements. This is especially true as universities seek to locate themselves within global systems, where global measures of certain aspects of success overshadow any other definitions or characteristics of success." --Item Open Access WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY LOOK LIKE? - THE STUDENTS' VIEW(2014-06) Primozic, Rok"There is a lot more that is necessary for a successful university: for example, ensuring proper financing would be a very basic condition. I also did not discuss about research or about institutional autonomy and academic freedom, which are also building blocs of a successful university. As the whole list would take much more than the space I was allocated for this article, I have focused on what I would perceive as the most important points of a l l - the ones that are crucial to ensure that a university truly is a community of teachers and students." --Item Open Access THE ROLE OF FACULTY IN CREATING A SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY(2014-06) O'Donnell, Loretta"A successful university, especially a world-class research university, requires at least three elements working interdependently: talent, governance and resources (Altbach, 2011:3). The focus of this paper is on the first element. Academic talent is an essential condition for success.This talent is more successful when it is enhanced and liberated through well-designed management systems. The role of the faculty in successful universities cannot be discussed without understanding the role of students. Primozic (2014) observes that students want to be educated, inspired and informed. They see themselves as students, not as clients. He notes that students seek empowerment and mobility opportunities, and require deep and active learning. Students seek increased accountability and autonomy, while also requiring mutual respect and a sense of equal partnership.'' --Item Open Access THE QUEST FOR A WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY: DEFINING THE GOAL FOR AN EMERGING ECONOMY(2014-06) Ruby, Alan"In the past ten to fifteen years policy makers, scholars, development advisers, industry chief executives and academic leaders have all been grappling with how to create, develop and maintain a university that is recognised as one of the best in the world. Motivations for this pursuit revolve around increasing economic competiveness and diversity, being part of the global scientific community, national prestige or pride and talent creation and retention." --Item Open Access THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT IN BUILDING A "SUCCESSFUL" UNIVERSITY(2014-06) Knight, Jane"The notion of a 'successful university' is both comprehensive and evasive. A 'successful university' means different things to students, faculty, academic leaders, citizens, decision makers across various disciplines, sectors and countries around the world. Often success is in the eye of the beholder - or perhaps more importantly - stakeholder. Those who attempt to define, measure, and predict success need to be mindful of Einstein's famous 1902 quote - "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."" - ...Item Open Access SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITIES(2014-06) Jones, SimonThis paper addresses some of the characteristics of successful universities the author has been involved in over the last 25 years across 3 continents.The perspective is personal, oriented to the STEM-based institutions I have largely engaged with and reflects my own instincts for invention, innovation and wealth-creation being the load-bearing structures of contemporary institutions. The paper considers firstly the environment within which a university operates and the impact of different student bodies. University branding and the impact disruptive technologies are addressed, followed by the requirements for success in terms of faculty, leadership and finance. It ends with a discussion of the role of valorisation in making a 21s t century university a success.Item Open Access PROMOTING STUDENT MOBILITY IN A GLOBAL AGE(2014-06) Yiu, AngelaArticle about on the various aspects of undergraduate and graduate education, faculty, research environment, innovative education, and international academic and student exchanges.Item Open Access IN SEARCH OF CRITERIA AND FACTORS OF SUCCESS FOR A REGIONAL UNIVERSITY(2014-06) Nurmagambetov, Amantai"Criteria for success for a university are very diverse. It may be criteria for evaluating research and educational activities, student leisure, the ratio of teachers and students, number of academic degrees obtained by faculty, etc. Those can also be global and/or domestic rankings criteria offered by the rankings agencies" - ...Item Open Access how to build ' a successful university?(2014-06) Canning, Mary"There is no one successful formula for building a successful university. However, based on extensive observation of internationally acclaimed institutions, it is possible to state that all successful universities have at least these features in common..." - ...Item Open Access HIGHER EDUCATION EXPERIENCES IN KYRGYZSTAN: CASE OF OSH STATE UNIVERSITY(2014-06) Issakov, KanybekIn this article, author describe some key aspects of higher education reforms and what have been the Osh State University's experiences in relation to these reforms.Item Open Access FACULTY'S PERSPECTIVE ON SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY: PERSPECTIVE FROM A REGIONAL UNIVERSITY(2014-06) Mamrayev, BeibitItem Open Access DIVERSITY AND INTEGRITY IN THE SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY(2014-06) Humphrey, Tonkin"The biggest problem, we have to conclude, lies in defining success. Success is not quantitative but qualitative. For example, a successful faculty is not one that publishes a lot, but one that contributes assertively to the advancement of knowledge; not one that teaches a lot, but one that teaches well. Nor should a university be judged on reputation and popularity: the pursuit of university ratings may have made some universities better, but it has made too many the same. The measures that we use continue to f a l l well short of the ideal" - ..Item Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN KAZAKHSTAN(2014-06) Abdykalikova, GuLshara"Today we see that the improvement of living standards does not depend on the accumulation of capital and technological development of the country. It is obvious that what causes the gap between the developed and less developed countries is not only a lack of available resources, but also knowledge production. Growth of national economy depends on how fast this gap is reduced. These findings are explained in Joseph Stiglitz's book "Creating a Learning Society". Therefore, the success of our well-being in the long run depends on the extent we are ready to be flexible to master new knowledge and to improve our performance.This is a great responsibility of our universities. Therefore, nowadays universities need to be prepared for the challenges of our time and quickly adapt to external factors that can be considered both as a threat and opportunity for further development. Universities need to be more active in research activities in partnership with international peers than ever before" - ...Item Open Access CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND FACULTY'S ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF A SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY(2014-06) Zhakypova, Fatima"What makes a successful university? At the panel of the opening session, Lynne Parmenter and her colleagues from the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education noted that there are five main components of a successful university. Moreover, some speakers used the formula of a successful university developed by Jamil Salmi (2009). Some speakers talked about the importance of reconsidering the existing interpretations of a successful university. But they all agreed that talented faculty members, who ensure high academic standards and quality of education, are the foundation of a successful university" -...Item Open Access CONCLUDING REMARKS(2014-06) Humphrey, Tonkin"This Higher Education Leaders' Forum has been extraordinarily informative and stimulating. For those of us coming from other countries and visiting Nazarbayev University for the first time, it has been educational in the best sense. Particularly memorable for me have been the following:..." - ...Item Open Access ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP: A MISSING LINK IN HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNANCE IN TIMES OF CHANGE?(2014-06) Sagintayeva, A."Thus far, based on the brief data analysis of interviews among university leaders, the paper argues that the transition towards the development of academic leadership is a complex context-sensitive process. In the next decade or so, academic institutions will have to develop capacities to lead changes on their own campuses and develop their roles beyond the followship of externally designed initiatives. Both the state and the higher education leadership are likely to understand that change does not happen on its own but needs to be led by professionals and effective leaders both within and beyond universities" - ...Item Open Access A STRATEGIC, LAYERED APPROACH TO EVIDENTIALLY IMPROVING STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES AND OUTCOMES WITHIN 'A SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY'(2014-06) Winter, LizThis paper discusses how different strata of a university need to pay heed to the student experience with data garnered, as appropriate, from a l l levels of sample: international; national; institutional; departmental and course by course. The strata represent those at the top that form policies on teaching across the institution, heads of departments, academic staff and all those involved in helping students learn. It is argued that the student experience provides a bottom-up perspective on the reputation, values and ultimate success of a university in making active and future change in individuals. Finally, it discusses the balance between central systems of improving the student experience versus more devolved schemes such as promoting professionalism through Action Research initiatives for academic staff. Overall, it recommends an empirical approach to research which does not exclude teaching practitioners.