Strategies for ensuring Equitable Access to HE for immigrant groups

Presentation by: Leon Cremonini, of the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, Netherlands.

Abstract

The Dutch higher education system prides itself of being accessible to all. As yet, debates about selection have yielded little in the direction of changing this fundamental belief in Dutch society. However, to access higher education students must make important choices at an early age through what is commonly labelled “early tracking”. In fact, early tracking is an indirect form of selection that can inhibit participation of certain groups in society. For example, the socio-economically disenfranchised, immigrants, citizens of immigrant extraction etc. may be “ineligible” for university education because they have not followed the proper secondary education track or, once admitted through (cumbersome) transfer mechanisms, be more likely to drop out.

An increasingly adopted strategy worldwide is the “recognition of prior learning” (more appropriately called “valuation” of prior learning or VPL). VPL takes stock of individual experiences acquired outside the class room. Potentially, it enables individuals, who would otherwise not fulfil academic requirements, to access higher education and ultimately obtain a tertiary degree. It is a tool to ensure that in today’s context, in which job security is rarely guaranteed, people remain employable.

Though strongly advocated in European circles, many question VPL’s ability to uphold the quality of the skills it purports to recognise and reward. VPL is implemented to different extents and with varying degrees of success across Europe. For example, France is typically portrayed as a VPL success story; in the Netherlands, VPL is gaining grounds amidst disagreements on its feasibility between the universities of applied sciences and the research universities; in Germany, until recently the VPL discourse remained largely marginal in the country’s complex formal system and rigid learning culture. A further twist comes from internationally mobile students and from the European internal market, which raises the question whether an experiential portfolio built in one country should be accepted in another.

Though still controversial, VPL can be seen as an innovative approach to equity for several reasons. It is overarching, i.e. it targets different levels (individuals, organisations/businesses and the HE system); it relates to the problem of ensuring equal opportunities to quality higher education (new codes need to be put into place to ensure this is not just window dressing to improve participation statistics, e.g. to reach certain targets); and it aims at achieving the dimension of “access with success” and not only access “with participation”

The question is, then: does VPL really create more equitable chances for disenfranchised social groups (particularly, but not only, immigrants) to participate in tertiary education or, as some would argue, does it lower higher education, promoting, de facto, “degree inflation”. Either way, where do the boundaries of such a strategy lie? Should VPL expand to encompass graduate qualifications (and potentially the whole array of tertiary qualifications) or, as its detractors would contend, should it be further limited (e.g. to secondary professional qualifications)?

Author Biography

Before joining CHEPS, Leon has been employed at the RAND Corporation, first in Leiden, The Netherlands (RAND Europe: 2001-2003), and then at the U.S. headquarters located in Santa Monica, California (2003-2005). At RAND, Leon participated in the creation of a new Higher Education Institute for the state of Qatar. His work focussed to a large extent on the assessment of institutional and programme quality in Qatar and worldwide. Leon also participated in the design and implementation of advising services to students transitioning from secondary to post-secondary education and to work, collaborated in the dissemination plan for the HEI and its services to Qatari society, and was responsible for the general management of the project. At RAND Europe, Leon conducted research on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on society, with a focus on the impact of new technologies on work, quality of working life, education and skill development. At RAND Europe, Leon also participated in an assessment of Higher Education financing and scholarship systems in Europe. Leon joined CHEPS in 2006. Since then he has been involved in a number of capacity building and training projects in Africa (Mozambique, Uganda), the Middle East (Yemen), and Vietnam, with a focus on developing standards and framework documents for national Quality Assurance and accreditation system, the general restructuring and strengthening of the ministry of higher education (in Yemen), and training institutional management staff on quality issues regarding the theory and practice of quality assurance. Most recently, Leon has coordinated and (co)-conducted the project “Training of internal evaluators for the implementation of the Higher Education Quality Assurance Framework in Mozambique (CNAQ)”. He also conducts Master level modules on these topics at UT and abroad.