Global Development

Survey of the Community College & Vocational System in Spain

Thailand…………………………………………Allen Cissell and Tanom Inkhamnert

The Community College System of Thailand

Turkey………………………………………………………………..…….Ahmet Aypay

The Vocational and Technical Schools of Higher Education (VSHE) in Turkey
United Arab Emirates ...……………………..……. Paul A. Elsner and James Horton

Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates
United States of America……………………………...……………….….George Boggs

Community Colleges in the United States of America
Vietnam………………………… Diane E. Oliver, Sandra Engel, and Analy Scorsone

Survey of Community College Development in Vietnam:

A Global and Local Dialectic
Developments in Different Regions………………………………..……….John Halder

Community Colleges’ Development in India, the Dominican Republic, and Georgia
Two Case Studies

United Arab Emirates…………………………………………………….Tayeb Kamali

A case study of the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates
Netherlands …………………………………………………………………..Coen Free

Moving from a Campus Centered Environment to a Learning Village

The Education System in the Netherlands
Summary Comments………………. Paul A. Elsner, George Boggs, and Judith Irwin


Framing an Analysis of Global Developments of

Technical, Community College, and Further Education
Paul A. Elsner

Unique Countries; Unique Solutions and Challenges
Early motivation for offering a global survey of developments in various countries came from impressions that technical, community college, and further education systems hold one hope for coping with and navigating through a complex and ever-changing global economy. This book can, at best, provide a snapshot of several diverse and varied solutions. Each country has their own perception of what works for them.

This short preamble attempts to set the tone for this important publication. There are no qualitative preferences for one system over another. Each country designs and carries out its mission for educating its youth and adult populations for our most challenging world economy. Moreover, it was impossible to feature every country – only a snapshot of several could be accomplished.

Finding the right labor force, with the appropriate skills for ever-changing industry and swiftly-changing economic and demographic conditions is a daunting task for policy-makers and educational planners in every country our contributors attempted to describe.
No Universal Solutions

Chapter contributors felt that each country reached their workforce and training solutions in characteristic ways that matched the political and government structure in their own countries. This variation constantly reminded us that there is no universal definition of excellence, or even guidelines for best practices. Moreover, this publication does not presuppose that a Denmark system, or a U.S. system of community colleges, or a Canadian, largely provincially-driven system, is the only answer for meeting complex technological and workforce demands. They are all worthy systems, whether it is a start-up initiative in Thailand for the creation of community colleges, as discussed by Allen Cissell, or the long-standing tradition of junior colleges in Japan, the fluctuations and evolutions of which are so ably described by Joyce Tsunoda and Iida Yusako. In short, there are no single models that everyone should follow; however, each country has features of their system that most all of us would admire or attempt to emulate. Nor is this a definitive survey. Hopefully, it will give reference and familiarity with the many varied systems that occur around the world.

Merging Multiple Stakeholder Interests

The Netherlands, for example, appears to have a more thorough compact designed around parent participation, the students’ aptitudes and interests, and the institutional services of their further education functions. In early years after leaving middle school, students are examined and diagnostically assessed with regard to ability, interests, and personal and career goals. Parents participate with counselors and advisors on the decisions that young people will later confront, should the student have interest in the university, technical education or successful trade occupations. These decisions are sorted out with parents present and solid advisement and data provided by professional staff. As described by Coen Free, by the time a student reaches the age to enter a college such as King William I College in Hertogenbosch, much of the decision-making about career goals and aspirations have been responsibly worked out. Compared to the U.S. community colleges’ huge numbers arrive at the college with exploratory aims to succeed without specific goals for career placement. They may find their specific niche, but often without the professional planning and guidance one sees in the Netherlands’ system. Both systems work in their own way, and the openness of the American community college matriculation pattern works in its own way, but looking at other countries’ methods of matching students’ goals with available options seems much more clearly developed than in the U.S. system.

Governance and Decision-Making

Each country has different governance and decision-making mechanisms for starting colleges and the governance system varies from powerful central mandates to more decentralized autonomous decision-making at the state, provincial, or local and even municipal levels. China, for example, has very specific approval powers for all institutions. The central ministries in China assert full power over certain constitutionally formed universities, but encourage direction but less control over provincial and local institutions. We were surprised to learn from chapter contributors for China that the names applied to technical institutes and vocational training centers are sometimes called “community colleges,” without much resemblance to what other countries call community colleges. The term community college is actually discouraged by some central ministries and some principals have been advised to drop the name “community college” and go back to the term “technical institute” or “vocational school” as descriptors of what are now sometimes called “community colleges.”

The movement of students also differs country to country. In Denmark, students have multiple options to attach themselves to further education, vocational education, technical institutes, adult centers, and even steps towards university education. A remarkable feature of Denmark’s system is that there is always an option for students at many levels and at many kinds of educational service providers. Also, money follows the students in Denmark, and the student, if earnest, can achieve at many levels and is not abandoned and left unconnected with an educational solution.
Stronger Central Assertion of Policy

Most countries assert national priorities in much clearer and more focused ways than American national governing bodies demonstrate. It is hard to find clearly focused national policy for workforce or technical training, emanating from the United States’ federal government. Each of the states has their own preferences in the U.S. for specific goals. Basically, U.S. states are not consistent regarding accountability standards, and in most cases, even how money flows to the community colleges. Contrast this with Britain, where accountability and funding criteria are paramount considerations. British further education institutions undergo periodic inspection, and it is possible for institutions to be lined out of existence if they do not meet quality and performance goals set down by funding authorities.

Countries in Major Evolution

We saw many shifts of philosophy, emphasis, and focus in such countries as South Africa, to such a bewildering degree, that in South Africa it was hard to track the historical evolution of mergers, consolidations, and even redirecting old philosophies of universities, vocational schools, technitrons, and a bewildering array of complex governance issues.

Many countries face evolutionary challenges. The chapter contributors for Spain expressed concern that students from Spain will not be trained at the competitive levels sufficient to succeed against well-developed western European countries, who have dominated the European Union as major economic and globally based commercial forces. At the same time, several former soviet bloc countries have students that test high in traditional math and science exams, allowing them to move to Ireland, England, and other high technology-centered western European countries for better jobs. Some policy leaders in former Soviet bloc countries decry the loss of their talented youth to other countries’ economies. The general feeling is that such youth are more likely to seek employment in London, Toronto, and U.S. cities. Jim Doyle, the contributing author for New Zealand, discusses the history of the poly-technical colleges, once called community colleges. Evolutions in name and function are common throughout the world.
Complex Issues, Relevant to Each Country

Other countries revealed even more complex issues. In the Higher Colleges of Technology, set in place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the central preoccupations is to adequately train Arab nationals for participation in the robust UAE economy. The native Arab population in the UAE approximates only about 20% of the population. The other 80% of the workforce include expatriate professionals, such as engineers, doctors, specialized contractors, high and mid-level managers, college and lower school teachers, investment brokers, and other technical and professional fields. The expatriate workforce comes from all over the world. There is a large presence of huge construction firms, high-tech companies, employing great numbers of Canadian, Australian, American, and European professionals, but it also includes contract workers for clerical, technical, labor, and trades occupations. Many labor and less skilled contract workers come from a wide region of less developed countries, such as Sudan, Ethiopia and other African Horn countries. While the economy in the UAE, especially in places like Dubai, are phenomenally robust.

The participation of students from the Higher Colleges of Technology attempt to gravitate toward government, police, and other structured jobs, but do not move as readily into the open-market economy. Some government agencies were oversupplied with United Arab Emirate workers. Women, however, in the Higher Colleges of Technology seem more open to competing in the open job market in such fields as banking, computer programming, communications, television, and graphic design. The Higher Colleges of Technology are regarded as somewhat of a jewel in the higher education system in the UAE, ably presided over by visionary rulers such as His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan. In other sectors of the economy, the brightest and well trained development genius of a city like Dubai results from younger ruler families, who have been educated at Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, the Wharton School, and have come to develop Dubai and the nearby Sharjah Emirate to the degree that the region has become regarded as an “Emerald City.” From a technical and vocational education challenge, Dr. Kamali and the principals of both the women’s and men’s Higher Colleges of Technology must worry about how the native Emirati population gets to participate in a fiercely competitive globally-centered economy in the Persian Gulf.

Geremie Sawadogo of the World Bank traces the long-standing influence of the French Colonial culture in several of the French West African countries. Geremie’s concern is that French colonial influences stressed assimilation of Africans into the French culture more than they set up an adequate economic development infrastructure and a training apparatus for bringing Africans into successful and gainful employment. With the absence of such import of industries, French West African citizens often were passed over when too few jobs were created. Sawadogo emphasizes that if more attention had been given to both job creation and the prospecting for industries within an economic development framework, such countries as Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Niger would not have the poverty levels they have. Absent job availability in such West African countries, other than the tourism industry, French West Africans often rely on limited agricultural subsistence and international aid and support.

Explosive Growth and Development

This publication should make readers more aware of the dynamism in several regions of the world. Diane Oliver and her co-authors describe plans to build ten technically oriented community colleges in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The Vietnam Chapter shows us how political ideology corresponds with developments of its countries’ educational system .The developed or developing, first world or third world terminology has less and less relevance to the real world. Like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia once regarded as less developed and in some cases experiencing political turmoil, Pakistan serves as an example of how cautious we must be in describing undeveloped or politically disarrayed countries.

On September 13, 2002, Dr. Atta ur Rahman, former minister of science and technology, reported at the Education and e-Learning Conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE, that Pakistan intended to be a fully wired country, and told of extensive technology and communication outlays.

His speech was shortly after two failed assassination attempts were made on Pakistan’s president. To westerners, the impression that Pakistan was in political disarray was not born out in their visionary technology agenda. Moreover, math achievement levels in many good schools, clearly surpasses many western countries, including that of the U.S.

Exploring Autonomy and Decentralization

The survey also emphasizes the tensions between traditional, previous colonial influences. Chilean contributors stressed the primacy of academic studies over vocational training. The reality of preparing a country’s citizens for commercial advancement and modern capacities to survive in a competitive global economy is clearly present in Chile’s history. Both Thailand and Chile found it advantageous to support greater local initiative. This shift from centrally driven solutions exclusive of local preferences caused a deregulation in both countries.

One of our contributing chapter authors, Allen Cissell, advised Thailand community college planners on local governance procedures. He had hoped to assist in creating an effective chemistry of local lay communication and governance. The Chilean chapter even emphasizes that insofar as possible, the “guiding principle of the government was that state action with regard to civil society would be limited.”

Contributing author Mary Gershwin, et al, emphasized in the Chilean Chapter that 1980s reform called for transfer of financial responsibility should be shifted to the students and that comprehensive freedom from government regulation for establishing funding and institutions are local.

This governmental posture is in contrast to many developed and undeveloped countries. Gershwin adds that Chile’s general standard of living is the highest in South America, and exceeds some developed countries.
Cooperation and Assistance

John Halder, who has been an architect and a major leader of the Community Colleges for Institutional Development (CCID) describes numerous partnerships and cooperatives with many diverse countries. Their partnerships derive from deeper inter-institutional cooperation to program-to-program sharing and development, to single faculty-to-faculty exchanges.

John Halder points out that many countries’ developments of technical and community colleges have been assisted by cooperation and support from other countries. Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, England and Denmark aid many other countries and have histories of cooperation with partner countries.

Halder points out links between the USAID support and U.S. colleges in the assistance to developments in India, the Dominican Republic, and Georgia. Each country again represented different and quite unique circumstances, from Georgia’s need to expand its role of formerly Soviet-dominated technitrons to providing conference-type catalysts to discussing India’s workforce and greater community college purposes and functions.

As Halder points out, there are several disparate initiatives in India. One of the contributing factors to a greater U.S. Knowledge of India’s technical and community college developments has been the presence of both American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the Community College for International Development (CCID). Both organizations have led study groups and direct involvement in India’s efforts to both formulate and put in operation community college systems.

A March 2007 visitation to India by AACC and CCID staff, ably led by Robert Keener of Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, connected with several universities policy planning entities and U.S. consulate staff in determining the interests in developing a community college movement in India. There have been some earnest efforts by Father Xavier Alphonse who has created a community college center to discuss and publish developmental material for an Indian community college system. The CCID team were briefed on the efforts Fr. Alphonse has achieved in gaining the attention of certain ministerial policy leaders about a community college system modeled after many U.S. community college characteristics.

Another serious overture has been made by an All India Association of Technical and Vocational Training Institutes called Skills for Progress (SKIP). The SKIP organization acts as an agent of change in India and a process for planning for the future. Its efforts include capacity building of its member technical institutes and to seek international partners to solve such problems as rural poverty, preparation for training to match the need for India’s skilled workers. SKIP has already forged overseas partnership with the Netherlands and Germany for more than 2 decades. SKIP proposes and has worked on achieving a direct partnership with CCID and has fostered earnest interaction with some American community colleges, particularly under the umbrella of CCID. India’s weaker commitment at the national level, however, has not assisted the interest in community college type development. Policy studies have been cited that call for the need of 1,500 new universities; however, the mental model for building higher education capacity which is much needed in India (only 7% of the India population attend universities) omits the mention of community colleges and even technical institutes. Such institutions do not seem to emanate from the national or federal level. India’s frame of reference for a higher education centers on universities, generally not technical or community colleges.

However, earnest efforts to partner with community colleges do come from some universities. A good example is SRM University in Chennai. Highly productive discussions have also occurred in Stella Maris College in Chennai, a women’s college offering applied degrees including programs to PhDs.

Canada had long-standing relationships with foreign contract training through their further education institutions such as Humber and Seneca Colleges. The same could be said of the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries.

Western Canadian technical colleges established wide reaches into Pacific Basin needs before U.S. colleges began working with China, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Island colleges.

European colonial ties have long provided assistance and guidance to African and Middle Eastern countries.
Workforce Training and Standards

All of the countries surveyed showed central preoccupation with preparation of its citizens for an increasingly complex and technologically-driven global economy.

The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce mirrors the concerns of many other countries. Its webpage, www.skillscommission.org states the challenge as follows:

Sixteen years ago, the National Center on Education and the Economy released the report of its Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. The title of the report, America’s Choice: high skills or low wages!, told the whole story. The Commission’s report played a key role in launching the standards movement in the United States. But now, countries like India and China are turning out large numbers of highly skilled workers ready to compete for low wages. NCEE has created the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, to chart a course for the United States in a much more complicated global economy.

Like many other countries, the United States must keep pace with the production of math and science oriented graduates at both technical and professional levels.

For western developed countries, the challenge of globalization is of paramount consideration. Developed countries are not immune to swift changes such as the advent of a digitized world, and a networked workforce. Huge technological advances have created automation of routine work and as the National Center on Education and the Economy has stressed to the above “New Commission,” entire industries are now threatened.

A Flat World?

Thomas Friedman uses the analogy that the world is flat because, among other developments, countries can outsource virtually anything to anyplace. Moreover, search engines have distributed information more equitably than ever before, so the centers of information intensity and expertise, once controlled by only certain nation states or economic powers, have so decentralized that the world economies have become much more self-organized than hierarchy-controlled.

It is obvious to observers of developments in most of the countries surveyed that free market capitalism, availability of markets to virtually anyone in a digitized world web and an expanding internet-based commerce calls for new, as yet to be discovered training paradigms. All countries are in this challenge together. So this publication can serve us well, by just learning more about each others’ national challenges.

Just as New Zealand and Australia must gain a foot hold on Southeast Asia and Chinese markets, a former Soviet bloc country must navigate its relationships in the European Union with well-established world market leaders, such as England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

One of the challenges that Germany faces regarding workforce strategies, is best exemplified by contributing authors Volker Rein and Ute Hippach-Schneider. Germany faces a falling demand for basic qualifications and rising demand for higher qualifications. Basically, the need for skilled workers will probably stagnate in Germany and the availability of high skilled workers will be scarce.

The pressure for higher skills is also reflected in Antoine Barnaart’s chapter on Australia. While the late 19^th Century established mechanic institutes, schools of mines and schools of arts, Australia’s economy has moved away from extractive industries and Industrial Era mechanic and machine trades. In contrast, Australia’s current demands require more focused setting of standards and a typically more assertive direction from both their National ministries and its training authorities. Its foothold in Southeast Asia and throughout certain countries in the Pacific regions, and more particularly in China and Japan, are critical for Australia. Australia sees much of its technical training and workforce capacity being tied to international partnerships, often supported by Australia’s Aid for International Development (AAID).

A flatter world must also presuppose more evenly distributed capacity among the world’s countries. This snap-shot of global developments can help us to observe each others’ technical, community college, and further education capacities.