Global Development
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Start-UpFifteen months after being charged with creating the colleges, 10 community colleges opened in rural Thailand: Mae Hong Son, Pijit, Tak, Nong Bualumpu Buriran, Mukdahaum, Sakaew, Uthai Tani, Raynong, and Narathiwas. Each opened with four kinds of curricula: 1. Remedial programs, to bring students and adults up to a level sufficient to enter into other programs. 2. Short-term intensive programs. These included language courses (Cambodian, for border trade, English for tourism), community health programs, agriculture (recovery of deforested land), wine making, and so on. 3. Vocational programs for those already in careers, such as photography, electronics, Thai classical music and dance. 4. Associate degree programs, including early childhood development, auto mechanics, accounting, tourism, agriculture, electricity technology, community development, and more. Tuition costs for these courses were (and still are) extraordinarily low – 5 bhat (.08 cents) per hour for short courses and 25 bhat (.80 cents) per credit hour for a full class. They also opened in borrowed facilities and with borrowed faculty – classes were held in secondary schools, in Wats, in government offices, at vocational schools, and community centers. Unfortunately, the community colleges continue in those facilities still today. Today, the short courses (similar to US continuing education or adult education courses) include computer use for small business, jewelry, local tourist guide, batik and silk production and other programs of local interest. New associate degree programs are being developed in Emergency Medical Services, Pharmacy Technology, Gerontology, and Teacher Improvement and Development. Each college is allocated 16 tenured positions and four non-tenured faculty who are on five year contracts, with a review period at the end of each year. Salaries are very low, rarely exceeding $150 per month for a full-time position. In the last year, three years after opening, approximately 600 students were awarded associate degrees. Some students have transferred to universities, but it is too early to assess how they are doing academically. Each college has a governing board of nineteen members, none of whom receive pay for the position, except for minor per-diem on the days of the meetings. Some members of the Board of Trustees are ex-officio—a representative chosen by the Chamber of Commerce, another from a university, an administrator from the provincial government and so on. Others are selected by a “search committee” of the Director and the ex-officio members. Individuals in the community may apply to serve on the Board and are approved or rejected by the search committee. So while this is a unique procedure, it does provide a fair representation of the community at large.
In Sakow, one other unique program has begun. At this college, emphasis was placed on meeting the needs of an identified market—organically grown food—and the food chosen was asparagus. To supply the market, a co-operative was organized between private growers and the college. This co-operative new sells directly and exclusively to Japan and represents a good example of a partnership arrangement, rare in the rural areas where the Thai community colleges are located. It provides a good model for others to follow. ConclusionLike many of our community colleges during their start-up period, the community colleges of Thailand began their operations in borrowed facilities. As previously noted, classes were and still are taught in secondary school facilities, or vocational school classrooms, religious venues and other available space. What is different from the US experience is that the national leaders who provide the funds for the colleges are strongly against providing funds for new construction and/or separate buildings. This has been the position of the Prime Minister and the high level Ministry appointees. So, to date, the colleges continue to operate as step-children, relegated to borrowed facilities. However, given the popularity and growth of the community colleges, it seems likely that clearly allocated campuses, perhaps from merger with vocational colleges, will eventually happen. As a matter of local pride and need for identity, specific buildings and campuses will eventually emerge from this start up effort. Another start-up difficulty, again as might be expected, has been the significant turn-over in leadership at the individual colleges. While the leadership for community college development at the Ministry of Education has remained relatively constant, nearly every community college has had more than one Director in the past four years and high turnover in staff. While understandable to a degree, it is nevertheless a significant distraction from the development of the colleges and the curricula they offer. If, as the initial developmental charge to the colleges’ states, their goal is “emphasis on manpower development in support of innovation in local businesses and creation of local entrepreneurs,”139 then the loss of continuing and consistent and stable leadership is a minus. In this same vein, by virtue of their location in rural areas, the colleges do not have a strong industry or business base from which to work or with whom to partner. Industry tends to cluster around the larger cities, for obvious reasons, and the community colleges are semi-isolated and positioned away from the economic growth centers of Thailand. But perhaps the biggest obstacle to overcome in the development of these colleges is the long history of centralization and bureaucracy that permeates Thailand. Several years ago, in a project funded by the Thai government, a Harvard management expert and his team concluded a study of the Thai government and economy by noting that “Thailand is world class in only one thing--bureaucracy.”139 That seems to apply to the development of the community colleges also--resistance within the Ministry at first, then frequent changes in policy and personnel at high levels. This bureaucracy seems to have slowed, considerably, the plan to expand the system as rapidly as originally envisioned and to enhance and expand the curriculum into innovative and creative ways. Still, the long term goal of the government is to have one community college in each sub-provincial area (Tambon), a total of 72 in all. Problems aside, the long term outlook for Thai community colleges is positive. Plans have been prepared to expand the system to a total of seventeen colleges by the end of 2006 (although the violence in the South may delay the opening of new colleges there beyond that date). Again, these colleges will be located in the rural areas (Yasothon in the Northeast, Trat in the East, Samutsakorn in central Thailand and Satun and Phang in the South). For three of these colleges, Directors and Boards of Trustees have been selected. A community college (with 10 locations) has been planned for Bangkok but some complex problems have developed which are delaying its operations. It seems that much remains to be done before it is operational. At the present time, the Thai legislature and the Ministry of Education are drafting and debating legislative clarifications for a new law for the community colleges. This, it is hoped, will settle issues of local control, budget matters, and articulation and transferability of credit from the community colleges to bachelor degree granting institutions and universities. Regardless, the clear successes of the current colleges speak loudly for continuing progress and development. Already one can see significant progress in curriculum development related to local and national needs and progress in teacher development. If the colleges can truly develop an independence from central control (although budget reliance will continue for a considerable period), creative and innovative leadership at the individual colleges, and solid agreements other colleges and universities for transfer of credits, then they will achieve the design originally envisioned for them and make a huge contribution to Thailand’s continuing development. The Vocational and Technical Schools of Higher Education in Turkey Ahmet Aypay, Ph. D. History of Development Two-year vocational and technical schools systems are located within university structures. The Council of Higher Education (YOK) oversees the Turkish Higher Education System. The names of the institutions vary depending on the programs in the Meslek Yüksek Okulu, also known as Vocational Schools of Higher Education (VSHE). The roots of the two-year vocational and technical schools can be traced to the early 20th Century. The first vocational school was established in 1911 by the Ministry of Public Works to train civil servants in applied sciences. This institutional model of the college followed the French “Ecole Conducteur” in Paris. Later, the name of the institution changed over to Public Works Applied Science School and the duration of training extended to from two years initially two and a half years and then to three years in 1926 (Kavak, 1992). After an engineering department was added into the program, the name of the vocational school changed over to Technician School. The administration of Technician School was then tranferred to the Ministry of Education. In order to improve quality, the graduates of vocational high school-level Craft and Construction programs began to be admitted to the technical schools through an entrance exam (Kavak, 1992). In order to meet the country’s industrialization goals, the Technician Schools were expanded in 1952. These two-year schools were located in the vocational high schools which had convenient facilities and workshops. In order to serve the needs of individuals who work full-time and were not in school age, three-year Technician Schools were established (Baskan, 1997). In 1965, two Higher Technician Schools that provide an additional year of training to these two-year institutions were established: one located in Istanbul and one in Ankara. These Higher Technician Schools were intended to help students to transfer to four year institutions. There were 2848 students and 110 faculty in 23 Technician Schools in 1968. Both the Ankara and the Istanbul schools of these schools were later closed (Karasar, 1981). Among the reasons were: (1) their location in the buildings of vocational and technical high schools; (2) the lack of opportunity to transfer to a four year institution directly (Karhan, 1983). The demand for higher education increased rapidly. In order to meet the increase in demand, universities began to establish two-year vocational schools in the mid-seventies. By 1973, these schools could be established either directly to a university. In a parallel development, Ministry of Education established two-year schools. The goal was to train the manpower the economy needed. The programs included education, trade and tourism, technical schools, and distance education. Although initially transfer to four-year institutions was granted to these two-year schools, it was later discontinued. (Kavak, 1992). The goals of the two-year schools was based on the Law no. 1750 (Kaya, 1984):
Thus, the goal of two-year colleges were charged with preparing students for a vocation, career, or transfer to four-year institution (Ataünal, 1998). As Kaya (1984) indicated, although not explicitly stated, a third goal was to prepare students to four-year institutions (Aypay, 2003). Universities and the Ministry of Education established two-year schools that were quite different from one another. Two-year schools in the universities were full-time formal education programs. The Ministry of Education had also established 24 two-year post-secondary vocational schools. However, the first year in these schools was taught through distance education programs while the second year students were expected to attend and continue into formal two-year colleges. These programs were directed to train mid-level manpower and not to transfer in to the four year institutions. The programs of these two-year post-secondary vocational schools included technical, social and life sciences. Later, graduates were unable to find employment and so these schools experienced low enrollment. They usually remained as the extension of high schools. Finally, they stopped admitting students in 1979 (Nazik, 2003). Currently, there are 490 two-year vocational and technical school of higher education in Turkey. Another 135 two-year schools have been planned, but they have not yet started to admit students. Figure 1. Quantitative development of VSHEs in Turkey¹.
¹Open Education is not included. Sources: ÖSYM . İkinci Basamak Sınav Kılavuzu: 1983 ve 1993. ÖSYM. Yükseköğretim Programları ve Kontenjanları Kılavuzu: 2002. YÖK. Yükseköğretim Ön Lisans ve Lisans Programlarında Kayıtlı Öğrenci Sayılarına İlişkin Bazı İstatistikler. Currently, 490 VSHEs provides training for 384,456 students /higher technicians in technical, business & economics, and health and marine programs in Turkey. In addition, 213,130 students are enrolled in Open Education associate degree programs. As a result, a total of 614,586 students have been enrolled in the two-year VSHEs in Turkey. An additional 135 VSHE have been planned and expected to accept students in the near future. There will be a total of 625 VSHE when additional institutions start accepting students (YÖK, 2005). The percentage of VSHE students in formal higher education system is 28.4%. When Open Education System students are taken into account, the ratio goes down to 18.4%. “The percentage of two-year college students is approximately 30% in the industrialized countries” as stated in the annual The Status of Higher Education issued by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK, 2005). Significant Decisions in Higher Education A state university sued private colleges in arguing that these institutions were a threat to equality of educational opportunity in 1971. As a result, the Supreme Court ordered to shut down 41 four-year private higher education institutions. Government, following the decision of Supreme Court, turned all private higher education institutions into state institutions and annexed them to existing state universities with Law 1472 in the 1971-1972 academic year. Although this development was not directly related to two-year schools of higher education, it had an indirect effect on them by postponing the establishment of independent private foundation VSHEs until late 1980s. A university reform introduced in 1973 with Law 1750. A Higher Education Council was first created. Another reform introduced in 1981 with the Law 2547. The purpose of this law was to bring into higher education a systems approach for the creation of new universities. A nationwide student selection and placement office was created in order to administer merit-based selection exams for the universities’ admissions. Turkish Higher Education System went under another reform in 1981. This reform cleared the way for the expansion of VSHE system in Turkey. Before 1981, the majority of VSHEs were under the Ministry Education and the rest were either located in university systems or in other ministries. All VSHEs became annexed to universities in 1981. Higher Education Law 2547 in 1981 defines the two-year colleges as “A higher education institution that emphasizes teacher-training of a certain vocation” and “an institution with four semesters to train mid-level manpower in certain vocations.” Associate degree programs defined by the same law as “based on secondary education that lasts at least for four semesters and aims at training mid-level workforce in the first phase of higher education.” The law defined the director, the two-year college board and administrative board as the administrative units of two-year colleges (YÖK, 2004). The last expansion of the Higher Education System was in 1992. Twenty-three state universities and Institutes of Technology were established and this led to the real expansion of VSHEs. Following the 1981 reform, VSHEs have gone through major improvement efforts with the financial support of the World Bank. These projects were called “First and Second Industrial Training Projects.”
Two-year colleges were annexed to universities and became the source of today’s two-year college system in 1981 (Kavak, 1992). The two-year colleges were relatively new in the Turkish Higher Education System. They expanded in a large scale after 1982 under increased control from the Council of Higher Education. The development and expansion of the two-year Post-secondary Vocational School System in Turkey could be analyzed in four stages. The first stage characterized the emergence of the two-year Technician Schools between 1911 and 1969. The second stage lasted from 1970 to 1979. The third stage covered the years between 1982 and 1991. Finally, the fourth stage has continued since 1992. Currently there is a struggle between the Government of Turkey and the Council of Higher Education concerning Vocational and Technical High Schools and Vocational Schools of Higher Education. The Council of Higher Education restricted Vocational and Technical High School graduates’ entrance into four-year higher education programs. The Council argued that the graduates of these schools should only be able to continue to four year teacher training programs that could be considered as an extension of their high school programs but not in such areas such as law, political sciences, and engineering. The Council of Higher Education’s decision was to prevent religious Vocational High Schools (İmam-Hatip Lisesi) from entering into the programs mentioned earlier. Since the Council would not be able to single out the entrance of religious vocational school graduates into those programs after a nationwide competitive examination because of the constitutional principle of equality before the law, all the Vocational and Technical High School graduates’ entry into the four-year higher education institutions were restricted. An open door policy to Vocational High School graduates was established. Vocational High School students can continue their training at two-year Vocational Schools of Higher Education without going through an examination. They can go to a VSHE based on their high school GPA if they choose to do so. As a result, there was an increase in the demand for VSHEs. In order to meet this demand, Council of Higher Education and the Ministry of Education collaborated with a protocol to share some of the resources, physical facilities and teachers of vocational high schools. Since these school have been around for a long time, they have generally better resources, facilities, equipment, and teaching personnel. Students continued to their two-year post-secondary education under the umbrella of VSHE. But, this solution had its own problems. Students were often in the same schools from which they graduated, and in certain situations trained by their own high school teachers. Faculty members at two-year Vocational Schools of Higher Education complained about Council of Higher Education’s decisions because of the low quality of students. After the Council’s decision to restrict the admission to four-year institutions, the number of high achieving students who used to choose to go to Vocational High Schools dropped dramatically. Recently, about 70% of students enrolled in VSHEs graduated from vocational schools. As a result, according to faculty and administration of VSHE, since the graduates of these Vocational High Schools continue their education in the VSHEs, the quality of students has suffered. The Government made a public promise that they would lift the restrictions to Vocational and Technical High School graduates. Allied with Vocational and Technical High Schools as well as Vocational Schools of Higher Education, the government have been trying to go back to the old system which all high school graduates compete equally. Since forming the government in 2002, the government had attempted unsuccessfully to change the system a number of times. Open Education (distance education) has been one of the growing trends in two-year post-secondary schools of higher education in the past decade. Anadolu University through its Open Education Faculty offers associate degree programs in a various fields. The interest in open education has traditionally been for four year institutions. Currently, there is a growth in associate degree programs as well. 213,130 students enrolled in open education programs in the 2004-2005 academic year (YÖK, 2005). The following wide variety of programs are offered through Open Education: Banking and Insurance, Information Systems (online), Bureau Management and Secretarial Training, International Trade, Home Economics, Public Relations, Divinity, Veterinary Services, Accounting, English Language Teaching and Pre-School Teaching (both associate degree programs prepare students to transfer to four year schools), Sales, Health Institutions Administration, Social Sciences, Agriculture, Tourism and Hotel Business, and Local Government. In addition, Open Education Faculty offers special programs to certain institutions such as the Army and the Police. These programs can be in the form of in-service training as well as associate degree programs (Anadolu University, 2006). Private sector involvement has begun to assist VSHEs. Earlier, foundational universities were allowed to establish VSHEs within their structures. However, the Council of Higher Education now considers foundations’ request to open VSHEs. This is a recent development that will help VSHEs to become more flexible in adapting to changing environments. Finally, distance education programs in the form of interned-based VSHEs needs attention. Although, the number of such institutions are only a few, it is highly likely the demand for such institutions will be higher in the future. Currently, Mersin University and Sakarya University have internet-based VSHEs in technical programs such as electronics (YÖK, 2005). Motivating Factors For Development As it has been the case around the world, the establishment of two-year vocational and technical schools in Turkey is closely related to the efforts of industrialization and training mid-level manpower for the economy. The programmatic functions of these two-year colleges have been transfer to four-year institutions, vocational and technical education, adult education, and service to society. Table 1. Student Enrollment based on Programs (2004-2005).
Source: YÖK, 2005. In order to transfer to four-year institutions, all two-year VSHE graduate takes a student selection examination administered by Student Selection and Placement Center. Furthermore, not all universities offer VSHE graduates 10% of their enrollments. There is no specific requirement, and in many cases, the ratio is less than 10%. A second problem related to the transfer of VSHE students into four year programs is the additional coursework required by universities. Although VSHE students continue their education within university structures, universities require VSHE graduates take an additional year of coursework. Moreover, as VSHE graduates claim, they have not been warmly welcomed at some universities. The expansion of the types of programs offered in two-year post-secondary higher education institutions has been enormous after 1992. There have been a 200% increase in technical programs between 1992 and 2002. The overall increase in all two-year college programs during this decade is approximately 600% (Aypay, 2003). Yüklə 1,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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