Global Development

Summary

We called the realization of our Learning Village concept a collective voyage of discovery. We also see learning in our Learning Village as a voyage, during which the senses gain many impressions. An inspiring voyage, with the aim of achieving an excellent position in the employment market or a successful follow-up study in higher education. It goes without saying that within the framework of lifelong learning, graduates would like to continue to return to our Learning Village. Not only because they have learned to learn with all their senses, but also because they have learned with sense.

Aim

The aim of the Learning Village education concept is to organize our education, on the basis of learner characteristics, so that effective custom paths can be implemented.

The education concept is based on the principles of ‘self-driven learning’ and mastery learning according to the theories of the ‘Leids Didactisch Model’ and the J4-Model, developed in the School for the Future; the ideas of De Bono and Gardner on learning to think and act creatively, conceptually and sensorially; and the latest insights in the area of e-learning. Knowledge of languages and ICT occupy a prominent position. So does internationalization, which is a natural and obvious part of our educational vision. Learning paths are designed as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that they are not only inspiring, but also do not last longer than necessary. In doing this we use strong, context-rich intramural and extramural learning environments.

Therefore our students have contemporary and competitive professional, learning, career and citizenship competences, so that they are excellently qualified and prepared for the (international) employment market and (international) higher education. We strive to ensure that everyone who registers at the Koning Willem I College earns a diploma (at least at the European starting qualification level), which corresponds to his ambitions and qualities.

In the middle of society

The student never travels alone on his voyage, but always with others. In the college he travels with fellow students and staff. Outside the college he travels with businesses, institutions and organizations. This makes the Koning Willem I College a true Community College. Not an island, but a bustling center of intramural and extramural learning processes. Constantly evolving and with a deep social commitment, which is also the main motive: everything to serve the community, the society, to which the student belongs.

V EPILOGUE

Since the beginning of its centuries-old history the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch has attracted artists, scientists, thinkers and visionaries who have left their mark on the city. The city’s most famous son is the master painter and teacher Jheronimus Bosch (± 1450 – 1516). The way in which he was inspired by the city, its region and its inhabitants has been followed in many different areas. The Koning Willem I College continues this valuable tradition in its own unique way. By being a source and a role model of knowledge and culture. By striving for perfection. By constantly giving new impetuses to society. But above all, by being a strong, inspiring and contemporary learning environment.

REFERENCES
Boekaerts, M. (1994). Motivation in Education, The Fourteenth Vernon-Wall Lecture. Moreambe.

Boekaerts, M. (1995). Self-regulated learning: Bridging the Gap between Metacognitive and Metamotivation Theories. Educational Psychologist, 30 (4), 195-200.

Christiansen, L.K. (2005). Mesa Community College Self-Study Report 2005. Mesa AZ.: MCC.

De Bono, E. (2000). New thinking for the new Millennium. Beverly Hills: New Millennium Press.

De Bono, E. (2003). Why so stupid? How the Human Race has never really learned to think. Dublin: Blackhall Publishing.

Elsner, P.A. & Boggs, G.R. (2005). Encouraging Civility as a Community College Leader. Washington DC: Community College Press.

Florida, R. (2004). The Flight of the Creative Class. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Free, C. (2005). The Learner. ‘s-Hertogenbosch: School for the Future.

Friedman, Th.L. (2005). The World is Flat. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences, The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, H. (1995). The Unschooled Mind, How Children Think en How Schools Should Teach. New York: Basic Books.

Gelb, M.J. (2000). How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Dell Publishing.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything Bad is Good for You, How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books.

Knoke, W. (1996). Bold new world, The essential roadmap to the twenty-first century. Schiedam: Scriptum.

Morgan, G. (1993). Imaginization, the art of creative management. Schiedam: Scriptum.

Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company. Oxford: University Press.

Oblinger, D.G. & Oblinger, J.L. (2004). Educating the Net Generation, Boulder: Educause.

Palmer, P.J. (1998). The Courage to Teach. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Pine, B.J. & Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The experience economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Peters, O. (2003). Distance Education in Transition. Oldenburg: University Press.

Rifkin, J. (2004). The European Dream. New York: Penguin Group.

Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing up digital, The Rise of the Net Generation. New York: Mc Graw-Hill.

Tessaring, M. & Wannan, J. (2004). Vocational education and training, key to the future, Lisbon – Copenhagen – Maastricht mobilising for 2010. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Coen Free is President of Koning Willem I College (King William I College) ‘s-Hertogenbosch (a town in the south of the Netherlands) since 1990; King William I College is considered as one of the most innovative Community Colleges in Europe. A special project of Koning Willem I College is School for the Future, a very innovative Center for Teaching and Learning, E-learning and Creative Thinking.
Coen Free is also President of the Dutch Consortium for Innovation, a sister organization of the American League for Innovation. He is founding member of the European Federation for Open and Distance Learning (EFODL) Brussel. He is member of the International Advisory Board of the Chair Academy, Phoenix AZ.
In journals and book form he publish frequently his ideas about education in the 21st century. At several universities in Europe he gives guest lectures.

He is also a well respected member of the community of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Because of his merits to the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, he received two rewards: a very special social cultural award the ‘Moeder Truus Poffer’ and because of all his efforts he was elected Citizen of the Year 1999.

Summary Notes for Global Development

of Technical College, Community College,

and Further Education
Paul A. Elsner

George Boggs

Judith Irwin

While the editors have extensive backgrounds as leaders in American community colleges and higher education, this publication is written at a time when all countries are pre-occupied with finding effective models for workforce preparation and post-secondary education. The new global economy appears to place extraordinary pressure on international policy planners and education ministries to find the right combination of education and training strategies to fit both adults and youth into the ever-changing global and information economy.

Paul Elsner served as the Chancellor of the ten-college Maricopa Community College District for over twenty-three years. His experience includes planning state systems, organizational studies, and a wide publishing and consulting experience in several states and countries.
George Boggs is the President of the 1183-member American Association of Community Colleges. He sits on the secretariat for all US segments of higher education, represented at the National Center for Higher Education (NCHE). He is a former college president, and presides over a higher education segment membership that reaches over seven million students.
In addition, Dr Boggs has been active in the Congresses of World Wide Poly-Technical Colleges that meets under the auspices of the Federation of Poly-Technical Colleges (WFPC). He is the current president of the WFPC; the host of the Fourth Congress that met in New York in February, 2008.
Judith Irwin has served as Executive Director of the American Council on Education’s (ACE) prestigious Business-Higher Education Forum, which includes forty of the major Fortune 500 U.S. companies, and most influential research based universities, the Canadian, Japanese and Australian Business and Higher Education Forum secretaries. She is currently the Director of International Education and Programs for the AACC.
The editors chose to not prescribe dominant models for such preparation. It happens that every combination and variety, under various names and nomenclature, appears in the some twenty-three countries surveyed in this publication. While American community colleges are represented in the editor’s backgrounds, every country reaches its national technology preparation and post-secondary education goals in a variety of kinds and names of their institutions.
There appears to be great similarities among further education, technical education, polytechnic education, and community colleges. Most have similar challenges, particularly preparing a workforce that can succeed in different world economies.
We had hoped that offering this publication not only to the American Association of Community Colleges’ membership readers, but also to policy planners, principals, and ministries throughout the world. It is also hoped that the contributing chapter writers will use the network created by this book for further reference.
As reference source, this publication was not intended to be exhaustive. Of course, covering as many as twenty-three countries can only provide a snapshot of the structure, history, and the issues and challenges among several countries’ for various further education, community college and technical college systems.
Trends and Patterns
At the 2007 AACC Annual Convention in Tampa, Florida, three chapter contributors served as panelists. They spoke of some common issues and characteristics of the technical community college and further education systems among the twenty-three countries reviewed in this Global Survey. Generally, the panelists, Diane Oliver of Texas Tech, James Horton, former CEO of the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates and Geoff Hall, President of the New College of Nottingham voiced these considerations.¹⁴⁵
Both the developing countries, as well as the developed ones, all have energized intentions of moving up the tempo of refining their technical and workforce strategies for the new, increasingly complex global economy, the characteristics of which are being defined as this publication goes to press.
George Boggs underscores the energy to restructure and maintain a competitive foothold on the new global economy.
In the increasingly global society and economy, education is now seen as essential to a nation’s competitiveness and the standard of living of its people. (Boggs, Foreword, 2007)
Diane Oliver commented that at least ten community colleges are being planned for the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, a country she has studied and for which she has consulted. Such development has lead those involved in this Global Survey to be cautious when we are tempted to frame less developed countries as less activist in current, future oriented goals for their technical and post-secondary colleges. Which are developed and which are underdeveloped needs rethinking. Some Southeast Asia countries also speak of preparing for a knowledge economy. Hopefully, this Global Survey will assist readers in seeing different realities in many developing nations.
The AACC Tampa Convention panelists did say
University transfer was generally less developed as a mission among many countries outside the United States.

While on the general surface we think this is true, but in the “Grid Analysis” (Table )¹⁴⁶ developed by George Boggs, we can see the more significant gains in achieving some transfer of credit and course portability to universities. There are many arrangements and procedures for achieving college credit transfer to universities that have emerged in recent years. The Grid reveals these patterns in certain countries.
The Tampa AACC panelists also emphasized that
Names and terms mean different things in different countries.
One admonition offered by the panelists is that we should ask “What’s in a name?” Community College certainly means more than one thing. Americans in particular need to invoke more flexibility and tolerance for the word community. George Boggs’ foreword expands on such flexible definitions used by many countries.
These institutions go by different names: community colleges, technical colleges, technical universities, polytechnics, further education (FE) institutions, technical and further education (TAFE) institutions, institutes of technology, colleges of technology, and junior colleges. Their evolution has been shaped by the needs that have emerged in various regions, political and economic pressures, and the visions of leaders. The institutions vary as to whether they are public, private, or private for-profit. The missions vary as to the level of degrees or qualifications they can award and their focus on vocational/technical education or academic liberal arts. In some countries, they are considered part of the higher education system; in others, there is a marked separation between higher education and further education. In some places, they are part of university systems; in others they stand alone. In some countries, students can transfer credits that they earn in these institutions to universities; in others, they cannot. In some countries, the institutions are governed centrally; in others, governance systems are localized. Some focus more on younger students; while others serve adults and their need for lifelong learning. (Boggs, Foreword, 2007)
International mission outside of the US is more technical and vocationally oriented among further education and most international post-secondary systems.
The Denmark, the British, United Arab Emirates systems and many others are set up to achieve vocational and technical education missions. Limited allowing of transfer to university exists, but technical, vocational and workforce preparation is the foremost objective in Thailand, Vietnam, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey and many other countries surveyed. While all countries have universities, the vocational technical tiers are often quite separate, although some are integrated and even run or coordinated by universities … but they are generally a more focused technical, vocational and workforce preparation system. The ratcheting up of needed world competitive high-end skills presents complex challenges to virtually all world systems. In addition, the U.S. and so-called advanced western countries differ in the manner of how national policy is set forth.
In most countries, central and federal ministries assert more direction for their member institutions than what occurs in the United States.
There may be reasons for this difference of control and governance. First, many of the countries are smaller and have specific statutory or parliamentary authority to direct workforce or technical preparation from the national policy level. This is certainly true, for example, in the Netherlands, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and many countries in the Survey. Geoff Hall pointed out at the AACC, Tampa, Florida panel that further education institutions can be lined out of existence by the national government for not meeting performance goals in technical training. Moreover, their funding authorities conduct rigorous inspection on such performance for which the colleges feel fully accountable.
Australia’s technical and further education system (TAFE) have long responded to national workforce and economic development strategy set by the federal capital and by the overtures of the Australian training authority, both activists on national and institutional mandates for performance accountability.
But it’s also obvious among the chapter contributors that the new global economy is of central concern. We can expect that greater accountability will follow such universal concern.
In addition, one of the valuable lessons learned in undertaking of this “Global Survey” was to come to understand that the world has awakened to the common, interdependent challenges of globalism and the new economy. For those of us in America, we have had to come along way since 1988 when the Commission on the Future of the Community Colleges gave some print space to the need for a broader world view as quoted in Building Communities: A Vision for a New Century:
COMMUNITY:

A PERSPECTIVE THAT IS GLOBAL

In the past half-century, our planet has become vastly more crowded, more interdependent, and more unstable. Since man orbited into space, it has become dramatically apparent that we are all custodians of a single planet. The world may not yet be a global village, but surely our sense of neighborhood must expand. If students do not see beyond themselves and better understand their place in our complex world, their capacity to live responsibly will be dangerously diminished.
When drought ravages the Sahara, when war in Indochina creates refugees, neither our compassion nor our analytic intelligence can be bounded by a dotted line on a political map. We are beginning to understand that hunger and human rights affect alliances as decisively as weapons and treaties. Dwarfing all other concerns, the mushroom cloud hangs ominously over our world consciousness. These realities and the obligations they impose must be understood by every student.
Over the past two decades, the United States’ economy has become dependent on the world economy. The share of Gross National Product devoted to exports has doubled, as more and more U.S. producers have come to depend on foreign markets. Increasingly, American businesses operate on a global basis. If the college’s technical programs do not take into account these global relationships so important to industry, students’ skills will become obsolete.
Community colleges have, historically, been geographically restricted. They consider their “service area” to be limited to the county or district sponsoring the institution. However, these barriers are breaking down. Some community colleges now have large migrations of foreign students in their region, including large numbers of Asian and other nonwestern students. Others have been actively involved in encouraging travel abroad and even in starting campuses or programs overseas. In addition, many of the industries served by the community college have international connections.
The Commission concludes that community colleges have an urgent obligation to keep students informed about people and cultures other than their own, and that the building of partnerships must be not only local and national, but global, too. In the century ahead, parochialism is not an option.

• 
  We recommend that each community college coordinate – perhaps in a single office – its international activities. The goal should be to increase international awareness on campus and in the surrounding community, not only through the general education curriculum, but also through lectures, business seminars, and, when appropriate, international exchanges.
  

• 
  We also suggest that foreign students be used as campus resources for information about the language, culture, and religions of their country so their knowledge and perspective can enrich campus life. (pp31-32)¹⁴⁷
  

These recommendations sound somewhat “faint” when we consider the more current historical context and the huge economic ramifications of a new global economy to which all countries developed, small, and recently awakened to new trade and economic realities, i.e., the flat world.

But while America awakened rather late, we now see what the AACC, Tampa, Florida panelists emphasized:
Developing countries have ambitious goals - third tier countries should not always be referred to as behind – often, they are emerging leaders in technology, newer solutions, and because of their smallness, can move more quickly and have leapfrog capabilities.
This AACC Press Publication can serve to provide all of our world partners, our AACC membership, ourselves as leaders and teachers, a more valid, as well as an inspiring reality about at least twenty three countries in this survey.

The Editors

Paul A Elsner

George Boggs

Judith Irwin

1^ http://www.australia.gov.au

2^ http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/competitive_economy.html

3^ http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/aust_today.html

4^ www.dest.gov.au

5^ http://www.griffith.edu.au/vc/ate/content_vet_hist.html

6^ http://www.griffith.edu.au/vc/ate/content_vet_hist.html

7^ www.austcolled.com.au

8^ www.dest.gov.au

9^ www.dest.gov.au

10^ http://www.aqf.edu.au/aqfqual.htm

11^ www.dest.gov.au

12^ www.isc.org.au

13^ www.dest.gov.au

14^ www.dest.gov.au

15 Amanda Labarca H., “Historia de la Enseñanza en Chile”. Imprenta Universitaria, Santiago, 1939, p. 58

16 Amanda Labarca. Op.Cit. p. 245

17 Fernando Campos H. “Desarrollo Educacional 1810-1960”, Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago, 1960. P.44

18^ Fernando Campos H. Op Cit. P. 44

19^ Quoted in Ricardo Krebs, María Angélica Muñoz y Patricio Valdivieso, Historia de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, 1994, Tomo I, P.. 17.

20^ “In spite of the cultural traditions coming from the Iberian Peninsula, and the growing economic presence of Britain in Latin America since the years of independence, it is to France that Latin American politicians and intellectuals looked toward for the institutional models of their new states, including their learning institutions. Many explanations could be given to this fact: Anglo-Saxon culture and traditions were more alien, and their language more remote. More to the point, perhaps, were the revolutionary rhetoric and France's effort to build a modern nation through the strength of the State, an appealing model when civil society was so weak and the economy so poorly developed as in Latin America”. Schwartzman, Simon. “Latin America: National Responses to World Challenges in Higher Education”, en Philip G. Altbach and Patti McGill Peterson, eds., Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global Challenge and National Response, Published in cooperation with the Institute of International Education, New York, 1999.

21^ Quoted by Gonzalo Vial in “Historia de Chile (1891-1973) Vol. I Tit. I, Santillana, Santiago, 1984, p.166

22^ Luis Galdames. "Valentín Letelier y su Obra 1852-1919". Imprenta Universitaria, Santiago, 1937. P. 236.
Even though Galdames himself says Valentin Letelier, in his acts, and particularly during his tenure as Dean of the University of Chile, gave proof of an attitude somewhat more flexible than his opinions, he also recognizes these ideas were generally pushed to extremes by his followers, and “in countries like Chile and the rest of Ibero- America, where the industrial or merchant work was deemed fruitful, but not honorable, that concept grew stronger under the protection of the master, with an evident prejudice towards private and public economies.”

23
^ Fernando Campos H. Op. Cit. P.44

24
^ Fernando Campos H. Op. Cit. P. 51

25
^ Andrés Bernasconi, Organisational diversity in Chilean Higher Education: Faculty Regimes in private and Public Universities. Boston University. Doctoral Dissertation, 2003

26
^ Ricardo Krebs.Op. cit. P. 390-391

27
^ “I wish, above all, to tell my countrymen that the last 30 years of my life were solely devoted to altruism and to this effect I drafted my last will in 1894, bequeathing Valparaiso’s society a University, but as I time went by, experience showed me I was wrong and that it was of the utmost importance to raise the proletariat of my country, conceiving a plan by which, I would contribute firstly with my legacy to childhood, immediately after to Primary School, then to the School of Arts and Trade and finally to the College of Engineers, by giving the needy unpaid trainee the possibility of reaching the highest level of human knowledge”.  Federico Santa María’s will, dated Paris 1920.

28
^ Bernasconi, Andres y Rojas, Fernando. Informe Sobre la educación superior en Chile 1980-2003.Editorial Sudamericana, Santiago, 2004. P.29

29
^ In the Chilean system, the professional qualification is given by educational institutions.  Three certification levels or “degrees” can be observed which enable the graduate to exercise a technical or professional activity:  The degree “Mid-Level Technician””, “Higher-Level Technician” and the “Professional Degree”.  Mid-Level technician is a certificate given by some High Schools, and it is a vocational program with differences in the last levels. On the other hand, Higher-Level Technician and the Professional degrees correspond to certificates granted by Higher-Education Institutions.  The exception is the license to practice law, which is granted by the Supreme Court.

30
^ Art.30, Ley 18.962, Orgánica Constitucional de Enseñanza, March 10 1990.

31
^ The most common strategy used is the establishment of Real Estate Holding companies which then rent the infrastructure back to the universities for academic operations.

32
^ In any case, some public universities such as the Universidad de Santiago and some private ones, as well, offer technical careers or short term professional careers, generally of three years duration. Recently, some public universities and traditional private universities have organized, principally through profit organizational structures, small Technical Formation Centers.

33
^ MECESUP in Spanish means: Improvement of the Quality and Equitable Access in Higher Education.

34
^ It is worth noting that 98% of the resources of the MECESUP program were reserved for 25 “Traditional” Universities.

35
^ The program “Becas Nuevo Milenio” began in 2001 has awarded through 2005 a total of 15.00 scholarships,; an equivalent of USD$ 13.000.000. The beneficiaries, however are not exclusively CFT students but rather are made up of students from all Technical disciplines from all institutional categories.

36
^ Ministerio de Educación Chile “Informe Final de Evaluación Programa MECESUP”. Ministerio de Educación, Santiago, 2004, p. 78

37
^ SERCOTEC was a public agency established for the Economics Affaires Secretary.

38
^ In DuocUC’s case, that is reflected in the growth achieved between 2000-2005, in which the higher education system of the country grew 35%, but DuocUC achieved an 82% growth.

39
^ This 3 level institutional integration strategy has been used in the Chilean system, but from top to bottom. It is the case of the Sylvan consortium which has changed its name from “Sylvan Learning Systems Inc.” to “Laureate Education Inc.”, as of May 17, 2004. This consortium took over two of the biggest private universities of the country: Universidad de Las Américas and Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello, which operates jointly with Professional Institute AIEP. A similar experience has been developed by Universidad Santo Tomás, with a regional chain integrating an IP with a CFT. Other universities, public and private, have undertaken similar initiatives, but still on a reduced scale.

40
^ The average tuition in these institutions varies from US$1,000 to US$2,000, while in a mid-size university this easily reaches US$4,000.

41
^ Currently INACAP and DuocUC are the only IP and CFT institutions which have achieved CNAP certification.

42
^ Source: Ministry of Planning, Chile, Document Nº4, 2003.