The quality of education

Education, education, education.  Those were the priorities that a former British Prime Minister famously described his government would pursue, if they were re-elected.

I enjoyed discussing education last week as a guest introductory speaker at an international forum on the quality of higher education.

From my experiences of talking to officials from others countries, I’ve found that every government worries about the quality of education in their country.  There are many international indicators to compare national education systems.  But no matter how a country performs, its government worries that they provide the right education for their population, and is best for the country’s future development in this age of globalisation.

I entertained the audience by suggesting that parents have very different priorities.  As a parent, I said that the quality of my sons’ education is especially dear to my heart, but also to my wallet.  I was only half joking.

I explained that I wanted my sons to get university degrees that are widely recognised as being of value.  But I also wanted my sons to have an education that will broaden their knowledge, skills and expertise;  to teach them how to think for themselves;  and solve problems that they face – the essence of critical thinking.  I want their education to prepare and help them to succeed in the world of work..

I have written before about adult education and how it allows some people who didn’t suit school a chance later in life to gain an education.  Formal education just doesn’t suit everyone, and we all have our own ways of studying.

Thanks to technological change – above all the development of digital media – there are now many more ways of providing education on-line.  In addition to the wide array of courses already offered by British institutions such as evening classes and part time courses, a whole new world of distance learning, including interactive learning, is available to anyone, anywhere in the world via the internet. 

From all this variety, it must be very difficult to assure the quality of education.  I asked how the participants judged the merits of universities, their cost effectiveness, how they meet the aspirations of students and so on.

In Britain, parents like me study the extensive data of league tables produced by major newspapers.  They have all sorts of information about our universities:  for example, the numbers of students to teaching staff, the levels of student satisfaction with their courses, the percentage of students in employment a year after graduation and so on.

I confessed to the audience that to assure quality of education across different education systems and different nations must be even more complicated.  But that is what the Bologna Process is trying to do across the “European Higher Education Area”.  The aspiration is fantastic – to have degrees and qualifications recognised across many countries.  But, as l learnt from listening to the experts, this is not simple.  There are many levels of education below degree level, let alone the various types of degree that are on offer today.

Sadly, I was unable to spend much time at the forum because I had to do other things.  (That’s the lot of a diplomat – we often only have time to cover an issue briefly before focussing on other matters.)

I’m sorry I missed the presentation given by a psychologist.  She apparently transfixed the audience by telling stories of students who had miserable experiences of learning, and went on to explain why it was important to have a student based approach. It obviously struck a chord, and even though I didn’t hear her speak, I immediately thought of the times I hated studying – when I had no choice in what and how I studied a subject.

I was also pleased to meet Russians, Ukrainians, and other nationalities, as well as Belarusians at the event.  It was a joy to be able to bring different people and on a subject that is so dear to my heart.

I told the audience that I was confident of one thing.  Whatever their conclusions in the forum, they would still worry about education.  I’m not sure they agreed with me, but I’m more than ever convinced that education is something we should constantly worry about.  Because education is what we want for our future.

This piece is largely based on my introductory speech to the “European Quality Education” Forum that took place in Minsk, 8-10 April 2014.