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An idea from Qatar: global accreditation
This week, I was attending the first World Innovation Summit in Education conference in Doha, Qatar.
Hosted and financed by the Qatar Foundation, an arms-length government agency, the conference is bringing together 1,000 of the world's brightest and most influential minds in all levels of education to discuss best practices, learn from others, and return to their home countries inspired to improve education.
The travel costs, accommodation, and meals for all delegates (including journalists) are covered by the Qatar Foundation.
The stated goal of the Foundation is to create a "Davos for education." Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, chairman of WISE, told journalists from over 50 countries covering the conference there is a void that needs to be filled. Noting there are international gatherings for economic and political leaders, he said a gathering of education leaders is needed to further societies around the world.
WISE is unlike most higher education conferences I've attended. There are representatives from around the world at the conference. The conference does have a significant number of delegates from Western countries, but there is a strong effort to involve representatives of developing countries. I've noted a large number of delegates from Africa and South America.
Only one of the six WISE awards, given to education projects in three categories, is going to a project in a developed nation. This reflects the stated goal of the conference to focus on initiatives that can be implemented in some of the world's poorest nations.
One of the many ideas discussed during the conference was a global accreditation body for universities.
One of many higher education challenges facing developing nations is they have limited or no means to ensure degrees granted in their countries will be accepted outside their borders. This is a major problem in the era of globalization when people need to have the credentials to work anywhere in the world.
A global accreditation body would create a method for developing nations to communicate the value of their degrees and provide these nations a method to measure the quality of their university programs.
It is a good idea.
To put this in a Canadian context, we often say that we have the most educated taxi drivers in the world. We have people holding PhDs from the developing world who cannot get jobs in their fields because their education is not recognized in Canada.
Why? There are many reasons, but the lack of ability to measure the quality of foreign degrees and ensure they meet Canadian standards is a major part.
It's not only foreign institutions which stand to benefit from an accreditation body.
Some Canadian degrees are not accepted by other Canadian institutions. A well known example of this, as reported by Erin Millar, is Capilano University in British Columbia.
Capilano degrees are not accepted for graduation programs at many of Canada's top universities. These same degrees are recognized by some American universities and will, pending successful completion of accreditation with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, soon be recognized by all major American universities.
The creation of a voluntary non-profit, low-cost, global accreditation program will solve these Canadian problems and have benefits worldwide. It's something Canadian universities should get behind.
For more on the WISE conference, visit their website at http://www.wise-qatar.com
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JOEY COLEMAN