Edificación con Sistema Gran Panel 70, de 9 plantas en la provincia de Ciego de Ávila, 2010.

Education Institutions to improve student employability

Universities change in response to the demands of the society’s dominant institutions (Jarvis, 2013). The first driver of the changes in Higher Education is a transition to a knowledge-based economy. Eighty per cent of a company’s value comes from its own unique knowledge of services, markets, relationships, reputation and brand, on other words, intangibles or soft knowledge (Hutton, 2007). The wealth production is shifting from productivity and efficiency to talent innovated services and higher valued goods, hence the transformation of the economy – all of these changes are a result of knowledge being the foundation of economic, social and political power, which has led to positioning higher education- “a provider of human capital through education and training, a primary source of new knowledge and knowledge /technology transfer, and a beacon for international investment and talent- at the centre of policy making” (Hazelkorn, 2011, p. 6). A trend of academic capitalism has become increasingly popular- it values knowledge privatisation and profit of institutions, inventor faculty, and corporations has gained more focus than the public. Public interest in science is shifting toward

30 a strong knowledge economy; in other words, people pay more attention to what makes more profit rather than benefits of the general public. Knowledge is considered as a private good and it is valued as the profit it generates when these high-technology products flow through global markets. (Slaughter and Rhoades, 2004). “Academic research is no longer solely the pursuit of individual intellectual curiosity but is driven in large measure by national funding priorities which are tied to strategies of economic growth and competiveness” (Hazelkorn, 2011, p. 12). Academic researchers are obligated to disclose discoveries to their institutions, which are valued because it leads to high-technology products for a knowledge economy (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004).

A rising costs of higher education seems more like a natural outcome rather than breaking news under these circumstances. Tuition fees reflect not just the actual costs of institution but also supply and demand: the expensive fee and relocation costs for students to study at universities have made students and their parents become customers who assess institutions and regard those educational programmes as an opportunity-cost (Hazelkorn, 2011). They require more consumer type of information by relying on guidebooks or comparative or benchmarking data which become increasingly on a global scale and accessible online. These rankings provide students with criteria of student satisfaction surveys of teaching and academic endeavour, comparison of employability and potential salaries and reviews on the quality of student experience and campus life (Hazelkorn, 2011). Because education and graduate outcomes and lifestyle are strongly correlated with higher qualifications and career opportunities, students (and their parents) have become savvy consumers. In this case, the international/national rankings are also transforming and reshaping Higher Education.

“Rankings are a manifestation of what has become known as the worldwide ‘battle for excellence’, and are perceived and used to determine the status of individual institutions, assess the quality and performance of the higher education system and gauge global competitiveness”, and “rankings are inevitable outcome and metaphor for the intensification of global competition, around which, higher education as both the progenitor of human capital and knowledge has become fulcrum around which

31 geo-political battles for a greater share of global market are being fought” (Hazelkorn, 2011, p. 11).

Nation states and supranational entities (e.g. the EU) have adapted new strategies for developing national competitive advantage by using international rankings; HE institutions has transformed their organisational and institutional culture and behaviour in order to move up in rankings for surviving this international market; and students and faculty are using rankings as self and peer perceptions of the status system (Hazelkorn, 2011).

Higher education has become a market-determined as globalisation has brought a huge wave of change to societies, economies and policies across the world, so Higher education systems is also transformed by globalisation, which is part of “the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness” (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, & Perraton, 2000, p. 2). Apart from the political and economic influence globalisation itself brings to this global mobility plate, it also creates a context of marketisation discourse (Caruana & Spurling, 2007), which generates an increasing pressure for higher education institutes to boost up their profile and branding in order to share a bigger piece of cake of the international students’ market for the benefits of a larger amount of tuition fees that those students’ paying (Caruana & Hanstock, 2003; Caruana & Spurling, 2007; De Vita & Case, 2003), as well as establish the status of the particular language chosen in this discourse (Caruana & Spurling, 2007; De Vita & Case, 2003).

Governments and globally active HEIs are pursuing two related objectives: 1) maximizing “capacity and performance within the global landscape”; and 2) optimizing the “benefits of global flows, linkages and offshore operations back home in the national and local settings” (Marginson & Van der Wende, 2007, p. 17).

International growth in demand of higher education and the growth in demand of university research are another two important drivers of change in university in this century. The allocation of public resources will not be increased under the current circumstances, even though relevant policy-makers, Higher Education institutions, corporations and other stakeholders will make their own changes to adapt to the new dynamics of university. As a result, the university adjusts itself via different

32 strategies in order to survive the market: internationalisation of universities; offshore campuses; the combination of information technologies and telecommunications technology; and consortia and strategic alliances with other universities (Blight, Davis, & Olsen, 2000).

Higher education institutions also pay increasing attention to developing students’ employability in order to survive in a knowledge-driven economy (Hawkridge, 2005). Different stakeholders in Higher Education will benefit from embedding employability into the university curriculum: “embedding employability into the core of higher education will continue to be a key priority of government, universities and colleges, and employers. This will bring both significant private and public benefit, demonstrating higher education’s broader role in contributing to economic growth as well as its vital role in social and cultural development” (HEFCE 2011, p5).

With a good reputation for graduate employability, which has an impact on student and staff’s daily learning and working, Higher Education Institutions will be able to raise their game in the competition from locally to internationally with the benefits of charging higher tuition fees and receiving loans in an economy of increasing costs. Large numbers of university research programmes and knowledge transfer projects rely on sponsorships from employers, and it is increasingly popular for HEIs to “have business development units and entrepreneurial departments that work proactively with employers to develop in-company programmes, intensive post-graduate courses and continuing professional development programmes” (Foundation Degree Forward, 2007, p. 5) as well as an increase in customised undergraduate degree programmes (Foundation Degree Forward, 2007).

A report from Higher Education Funding Council for England identified five main ways HEI can be seen to engage with employers and their local communities:

1) through graduate recruitment (as a supplier of highly skilled labour); 2) as a source of labour demand (many HEIs are amongst the largest employers in their localities);

3) as a source of lifelong learning (through continuous professional development and training (CPD);

33 4) as a supplier of research and development (R&D), and the provision of support for the knowledge economy;

5) as a key player in a variety of economic development related networks and partnerships (typically publicly funded through the UK/EU), and an important means of building new partnerships.

(Bolden, Connor, Duquemin, Hirsh, & Petrov, 2009)

The benefits the HEI again from collaborating with employers, education providers could contribute more to the development of future students’ intercultural communication skills through interventions such as teaching communication skills and providing opportunities for students to gain international experience (British Council, Ipsos, & Booz Allen Hamilton, 2013), which benefits students and employers in long term.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in the UK has provided very specific standard on characteristics of masters’ degree graduates, so that universities’ master programmes would have to fulfil these education expectations:

Master's graduates are diverse, with wide-ranging strengths and abilities. This is a reflection of the diversity of master's programmes available as well as students' different aspirations, motivations, learning needs and personal circumstances. Nonetheless, all master's degree graduates have in-depth and advanced knowledge and understanding of their subject and/or profession, informed by current practice, scholarship and research. This will include a critical awareness of current issues and developments in the subject and/or profession; critical skills; knowledge of professional responsibility, integrity and ethics; and the ability to reflect on their own progress as a learner…Graduates of all types of master's degrees are equipped to enter a variety of types of employment (either subject- specific or generalist) or to continue academic study at a higher level, for example a doctorate (provided that they meet the necessary entry requirements). (QAA, 2015)