Tertiary Education in Mongolia
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Public Disclosure Authorized TERTIARY EDUCATION IN MONGOLIA: Public Disclosure Authorized Meeting the Challenges of the Global Economy POLICY NOTE Public Disclosure Authorized September 2010 Human Development Sector Unit Mongolia Country Management Office East Asia and Pacific Region Public Disclosure Authorized Document of the World Bank REPORT NO. 52925 - MN Tertiary Education in Mongolia: Meeting the Challenges of the Global Economy POLICY NOTE September 2010 Human Development Sector Unit Mongolia Country Management Office East Asia and Pacific Region Document of the World Bank CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS Currency US$1.00 = MNT 1,168.20 (2007) US$1.00 = MNT 1,171.36 (2008) US$1.00 = MNT 1,358.19 (2009) FISCAL YEAR January 1- December 31 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES Metric System ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ECDE Early Childhood Development and Education MSUE Mongolian State University of Education EGSPRS Economic Growth Support and Poverty Reduction Strategy MUST Mongolia University of Science and Technology ESMP2 Education Sector Master Plan 2 NER Net Enrolment Ratio GER Gross Enrolment Ratio NQF National Qualification Framework GDP Gross Domestic Product NUM National University of Mongolia HSU Health Sciences University of Mongolia NVETMC National Vocational Education and Training Methodology Center LSMS Living Standards Measurement Survey OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development M&E Monitoring and Evaluation QA Quality Assurance MECS Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science STF State Training Fund MNCEA Mongolian National Council for Educational Accreditation TEI Tertiary Education Institution MOF Ministry of Finance TVE Technical and Vocational Education MSUA Mongolian State University of Agriculture Country Director: Klaus Rohland Sector Director: Emmanuel Jimenez Sector Manager: Eduardo Velez Bustillo Task Team Leader: Kin Bing Wu CONTENTS Executive Summary . .v 1. Challenges to Post-basic Education . 1 1.1. Educational Development since the Transition . 1 1.2. Key Policy Questions Surrounding Tertiary Education . 5 2. The Demand for Skills . 7 2.1 Rising Wage Premia for Skills . 7 2.2. Prospects for Job Growth. 10 2.3. Migrant workers . 12 2.4. Conclusion. 12 3. The Impact of Governance and Financing on Quality and Equity of Tertiary Education . 13 3.1. Governance . 13 3.2. Accreditation and Quality Assurance . 16 3.3. Finance . 17 3.4. Tuition Fees and Student Financial Assistance . 22 3.5. Strategies of the Updated Education Sector Master Plan . 26 4. Policy Options to Reform Tertiary Education . 27 4.1. Differentiate Roles of TEIs and Improve System Articulation to Facilitate Lifelong Learning . 27 4.2. Concentrate Resources to Fund Premier Universities through Competitive Funding . 29 4.3. Higher Education Commission and Quality Assurance . 32 4.4. Public Accountability and Consumer Protection . 35 4.5. Better Targeting of Financial Aid and Improvement of Basic Education . 37 5. Technical and Vocational Education and Training: An Alternative to Tertiary Education? . 39 5.1. The Structure and Outcomes of Mongolia’s TVET system . 39 5.2. Challenges to the Quality of Mongolia’s TVET System . 40 5.3. Options to Improve Quality and Relevance . 41 6. Conclusions . 47 References . 49 MONGOLIA HIGH EDUCATION POLICY NOTE i LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Growth of the Tertiary Education Sector, 1991-2009. 2 Table 2: Tertiary Graduates per 10,000 Population . 2 Table 3: Gross Enrollment Rates by Level, 1991, 1995, 2000 and 2007. 3 Table 4: Wage Premia of Various Levels of Education, 1998 and 2007 . 8 Table 5: Wage Premia for Different Levels of Educational Attainment, 1998 and 2007 by Age Group. 9 Table 6: Distribution of Wage Employees by Sector, 1998, 2002, and 2007 . 10 Table 7: Public Expenditure on Education, 1991, 2002 and 2007 . 18 Table 8: Sources of Funding of Tertiary Education Institutions, 2007 . 19 Table 9: International Comparison of Per Student Spending By Level of Education (US Dollars) . 21 Table 10: State Training Fund Recipients by Program Area . 22 Table 11: A Cross Country Comparison of Tuition Fees as Percentage of per capital Gross National Income . 22 Table 12: State Training Fund Allocation of Resources, 2007 . 24 Table 13: Proportion of College Costs Covered by Tuition/Financial Aid . 25 Table 14: Tripartite System of Tertiary Education in Selected OECD Countries . 28 Table 15: Ranking of the World”s Top Universities, 2007 . 30 Table 16: Spatial and Income Disparities in Educational Completion Rates. 38 Table 17: Basic Outcomes of TVET in Mongolia. 39 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Enrollment Ratio by Age, 1998 and 2007 . 4 Figure 2: Age Earning Profiles of Workers between 25 and 55, 1998 and 2007 . 7 Figure 3: Characteristics of World Class Universities . 13 Figure 4 : The Widening of STF Eligibility Criteria. 24 ii MONGOLIA HIGH EDUCATION POLICY NOTE LIST OF BOXES Box 1: California’s System of Universities and Community Colleges . 29 Box 2: Competitive Funding as an Innovative Financing Tool . 32 Box 3: New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission. 34 Box 4: How Singapore is proposing to deal with the proliferation of private tertiary education institution to assure quality . 35 Box 5: Labor Market Observatories in Italy and Chile . 36 Box 6: Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Curriculum Development Model . 43 Box 7: Denmark’s TVET Teachers’ Qualification and Training . 44 Box 8: The Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) . 46 LIST OF ANNEXES Annex 1: Mongolia’s Educational Framework . 50 Annex 2: Years of Schooling of the Younger and Older Adult Population . 52 Annex 3: Tertiary Premia by Year, Age Group, Gender and Sector of Employment . 53 Annex 4: Aggregate Institutional and Enrollment Data . 57 Annex 5: Enrolment Data, by Degree Level and Type of Institution . 62 Annex 6: Enrolment by Subject and Degree Level . 63 Annex 7: Students Supported by Financial Assistance, by Degree Level and Institutional Type 68 Annex 8: Faculty Qualifications. 72 Annex 9: Recent Research Excellence Initiatives Worldwide. 73 MONGOLIA HIGH EDUCATION POLICY NOTE iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The preparation of this policy note was led by Kin Bing Wu (Lead Education Specialist, EASHD). Prateek Tandon (Economist, EASHD) wrote the sections on tertiary education development, finance, and accreditation. Fook Yen Chong (Consultant) assessed the system of technical and vocational education and training. Chris Sakellariou (Consultant) analyzed the Living Standard Measurement Surveys to obtain trends of the labor market, and Roberta Bassett provided useful information on New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission. Ms. Tungalag Chuluun (Human Development Operations Officer) provided helpful advice on the substance and also provided quality assurance on the translation of this policy note into the Mongolian language. The policy note benefited from discussion on South Gobi development with Arshad Sayed (Country Manager, Mongolia, EACMF) and James Reichert (Senior Operations Officer, EASCS). The Team is grateful to the Minister of Education for framing the policy questions for tertiary education reform and for guiding the team in the direction of its research. We thank Mongolian officials and academics for sharing their insight and information on the country’s higher education system, particularly Mr. M. Baasanjav, Director of Tertiary Education Department, Mr. R. Bat-Erdene (Director of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department and former Director of the Tertiary Education Department); Ms. D. Khishigbuyan (Director of the Rural Education and Development Project PMU); Mr. O. Gankhuyag (Deputy Director, EFA-FTI); Mr. A. Tsolmon (Officer in the Monitoring and Evaluation Department); Mr. D. Bayar (Officer in the Tertiary Education Department); Mr. Ts. Erdentsetseg (Officer in the Education Evaluation Center); and Ms. D. Chuluuntsetseg (Senior Officer for External Relations and Program Accreditation of the National Accreditation Center) for their helpful advice and guidance. Byambatsogt Jugder (Consultant) shared with us his knowledge and insight, including the direction of revision of the Master Plan. We are also grateful to representatives from Ivanhoe Mines, LLC and the Mongolia Employers Federation for sharing their perspectives on the education and training system in the country. Peer reviewers for this note are Jamil Salmi (Lead Education Specialist, HDNED) and William Experton (Lead Education Specialist, AFTH2). iv MONGOLIA HIGH EDUCATION POLICY NOTE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Since the transition from a planned economy to a market-based democracy in the early 1990s, Mongolian higher education has experienced a marked expansion. Between 1992 and 2007, the number of tertiary education institution (TEIs) has increased more than four-fold and enrollment more than six-fold, with the gross enrollment ratio growing from 14 to 47 percent. This rapid growth has been fueled by the increased demand for higher skills in the labor market and has led to rising education premia. These trends, in turn, have stimulated increased household demand for tertiary education. In the early 1990s, the liberalization of the economy and the legalization of private higher education made it possible to increase the supply of tertiary education. However, this expansion in supply has been met with the charging of tuition fees in public universities and the growth of private institutions. As a result, public expenditure on higher education has been contained to about 14 percent of total expenditure, compared with over 20 percent in China. Although this policy has met the need for an increased supply of tertiary education, it has failed to produce graduates.