In the 1980s it was considered a given that most low-income countries over-invest in tertiary education. But that tired assumption is being upended in today’s world of borderless universities and globe-trotting skilled workers. A higher education undoubtedly generates a positive return for most people, whether in advanced or developing countries. However, policymakers should heed the warning about not jumping too fast by focusing on higher learning when in many countries, getting a solid secondary education is the key to climbing the ladder toward prosperity. Also, the importance of getting the organizational structure of universities right is often undervalued, with the result that far too many academic institutions fail to graduate people who are equipped to compete in the global workforce, or, aiming even higher, who are qualified to change the world for the better.
These were some of the takeaways I gleaned from Brown University President Christina Paxson’s lecture on April 26 at the World Bank.
Paxson is both a development economist and a high level administrator of an Ivy League school, but she has maintained her excitement about research (indeed her talk cited papers related to higher education, growth, development and migration by Aghion; Bloom and Canning; Barro and Lee, and; Jagdish Bhagwati).
Christina Paxson, who was introduced by Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, covered lots of ground, including a discussion of how the digital revolution is making universities recalculate the value of knowledge. She said that many top colleges and universities are in the midst of brand experiment, whether through the use of Coursera, Flip classroom, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) or other efforts involving new campuses and programs around the world. At the same time, universities are under fire regarding the cost of a higher education and the burgeoning crisis of student debt.
She predicted that there will be a lot of learning by doing over the next five years, and the pace of change will be very fast.
To hear more about what drives Paxson and hear her views on the value and utility of higher education, watch my video chat with her or click on the full video of the lecture.
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