CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE IN GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION
Higher education is rapidly moving to become another of the world’s economic sectors affected by globalisation. In this arena, students around the world are seeking a European or North American-style of education. In the Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong, London and elsewhere there are several ‘knowledge villages’ that have been established to lure world-class universities, so as to provide quality educational services in a location more convenient and less costly to the student.
Some institutions are moving ahead in their teaching methods. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), most class lectures are available in MP-3 or MP-4 format for students to download to their own players on the same day the lecture is given. The lecture notes, including extra reading materials, are also available the same day online. As a result, rather than skipping classes, more MIT students than ever have been attending classes and the level of discussion and student-to-student and student-to-instructor interchange have improved.
Many centres of excellence require their teaching staff to prepare all syllabi in electronic format and to have lecture notes in electronic format for distribution during class lectures. Lecturers can be initially threatened by these new requirements, sensing that they will loose control over the teaching process and their own lecture materials. Those that use these systems, however, quickly find that they become just a part of a ‘mixed-teaching system’, with the electronic adjuncts offering important additional assistance for both student and instructor alike.
To be a centre of excellence, programmes of ‘continuous quality improvement’ (CQI) often are adopted. CQI is a process-driven effort to improve quality from within the institution. With functioning CQI programmes the days of accreditation visits, state inspection visits or ‘attestation’ visits become less stressful in maintaining ongoing improvement of quality. The faculty, service staff and students alike participate in periodically setting new standards for their own quality improvements. This work is ongoing, and self-evaluation and correction of deficiencies become automatic as the process moves along. The lessons regarding quality assurance developed in industry have been long in coming to higher education but are being adopted around the world at an ever increasing pace.
In 1985, the American University — Cyprus/Girne (AUC) was founded as a private university. Our vision from the start has been to establish a centre of excellence in higher education both for our own country and the region. From the beginning, we recognised the need to include not just accreditation but also to have internal programs of continuous quality improvement.
The AUC today has over 6,500 students from 43 countries studying in seven faculty disciplines. The AUC team prides itself on its designation as a centre of excellence, with its high level of teaching (more than 85 per cent of the faculty are PhD holders), excellent libraries, teaching in English, laboratories, research facilities and top-notch amenities.
The superior quality of the university’s architecture, surrounding gardens and landscaping, looking over the Mediterranean Sea and the Five Finger Mountains, make the campus unique. There is on-campus housing for more than 1,200 students and very close-in private housing for an additional 5,500. Prices for housing are very competitive when considering the European and regional markets. Transportation to and from the campus is provided by the university with its own fleet of buses. The general cost of living is reasonable and inflation is low. The university has world-class sports teams in Tae Kwan do, fencing, handball, basketball and football, and there are more than 25 other sports teams.
In every CQI program there must be a measurement of outcomes. The most important outcome for any university is the ability of its graduates to obtain high-quality jobs. It must be noted that since our first graduating class in 1989, our graduates have been eagerly sought to fill responsible and satisfying jobs in both government and industry around the world. In this regard we can point to significant outcomes over the years, with more than 6,000 graduates from the AUC having used their diplomas to find meaningful work. This has become a main focus for the AUC, and it works with companies and firms around the world to ensure that its academic offerings are always in tune with the requirements of employers.
Currently, the AUC is moving to enhance its ability to attract researchers to the campus. It has invested in a technopark facility and expects that faculty research relevant to the region will become an even more important aspect of its focus on quality.
The university has campus locations in India, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan. Its partnerships include locations in Hong Kong, Prague, London and the United States. It is anticipated that in the next two years these, and an additional five country locations, will be woven together into a seamless, high-quality system allowing for transfer and full recognition of credits for students of all nationalities.
In many ways there is a convergence of quality standards between the North American and the European systems of higher education, with the new emphasis being the complete portability of student transcripts between institutions. The future for higher education in the wider world is bright. We, at the American University — Cyprus/Girne, are fully prepared to play our part as a centre of excellence in the worldwide arena.
