The other face of global mobility:
higher education serving students
from migrant communities
Dirk Van Damme
Head of the Centre for
Educational Research and
Innovation (CERI) – OECD/EDU
Outline
1. The context: increasing demand for skills,
expanding higher education systems but still
huge waste of talent
2. Untapped stocks of talent
3. Higher education participation of students
from a migrant background
4. Benefits and prospects
5. The pedagogy of success
6. Conclusions
2
1.
THE CONTEXT
3
Increasing need for skills
• Demographic transition and a rapidly changing
economy dramatically increase the need for
skilled jobs and people
• Increasing international competition for talent
and high-skilled labour
• Countries will increasingly look into the
possibilities of high-skilled migration to solve
short-term skill needs
• But there may be more sustainable policy
approaches…
4
Expanding higher education systems
• Higher education systems are
– Recruiting more students than even before
– Delivering more qualified graduates than…
– Receiving more (public and private) resources
than…
– Attracting more international students and
international staff than…
• Expansion, massification and
internationalisation will continue to grow
5
45
Canada
United States
New Zealand
Estonia
Finland
Australia
Norway
Sweden
Netherlands
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Denmark
Japan
Germany
Iceland
Belgium
OECD average
Luxembourg
EU19 average
Ireland
France
Spain
Hungary
Slovenia
Greece
Austria
Poland
Korea
Slovak Republic
Czech Republic
Italy
Mexico
Chile
Brazil
Turkey
Portugal
Growth in university-level qualifications
Approximated by the percentage of the population that has attained tertiary-type A education in the age
groups 25-34 years, 35-44 years, 45-54 years and 55-64 years (2007)
2000's
1990's
1980's
1970's
50
%
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Global student mobility
Percentage of all foreign tertiary students enrolled by destination
2000
2008
Market share (%)
30
25
3.3 million tertiary students are enrolled
outside their country, compared to 2
million in 2000.
20
15
10
5
Other partner countries
Other OECD countries
Sweden
Korea
Netherlands
Belgium
Switzerland
China
Austria
New Zealand
South Africa
Spain
Italy
Japan
Russian Federation
Canada
Australia
France
Germany
United Kingdom
United States
0
International students
2007, OECD Education database
8
Waste of talent?
• Higher education is not very effective in tapping
on all available human resources
– High failure and drop out rates, especially in the
early years
– Low access and low success rates of students from
disadvantaged backgrounds
• Low SES students
• Low educational capital
• Ethnic minority students
9
Failure remains a huge problem…
%
Proportion of students who enter a tertiary programme
but leave without at least a first tertiary degree (2005)
10
Higher education participation according to educational
attainment father (2004)
Educational attainment father
Low schooled
Higher secondary education
Higher education
Man
14.0
26.2
61.4
Women
25.6
40.7
49.5
11
Success rates of students according to educational
attainment mother (Antwerp University, 2006)
Diploma mother
% Success Rate
No diploma/primary school certificate
25.7
Higher secondary education diploma
38.8
Short non-university higher education degree
43.3
Long non-university higher education degree
58.8
University degree
58.4
12
2
UNTAPPED STOCKS OF
TALENT
13
Changing populations
The foreign-born population in OECD countries, 2000-2006
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
In 2006 12% of the population in OECD
countries was born in another country
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
2000 (left scale)
2000-2006 (left scale)
14
Percentage of 15 year-old school pupils with at least one parent born
abroad and percentage of 15 year-old school pupils born abroad in 2009
With at least one parent born abroad (↗)
Born abroad
60
50
But, in 2009, 19% of the 15y old school
population was from a migrant background
40
30
20
10
KOR
POL
JPN
TUR
CHL
MEX
HUN
SVK
FIN
CZE
ISL
ITA
NOR
ESP
SVN
DNK
GRC
PRT
OECD
EST
GBR
NLD
AUT
SWE
IRL
FRA
DEU
USA
BEL
ISR
CAN
NZL
CHE
AUS
LUX
0
15
Percentage point changes in the share of 15 year-old school pupils with at least
one parent born abroad and of 15 year-old school pupils born abroad, 2000-09
Born abroad
With at least one parent born abroad (↗)
14
12
And that percentage is rapidly increasing
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
IRL
ESP
PRT
LUX
USA
GRC
ITA
AUT
CHE
NOR
CAN
DEU
FIN
BEL
NZL
ISL
OECD
DNK
NLD
TUR
SWE
GBR
HUN
AUS
FRA
JPN
CZE
CHL
POL
MEX
ISR
-12
16
600
300
Finland
Hong Kong-China
Singapore
Canada
New Zealand
Australia
Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
Estonia
Switzerland
United States
Liechtenstein
Sweden
Germany
Ireland
France
Denmark
United Kingdom
Hungary
OECD average
Portugal
Macao-China
Italy
Slovenia
Greece
Spain
Czech Republic
Croatia
Israel
Luxembourg
Austria
Dubai (UAE)
Russian Federation
Serbia
Mexico
Trinidad and Tobago
Brazil
Montenegro
Jordan
Argentina
Kazakhstan
Qatar
Panama
Azerbaijan
Kyrgyzstan
Gaps in educational achievement
PISA 2009 data (reading scale)
Native Students
Second-generation students
First-generation students
On average, especially in Europe, migrant
students have lower learning outcomes
550
500
450
400
350
17
Gaps in educational achievement
•
•
“SES” and “speaking a different language at home” largely explain the
performance gap between the two groups in many countries. But they are
not the only reasons.
Other factors: availability of educational resources at home, reading at
home at a young age, and participating in ECEC, etc.
Performance difference in reading
Accounting for students' socio -economic background
Accounting for students' socio -economic background and language spoken at home
Score point20
difference
38 pts
Roughly
equivalent
to one
year of
schooling
(science proxy)
0
- 20
- 40
- 60
- 80
-100
Proportion of 20-24y-olds who are not in education and have not
attained upper secondary education, by migrant status (2007)
19
Educational opportunities for migrants
• Rapidly increasing share of school population
• Achievement gaps in school education between
native born and migrant students
– With strong impact of SES and language spoken
at home
– But with very large variation between countries
• Unqualified and out-of-school 20-24y olds are in
most countries disproportionally from migrant
backgrounds
• And what about higher education?
20
3
HE PARTICIPATION OF
MIGRANT STUDENTS
21
Proportion of 25-29 year-olds who either have a tertiary education qualification
or are currently enrolled in a tertiary education programme, by migrant status
Born abroad
Born in the country
Total
70
2007
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
22
Increasing participation disadvantaged
England
Increase for advantaged areas in the same
period was only 4% (from 55% to 59%)
23
Difference in 25-29y olds in tertiary education between migrants and born in
country and difference in 20-24y olds with secondary education
Difference in secondary education attainment
Migrants less in tertiary education
Migrants more with secondary education
Migrants more in tertiary education
Migrants more with secondary education
Australia
Portugal
Hungary
UK Canada
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
Netherlands
Finland
France
OECD
Germany
Luxembourg
Czech R
Spain
Switzerland
Belgium
Austria
Italy
Greece
Migrants less in tertiary education
Migrants less with secondary education
Migrants more in tertiary education
Migrants less with secondary education
Difference in or with tertiary education
24
Migrant students in HE
• In most countries educational participation and
qualification of migrant students are lagging
behind those of native students
• But there are indications of rising participation
levels
• Large differences between countries suggest that
this has little to do with innate capacities nor
that it should be a insolvable problem
• There seems to be a link in country profiles
between migrant participation and participation
of foreign students in higher education
25
Difference in 25-29y olds in tertiary education between migrants and
born in country and percentage of foreign students (2007-2008)
Migrants less in tertiary education
More than average foreign students
Migrants more in tertiary education
More than average foreign students
Percentage foreign students in tertiary education
Australia
Switzerland
UK
Austria
Canada
Belgium
France
Germany
Norway
Sweden
Netherlands
Greece
Spain
Finland
Italy
OECD
Czech R
Portugal
Iceland
Hungary
Migrants less in tertiary education
Less than average foreign students
Migrants more in tertiary education
Less than average foreign students
Difference in or with tertiary education
26
4.
BENEFITS AND PROSPECTS
27
Benefits and prospects
• More migrant students accessing and succeeding
in higher education might have very powerful
economical benefits
– Additional skills input in the economy has a
positive impact on growth
– Employment opportunities improve
– A more ‘open’ science and innovation system also
seems to be a more productive and innovative one
28
The economic cost of educational underachievement
• McKinsey calculated the economic cost of the
1983-1998 achievement gap in PISA results for
the US today
– Racial gap: black and Latino students to level of
white students 2 to 4% 2008 GDP
– Income gap: students from families earning <25k
US$ to level of students from families >25k: 3 to
5%
(1% 2008 US GDP ≈ 165 billion US$)
29
Proportion of employed 25-29y-old non-students with a tertiary education,
working as technicians or as professionals by migrant status
Born abroad
Born in the country
Total
100
90
2007
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
30
Difference 25-29y olds with tertiary ed in suitable employment
Difference between 25-29y olds foreign born and born in country for
tertiary education and employment (2007)
Migrants less in tertiary education
Migrants with tertiary education more employed
Migrants more in tertiary education
Migrants with tertiary education more employed
Hungary
Netherlands
Czech R
Norway
France
Austria
Germany
OECD
Luxembourg
Canada
Iceland
Australia
Finland
Italy
Belgium
Greece
Portugal
Spain
Migrants less in tertiary education
Migrants with tertiary education less employed
Migrants more in tertiary education
Migrants with tertiary education less employed
Difference in or with tertiary education
31
Link with innovation
5.
CONCLUSIONS
33
Conclusions
• Demographic changes, skill demands of the
knowledge economy and social change at large
will increasingly request HE to mine hitherto
untapped and even undiscovered talent, beyond
the ‘easy’ solution of recruiting high-skilled on
the international market.
• There are large ‘reservoirs’ of talent in the
disadvantaged communities in our counties,
more specifically in the migrant community.
34
Conclusions
• Access and – slowly – success of migrant
students in HE is improving, but much more
needs to be done
• Mining talents in disadvantaged students will
require more effective pedagogy and educational
structures in institutions
• Beyond the ethical call of duty and political
correctness, economic and social benefits are
potentially very huge, both for society at large
and institutions
35
Thank you !
[email protected]
www.oecd.org/edu/ceri
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