To increase flexibility in the design of academic programmes,
many higher education institutions throughout the world have
adopted the North American standard of credit-based courses. This
development has begun to affect entire national university systems in
several countries (Regel 1992). In 1999, the ministers of higher
education from 29 European countries committed themselves to the
credit system in their university systems and the establishment of a
European Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (EUROCATS).
This system of credit-based courses may transfer to other transforming
systems.
Caveats and Recommendations for Public Policy
We draw several conclusions for public policy in transition countries.
First, policy makers must be careful in implementing degrees of
freedom to expand private higher education. Use of strategies, governance
and language borrowed from the for-profit world may cause
faculty and other key players to reject an approach before they fully
understand the system. Institutional leaders need to realise that
market-driven forces and the drive for revenue and profits may
obstruct goals such as quality and equity. Reducing the academic
organisation to a business can become dysfunctional. The evidence
does not suggest such widespread patterns across most transition
countries, but communication seems critical to avoiding enduring
perceptions and fiscal entrapments to the contrary.
Second, effective measurement and reporting of results is critical to
the success of any system of higher education. There should be goals,
rewards and consequences for academic units in both the public and
private sectors as decisions are made to meet institutional and
external expectations. Measuring performance appropriately is critical
to that process.
Following the collapse of the socialist systems in Central and
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, most universities and other institutions
of postsecondary education have publicly reclaimed their
autonomy. In some cases, protection from government control has
been included in newly revised constitutions. However, this new
autonomy seldom has been accompanied by new financial autonomy,
authority or improvement in the institutions’ management, external
accountability mechanisms and strategic planning capabilities. Continued
line-item budgeting, inflexibility in moving resources between