|
General questions
• Is the OECD launching a ranking of higher education institutions (HEIs) through AHELO?
• Will AHELO permit the comparison/ranking of countries in terms of high-level skills?
• When will the full-scale AHELO study be launched?
Technical questions
• How will AHELO address the different levels of selectivity in higher education access?
Questions on the feasibility study
• How can my institution/country participate in the AHELO feasibility study?
• Which countries participate in the AHELO feasibility study?
• How are the instruments used for the feasibility study chosen?
• When will the results of the AHELO feasibility study be made public?
• How can I be kept informed of AHELO developments?
Is the OECD launching a ranking of HEIs through AHELO?
No, the OECD does not intend to use AHELO to establish a uni-dimensional ranking of HEIs.
The OECD fully recognizes that quality of higher education encompasses a number of dimensions – e.g. graduation rates, learning outcomes, development of critical thinking or problem-solving skills among graduates, learning gain at the institution, fostering of equity, student satisfaction or the labour market outcomes of graduates to name just a few. Given this multi-dimensional nature of higher education quality, the OECD does not believe it is advisable to rank HEIs according to any of these measures or any predetermined combination of them.
The AHELO aim is to explore the scope for comparative assessment of learning outcomes across countries and culture and so to help establish a “multi dimensional quality space”, in which quantifiable criteria for quality establish the dimensions of the space. The AHELO measures are intended to assist HEIs in their improvement efforts by providing comparative benchmarks on their teaching performance in order to help them assess their strengths and weaknesses and to identify areas where to focus improvement efforts.
Will AHELO permit the comparison/ranking of countries in terms of high-level skills?
No, AHELO will not permit to compare higher education systems at national level. Doing so would require applying AHELO to all HEIs in a given country, or to a representative sample of HEIs. The OECD recognizes that in many countries governments have limited options to incentivise the participation of HEIs in assessments, particularly those carried out at an international level. Moreover, mandated assessment in the form that would be required to obtain a system-wide representative sample of HEIs, might lead to administrative response rather than faculty response, and would thus not be effective as a tool for improvement.
The AHELO approach therefore centres on the establishment of measures of learning outcomes at the level of HEIs, departments or faculties to which HEIs could voluntarily subscribe. Eventually, if an OECD assessment gathered pace and found wide acceptance, issues of assessing system-level performance might be addressed in the longer term, but this is not a goal at this stage.
When will the full-scale AHELO study be launched?
We don’t know at this stage whether and when a full-scale AHELO will be launched.
The feasibility study is expected to report – by the end of 2010 – on the scientific and practical feasibility of implementing an international assessment of higher education learning outcomes that is reliable and valid across diverse countries, cultures, languages and institutional types. On the basis of the outcomes of this feasibility study, the Education Policy Committee will decide by the end of 2010, whether to abandon the idea or pursue the AHELO initiative further and launch a full-scale AHELO study.
How will AHELO address the different levels of selectivity in higher education access?
Large cross-country differences in enrolment rates in higher education raise questions about how to interpret results of an AHELO since, other things being equal, it would only be natural that countries with more selective systems and lower enrolment rates would perform better than countries where higher education has become largely universal. The issue of selectivity also arises at the institutional level, with highly selective HEIs and programmes likely to perform better than those enrolling a more diverse student body.
To address the issue of selectivity, AHELO will seek to develop two types of outcomes measures. The first one will capture the absolute performance or HEIs, bearing in mind that it would not only measure the quality of educational services provided, but also other aspects such as the effects of selection and the socio-economic makeup of students. But AHELO will also seek to develop measures capturing the “value-added ” or “gain” provided by HEIs, i.e. the scores an institution would attain after accounting for the quality of prior schooling or the degree of selectivity of the programmes and HEIs.
How can my institution/country participate in the AHELO feasibility study?
Participation in the AHELO feasibility study will be voluntarily limited to a small number of HEIs and countries in order to gain insight into the international validity and reliability of several types of instruments while keeping the process manageable. Although an AHELO might eventually be open to HEIs from a broader range of countries, participation is limited to OECD countries and HEIs for the feasibility study stage.
For each strand of work involving the piloting of instruments, 3-5 countries will be involved and the instruments will be applied to about 10 HEIs within each country. The selection of countries and HEIs will seek to ensure as much diversity as possible in terms of higher education system organization, language of instruction, geographic coverage, cultural background as well as the types of HEIs covered: universities and vocationally-oriented HEIs, elite research and general teaching HEIs, public and private HEIs, urban and regional HEIs…
OECD countries have now been invited to participate in the AHELO feasibility study. The selection of HEIs will start once the participating countries will have been identified.
Which countries participate in the AHELO feasibility study?
Applications from OECD countries are in progress. We will provide more information on participating countries and HEIs as soon as possible.
How are the instruments used for the feasibility study chosen?
The instruments used for the AHELO feasibility study will be selected by groups of international experts in educational assessments. For instance, the choice of the Collegiate Learning Assessment for the generic skills strand was made by the experts in Seoul .
It is understood, however, that the use of existing instruments for the AHELO feasibility study is a practical solution. If a fully-fledged AHELO was to be launched upon completion of the feasibility study, there would be more time available to construct a new – or partially new – instrument.
When will the results of the AHELO feasibility study be made public?
The AHELO feasibility study will take place over the 2008-2010 period.
It will conclude with an international conference in late 2010 that will gather different stakeholder groups to discuss whether and how to take the results from the feasibility study forward. The results of the feasibility study will then be made public, and will be discussed, along the potential impact of an AHELO, by representatives of HEIs, students, employers, policymakers, educational assessment experts or quality assurance specialists.
How can I be kept informed of AHELO developments?
The support of both governments and HEIs is necessary for the success of the AHELO initiative. The OECD is therefore committed to be transparent to all stakeholders with respect to the development of the AHELO feasibility study, irrespective of whether they are directly involved in the feasibility study or not. To this end, a consultative group of stakeholders’ representatives will be established, and regular updates on AHELO developments will be sent upon request to any interested party.
To receive these updates on AHELO developments, please write to ahelo@oecd.org and request to be added onto the AHELO information distribution list.
Contact person: ahelo@oecd.org
See also AHELO related websites
|
