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Where it all begins!
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INSIDECENTRALAMERICA
| Sunday 19 September 2010 |
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PANAMA:
Quality
Initiative
to
Strengthen
Universities
By
Eileen
Travers
PANAMA -
Panama's
commitment
to
higher
education
has been
thrust
forward
with the
launch
of the
first
nationwide
initiative
to
evaluate
and
accredit
tertiary
institutions,
aimed at
strengthening
programs
offered
by a
flourishing
number
of
foreign
and
local
post-secondary
institutions.
Next
month
the
National
Council
for the
Evaluation
and
Accreditation
of
University
Education
(CONEAUPA)
will
launch
an
evaluation
and
standards
model,
the
Ministry
of
Education
has
announced.
When the
draft
model
has been
finalized
in
October,
CONEAUPA
will be
ready to
begin
the
process
of
evaluating
37
ministry-recognized
private
and
public
post-secondary
institutions.
Of
these,
32 are
private
schools
that
opened
after
the 1989
United
States
invasion,
under
laws to
promote
education.
Another
60 or
more
institutions
operate
without
ministry
recognition,
including
unaccredited
international
education
corporations
and
'degree
mills'.
As a
result
of this
institutional
growth,
higher
education
enrolment
has
steadily
climbed
from
53,072
in 1990
to
133,369
in 2007,
in a
country
of three
million
people
with a
literacy
rate of
91%.
Dr
Mariana
A De
McPherson,
CONEAUPA's
executive
secretary,
said:
"We are
not
ahead in
[evaluation
and
accreditation
of]
higher
education
in the
region.
In fact,
we are a
little
bit
late.
But we
are
running."
While
three-quarters
of
students
attend
public
universities,
the
fastest
growing
sector
has been
private
institutions,
including
foreign
universities.
CONEAUPA's
mission
will
likely
also
affect
the at
least 60
unrecognized
institutions.
A task
has been
establishing
standards
that
will
give
Panama a
more
competitive
higher
education
edge on
a global
scale.
Accreditation
will be
granted
to
institutions
that
meet
ministry-set
standards,
with the
process
weeding
out
those
that do
not.
"The
council
will
have an
impact
on the
schools
that
know
they
don't or
won't
meet the
standards
because
these
schools
will
probably
close
their
doors,"
McPherson
said.
"The
long-term
objective
is to
make
sure all
universities
have
these
standards."
The
quality
assurance
strategy
was
launched
in 2006
as a
necessary
extension
of a
national
vision
to
improve
higher
education.
Universities
and the
government
will
share
the
costs of
evaluations.
Panama's
national
budget
now
funds
the
council's
work,
with
annual
grants
of
approximately
US$125,000.
Until
now,
scattershot
quality
assurance
efforts
have
produced
pockets
of
excellence,
among
them the
engineering
program
at the
public
Universidad
Technológica
de
Panamá.
The
private
Florida
State
University
(FSU),
whose
Panama
City
campus
maintains
US
standards,
has
steadily
grown
its
student
body,
with
1,220
students
enrolled
for the
2010-11
year, up
10% from
last
year.
But the
lack of
across-the-board
quality
assurance
has,
among
other
things,
diminished
the
worthiness
of many
local
degrees,
said Dr
Nanette
Svenson,
an FSU
adjunct
professor
and a
higher
education
consultant
in
Panama.
She
pointed
to a
2009
study
showing
that 80%
of
middle
and
upper
management
employees
studied
at
institutions
outside
Panama.
"Evaluation
and
accreditation
would
seem to
try to
stem the
tide of
fraudulent
operations,"
Svenson
said.
"It's
certainly
a
positive
first
step
forward."
Another
step for
higher
education
was
taken
this
month
with the
launch
of a
research
centre
for
logistics
and
trade.
President
Ricardo
Martinelli
heartily
lauded
the new
US-based
Georgia
Institute
of
Technology
Logistics
Innovation
and
Research
Center,
co-run
with
Panama's
National
Secretariat
for
Science,
Technology
and
Innovation,
saying:
"This is
one of
the most
important
events
in my 14
months
as
president."
The
research
centre
aims to
tap into
Panama's
potential
as an
academic
and
research
destination,
and to
turn the
country
into a
trade
hub. The
World
Economic
Forum
has
named
Panama
as
second
to Chile
in
having
the most
competitive
economy
in Latin
America.
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