World Statistical Outlook on Higher Education: 1980-1995 

Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century: Vision and Action 

UNESCO, Paris

5-9 October 1998

This report is prepared for the World Conference on Higher Education as a complement to other documents of the meeting. Its elaboration and production have been a joint project of the Division of Higher Education and the Division of Statistics of UNESCO. It shows and analyses various internationally comparative data concerning major developments in higher/tertiary education in the period 1980-1995 which are regularly collected by UNESCO.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

A classification approach to a country composition of regions which was adopted in this report follows that of the most recent edition (1998) of the World Education Report.

Principal consultant: Elaine El-Khawas, University of California at Los Angeles, USA

Statistics technical assistance: Hilaire Mputu

1. Introduction

 

2. The Growing Size and Salience of Higher Education

 

Student Enrolment as a Share of the Population

Gross Enrolment Ratios

Emergence of Large Systems of Higher Education

Implications of Growing Size and Salience

 

3. Patterns of Student Enrolment Growth

 

Shifting World-wide Shares of Enrolment

Enrolment Patterns for Countries in Transition

Development of Open and Distance Learning

Consequences of Rapid Expansion

 

4. Training and Qualifications

 

Student Enrolment: Differences by Level and Field of Study

Graduates: Distribution by Field of Study

Distribution by Field and Level of Study: Policy Implications

 

5. Expanding Opportunities for Female Students

 

Female Enrolment by Level of Study

Female Enrolment by Field of Study

Furthering Participation of Women: A Policy Imperative

 

6. Expanding International Mobility

 

Rising Rates of Student Mobility

Patterns of Student Flows

Patterns for ‘Receiving’ Countries

Implications of Rising Student Mobility

 

7. The Resource Base for Higher Education

 

Patterns in Per-Student Spending

Teaching Staff in Higher Education

The Need to Improve the Resource Base 

 

8. Research and Experimental Development (R&D): The Role of Higher Education

9 Conclusions

I Explanatory Notes and Glossary of Terms

II Composition of Regions

III Country Tables

Box 1.1. ISCED: the 1976 and the revised 1997 version

Box 4.1. ‘Earnings premium’ for tertiary education graduates in OECD countries

Box 6.1. Student mobility within Europe

Box 7.1. Measuring public expenditure on higher education

Table 2.1. Number of students per 100,000 inhabitants, by region, 1980-1995

Table 2.2. Gross enrolment ratios, by region and by gender, 1980-1995 (in percentage)

Table 2.3. Number of students (in thousands) and percentage female students, by region, 1980-1995

Table 3.1. Student enrolment in open and distance-learning institutions as a percentage of total enrolment, 1985 and 1995 or LYA

Table 4.1. Distribution of students, by ISCED level and by region, 1985 and 1995 (in percentage)

Table 4.2. Distribution of students, by field of study and by region, 1985 and 1995 (in percentage)

Table 5.1. Percentage of female students in total enrolment in each ISCED level, by region, 1985 and 1995

Table 5.2. Percentage of female students in total enrolment in each field of study, by region, 1985 and 1995

Table 6.1. Foreign students enrolment in 10 major host countries, 1995

Table 7.1. Estimated public current expenditure per student, by region and by level of education, 1985 and 1995

Table 7.2. Public current expenditure per student in higher education, by region, 1985 and 1995

Table 7.3. Number of teaching staff (in thousands) and student-staff ratio, by region, 1980-1995

Table 8.1. Scientists and engineers engaged in R&D, by sector of performance (in selected countries), 1995 or LYA

Table 8.2. Expenditure on R&D in higher education sector as percentage of total domestic expenditure on R&D (in selected countries), 1995 or LYA (in decreasing order)

Table C1. Total number of students, percentage female, number of students per 100,000 inhabitants and gross enrolment ratios by country and gender, 1985 and 1995 or LYA

Table C2. Percentage distribution of students by ISCED level, 1985 and 1995 or LYA

Table C3. Percentage distribution of graduates by field of study, 1985 and 1995 or LYA

Table C4. Foreign students by 50 major host countries, 1985 and 1995or LYA (in decreasing order)

Table C5. Estimated number of students abroad as percentage of national enrolment in 50 major countries of origin, 1995 or LYA (in decreasing order)

Table C6. Public current expenditure on higher education as percentage of total public current expenditure on education, 1985 and 1995 or LYA

As the new century approaches, the need for better understanding of developments in higher education pervades as one of the central themes of public discourse, [although distinctions can be argued between the terms ‘higher education’ and ‘tertiary education’ these two terms are used interchangeably in this document and refer to studies/formal education beyond the secondary level]. Expansion of higher education has affected almost all countries in the world, and it has brought about significant realignments within most countries as it has taken a larger place in society.

An increasing share of a nation's young people have hopes of advanced study at the tertiary level. Student enrolment has grown at an unprecedented pace. This enrolment expansion is not only rapid but also wide reaching. Consequently, over time, an increasing share of a nation's workforce has had some form of training at the tertiary level. 

World-wide, higher education served 82 million students in 1995. The growth has been phenomenal over the last few decades. In 1960, world enrolment was only 13 million; in 1970, it was already 28 million; in 1980, the total stood at 51 million. There is every reason to predict that the current trend will continue and the world enrolment total will climb beyond the current, unprecedented total. 

A significant consequence of the increased size and scale of higher education is that more of a country's financial resources must be directed to this level of study. At the same time, higher education increasingly finds itself in competition with the funding needs of other levels of education and of other public sectors. The tensions over ways to foster, yet control and direct, the growth of tertiary enrolments are themselves an indirect measure of the increasingly central presence of higher education in all aspects of a nation's economic and social affairs. 

For many countries, higher education has become more important at a time when other broad trends constrain choices and make orderly planning difficult. The need to expand pre-primary and first level education and to strengthen secondary education while also addressing continuing gaps in adult literacy introduces competing demands on education spending. Aging populations and shifts in age dependency ratios impose still other demands on a nation's resources. So too, the forces of globalization are increasingly felt throughout the world. Today, most national economies are often affected, directly or indirectly, by financial and economic decisions made by organizations and governments in other parts of the world. Events affecting financial markets in one part of the world have immediate effects throughout the rest of the world. Internal political disturbances within one country quickly have international ramifications, affecting patterns of human migration and allocations of international aid. 

Investment in advanced training is a vital part of a national strategy to prepare for the next century, but governments recognize too that supporting higher education, with its needs for research and instruction at a high level, requires an extensive, long-term commitment of resources. The following excerpts from UNESCO's "Policy Paper for Change and Development in Higher Education", published in 1995, offer perspective on the contemporary challenges that governments and higher education must face; 

This report offers a statistical profile of higher education and its increasing centrality in national and international development. Higher education sector, which is covered in this report, is more and more institutionally diversified and is composed not only of universities, colleges, schools and academies but also various types of research institutes, experimental stations, distance education units and clinics operating under the direct control of or administered by or associated with a particular higher education establishment. This diversity reveals a dimension of changes which has experienced higher education. But it also creates certain difficulty in statistical reporting of those developments, particularly when such effort is made in the international context.  

Changes over the last decade - 1985 to 1995 - are the main focus of this document, with some comparisons made to earlier periods. Data are drawn from countries throughout the world to document foremost regional patterns (for definition and composition of regions see Appendices I and II) of enrolment growth and the increasing proportion of public resources devoted to higher education. Other trends show the increasing share of a nation's population that is involved in advanced study or engaged in research and experimental development (R&D). Also documented is higher education's increasing role in training persons for professional positions in the workforce, in fostering educational access for women and in offering opportunities for study abroad. Such statistical evidence - and based on it education indicators - offer important empirical background and context for discussion, policy development and planning that will shape higher education's growth and strengthen its contribution to national, economic and cultural development in the next century. 

Date presented in this report has been collected according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), which was adopted by UNESCO in 1976, the levels of study relevant for higher/tertiary education include levels 5, 6 and 7, all of which require study beyond secondary school. Although this classification has been replaced by its modified version - ISCED 1997, the data used in this document refers to the 1976 version, since this is the classification in force at the time of data collection (for a comparative presentation of 1976 and 1997 versions of ISCED, refer to Box 1.1). 

As ‘higher education’ is usually seen as being synonymous with ‘university-type’ studies and thus excludes more practically oriented programs at that level, it was decided to call ISCED Level 5 ‘tertiary education.’ Nowadays, with the expansion of tertiary education, many countries have developed training programmes such as post-secondary technical studies which are more occupationally oriented but attended by students with an equivalent background as the university stream. These programmes were included in level 5 of ISCED 1976 but they were considered to be distinctively different than level 6 which led to a university degree. ISCED 1997 thus uses two subcategories within level 5: theoretical programmes that lead to advanced research or professions with high skill requirements are classified as 5A and the more practical and occupationally oriented programmes are classified as 5B.

For purpose of international comparisons, it was felt necessary to define more precise categories so that it could be possible to collect statistics and calculate indicators which are comparable in specific purpose. Thus, in addition to the sub-levels 5A and 5B, level 5 of tertiary education is divided according to two ‘complementary dimensions’: ‘cumulative duration’ of studies inside tertiary education; ‘national degree or qualification structure’ to compare the educational and labor-market transition points within countries.

The highest level within ISCED 1997 is level 6, which is restricted to post-graduate programmes with students performing original research intended to leave to a Doctorate degree. Contrary to level 7 in ISCED 1976, this level does not include the Master's’ degree.

Higher education in the last decades of the twentieth century is quite consistently described in terms of its expanded numbers. Descriptive analysis often refers to the increasing role or the greater strategic importance of institutions of higher education. While the language and metaphors differ, the common experience of many countries is that higher education is no longer a small, specialized or esoteric part of a nation's life. It has become part of the mainstream of society, a vital component of a nation's or region's economic well-being, a strategic partner with business and industry and with government as well as with international organizations.

These images reflect two underlying realities about higher education's increasing presence in today's world:

Extensive changes have taken place in the last few decades in higher education (Table 2.1), changes that have broad ramifications not only for governments and higher education leaders but also for the workforce and the economy, for families and for emerging generations. As one dramatic sign of this changed reality, some twenty countries today operate extremely large systems of higher education, enrolling more than one million students. The presence of such mega systems, along with other relevant indicators of change, are discussed in the following pages.

For each country, enrolment growth has generally meant that an increasing share of the nation's population is participating in tertiary/higher education. The world total in 1995 stood at 1,434 students per 100,000 inhabitants, or 14 of every 1,000 persons are studying at the tertiary level (Table 2.1). Despite the fact that some countries and regions have also reported a higher rate of population growth, this figure has risen steadily since 1980. Levels of participation have doubled in two regions: sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Asia and Oceania. In the latter region, it should be noted that China accounts for almost 40 percent of total enrolment, and thus, changes affecting higher education in China have a major influence on statistics reported for this region.

Many regions (see Appendices I and II) now have levels of higher education participation that exceed 1,000 students per 100,000 inhabitants, which means that out of every 100 inhabitants one is enrolled in higher education. These regions include Latin America and the Caribbean and the Arab States, among the developing regions. Other regions have higher levels of participation, including the very diversified region ‘countries in transition’ which is composed of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and those of the former Soviet Union (2,602 students per 100,000 inhabitants) and the more developed regions - Europe, North America and Asia and Oceania (with an overall average of 4,110 students per 100,000 inhabitants).

Among the more developed regions, North America had 5,544 students per 100,000 inhabitants in 1995, followed by Asia and Oceania with 3,396 and Europe with 3,285. Between 1980 and 1995, this indicator saw continuing increases - of 34 percent, on average - in the more developed regions. Participation increased by more than 60 percent in Europe and in the developed countries of Asia and Oceania. North America experienced only a slight change during the period from an already high level of participation.

A more precise measure of a country's investment in higher education is shown by the gross enrolment ratio. This relative measure of participation, focused on the young people that are within five years of the country's normal secondary school-leaving age, shows the share of young people who are enrolled for higher education. Thus, this ratio also offers insight into the overall level of education that will be held by the country's future work force and provides a basis for comparison among regions and countries.

As can be seen from Table 2.2, this ratio has increased world-wide from 12.2 percent in 1980 to 16.2 in 1995.

Among the more developed regions, the gross enrolment ratio rose from an average of 37.2 in 1980 to 59.6 in 1995. Much of this gain occurred in the five years between 1990 and 1995, when the average for these regions increased from 47.7 to 59.6.

Each region participated in these gains. In Europe, the gross enrolment ratio almost doubled, increasing from 24.1 in 1980 to 47.8 in 1995. North America, which already had a gross enrolment ratio of 55.7 in 1980, increased further to a ratio of 77.2 by 1990 and to 84.0 by 1995. It must be pointed out, however, that due to the more comprehensive definition of the scope of education used in the recent common UNESCO/OECD/EUROSTAT surveys, 1995 data for this region and other OECD countries are not strictly comparable with those for previous years.

As a region the countries in transition had gross enrolment ratios averaging 36.2 in 1990. By 1995, reflecting their special circumstances during the recent period, the average ratio for this region had dropped slightly to 34.2. However, several countries in this region, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, have reported substantial recent growth in student enrolment.

Among the less developed regions, the gross enrolment ratio has risen steadily, from 5.1 in 1980 to 6.5 in 1985, 7.1 in 1990, and 8.8 by 1995. Each of the less developed regions showed gains during this period. However, they also show considerable diversity.

Several of the developing areas have a ratio under 10, including sub-Saharan Africa and the less developed countries in Eastern Asia and Oceania and Southern Asia. The Arab States, starting with a ratio of 9.2 in 1980, saw an increase to 12.5 by 1995. Latin America and the Caribbean countries, which had a higher gross enrolment ratio in 1980 (13.8), had risen further, to 17.3, by 1995.

In the less developed regions, with the exception of Latin America and the Caribbean, the gross enrolment ratio for female students lags behind that for male students. Differences have nevertheless narrowed somewhat since 1980, when the ratio was 6.6 for men and 3.6 for women, i.e. a female/male ratio of 0.55. By 1995, these ratios were 10.3 for males and 7.3 for females, i.e. a female/male ratio of 0.71, still far from parity.

In terms of percentage of female enrolment, by 1995, overall gender balance for higher education had been achieved in the more developed regions (52 percent females), the countries in transition (54 percent) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (49 percent) (Table 2.3).

These figures point out significant differences in the level of participation in higher education among the regions. Between 1980 and 1995, important increases have occurred both in relative and absolute terms in less developed regions, particularly in the least developed countries, as shown in Tables 2.1 and 2.3. However the gap between more developed and less developed regions in terms of enrolment ratios, i.e. in relation to the population, continues to increase (Table 2.2).

As a consequence of continuing enrolment expansion, an increasing number of countries now encounter the multiple challenges associated with operating very large ‘megasystems’ of higher education. Eleven countries have higher education enrolments of 2 million students or more. These countries include: Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, and the United States (see Table C1 in Appendix III). Another eleven countries now enrol between 1 million and 2 million students. They include: Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. There are several countries, e.g. Poland, Australia, Peru and South Africa, which are close to this level of student enrolment. Such mega-systems must simultaneously face an array of issues, ranging from guiding enrolment expansion while fostering equitable access to finding ways to achieve system coherence in the midst of pressures for institutional or regional differentiation.

Whether judged by the size of their higher education system or by the share of their population that enrols for higher education, most countries today are encountering pressures for growth in tertiary education. Guiding that growth is an important and complex task. Governments must achieve co-ordination among institutions despite often substantial differences in institutional histories, characteristics and missions. With growth, needs multiply for financial support for more staff, equipment and physical facilities. Issues of accountability and quality assurance also become more important as higher education grows in size and scale. More challenging, too, is the task of providing good information and guidance to prospective students and their parents about a wider array of higher education opportunities.

As higher education grows, leaders in both higher education and in government may also encounter new problems in gaining public support for higher education. As the higher education system makes a claim for a larger share of public resources, that claim is likely to be contested by those who are pressing for support of other worthy public purposes. As higher education institutions become more widely known in a community, they also can become subject to greater scrutiny and criticism, even on minor matters. A larger presence in society for higher education thus imposes new responsibilities on officials in public office and at institutions of higher education. They must be ready to offer clear and cogent statements about higher education's needs and at the same time be able to articulate how higher education contributes to other important social needs.

Growth and expansion have been the hallmarks of higher education, particularly in recent years. From 1980 to 1995, world-wide higher education increased from 51 to 82 millions students absorbing an additional 31 million students (Table2.3).

The rate of expansion has been rapid, involving a 61 percent increase since 1980. Put differently, world-wide enrolment grew at an average annual rate of 3.4 percent over this fifteen year period. The annual rates of growth were higher in the less developed regions (5.8 percent) than in the more developed regions (2.8 percent). Within the countries of the less developed regions, the highest growth rate was reported in sub-Saharan Africa (9.2 percent), followed by Eastern Asia and Oceania (7.4 percent), the Arab States (5.5 percent), and Latin America and the Caribbean (3.6 percent).

Different rates of expansion have led to a shifting distribution of higher education enrolments on a world basis. In 1980, the less developed regions accounted for 31 percent of all enrolment. By 1995, they accounted for a larger share - 43 percent - of all world-wide enrolment. In 1980, total enrolment in higher education for these regions amounted to 16.5 million students. By 1995, they enrolled a total of 36.6 million students at the higher education level (Table 2.3).

Such figures help to underscore the increasing role of higher education in less developed countries, both at present and into the future. Three of the developing regions now have very large higher education enrolments, including: Eastern Asia and Oceania, with 14.3 million students; Latin America and the Caribbean, with 8.1 million students, and Southern Asia, with 8.0 million students. In 1980, these regions enrolled 5.3 million, 4.9 million and 4.1 million students, respectively, at the tertiary level.

Based on such growth, Eastern Asia and Oceania now account for 17.5 percent of the world's tertiary enrolment. Latin America and the Caribbean now account for 10 percent of tertiary enrolment; Southern Asia accounts for another 10 percent of enrolment.

In addition to two groups ‘more developed’ and ‘less developed regions’, this report also includes a third group, that of ‘countries in transition’ so as to allow for a separate analysis of the particular situations observed in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As such it includes 27 states located in Europe and Asia (see Appendix II). Together, these countries enrolled 10.8 million students for tertiary education in 1995. They thus accounted for developed 13 percent of the world's student enrolment, relatively close to the student enrolment totals of three other regions - North America, Europe, Eastern Asia and Oceania.

The countries in transition report relatively high levels of participation in higher education, as defined by the number of students at the tertiary level per 100,000 inhabitants. In 1995, the countries in transition averaged 2,602 students per 100,000 inhabitants (Table 2.1).

Enrolment was stable or slightly lower after 1990, following the dramatic political and economic changes that took place in these countries. As noted earlier, enrolment numbers have begun to increase again, sometimes very rapidly, for many of these countries in recent years.

UNESCO’s document "Open and Distance Learning: Prospects and Policy Considerations", published in 1997, points out that distance education "is widely used at the tertiary level within the framework of open and distance-teaching universities which provide programmes and degrees equivalent to conventional university and college education. Traditional universities often use the same curricula for distance and residential students, and the students are often but not always subject to the same entrance requirements and examinations. Single mode open universities generally have their own degrees and curricula. But they are often similar to the curricula and degrees of a conventional university. Degree studies in distance teaching universities thus increase the capacity of higher education systems, mainly catering for the adult population. The similarity of curricula and degree structures may be seen as a demonstration of equal quality, and makes the recognition of distance education at the tertiary level easier". Together with the increasing use by more traditional institutions of higher education of new technologies, the earlier distinction between the two types of tertiary education is gradually diminishing.

Even if data are incomplete and subject to variation in interpretation or definitions of distance learning, it is evident, nevertheless that some countries now reach a large segment of their students with distance learning institutions. Table 3.1 offers a picture on the countries in which distance learning has become a particularly important form of higher education.

In the first half of the 1990’s, eighteen countries reported that more than 10 percent of their student enrolment is in distant learning institutions. Seven countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Albania, Pakistan and Turkey, reported that more than 25 percent of their higher education students were enrolled in such institutions. In addition, Latvia enrolled 31 percent of its students in distance learning in 1985, although this figure had dropped to 22 percent by 1995. It appears that Thailand and Myanmar have made quite substantial commitments to distance learning: in 1985, both had reported that 50 percent or more of their higher education students were enrolled in distance learning institutions. By 1995, Myanmar enrolled as many as 60 percent of all students in distance learning, while Thailand's level dropped to 37 percent in 1995.

Another set of countries also make considerable use of distance learning, enrolling between 10 percent and 25 percent of their students in distance learning arrangements. Eleven countries have such records, led by China, Latvia and the United Republic of Tanzania, each of which had more than 20 percent of students enrolled via distance learning.

Another six countries enrol between 6 and 10 percent of their students in distance learning - Algeria, Honduras, the Netherlands, Spain, Zambia and the United Kingdom.

Many of the world's countries have experienced rapid rates of growth during the last decade. For many countries, higher education enrolment doubled in ten year's time, causing institutions to encounter problems in admitting, registering and accommodating each year's increase in students even as they were anticipating still further increases in the year ahead. A more general effect of rapid expansion often follows, in which aspirations for study at the higher education level also increase. At each level of family income, more young people aspire to continue their studies beyond secondary school. Widened access to higher education becomes increasingly necessary, and higher education institutions find they must keep up with burgeoning demand.

Rapid expansion typically imposes serious pressures on the ability of a country to expand its physical facilities for higher education. For a number of countries facing the prospects of rapid expansion, the use of distance learning institutions has offered an important vehicle for accommodating increased demand for higher education study. This alternative is likely to be introduced in still other countries, partly as a response to enrolment pressures and partly as practical methods of electronic delivery of distance learning such as, for example, the ‘virtual university’, become more widely available. As the use of distance learning expands, higher education systems also must develop ways to integrate distance learning with other, more traditional, forms of learning. In this, as in other areas, higher education systems that expand options for students typically find that they, in turn, have increased their own problems in co-ordinating the various parts of the educational system. Statistical reporting of those developments pose new challenges as well.

In view of the advancement of technology, the internationalization of economic relations and the increasingly sophisticated ways that most businesses and professions carry out their work, there is a growing need for each country to be able to respond to those developments with appropriate levels of training and qualifications in its workforce. In this regard higher education sector has an important task to fulfil.

Several indicators offer relevant information on the ways that higher education is contributing to education and training needs. These include: the number of students enrolled at each level of study; the number enrolled in each field of study; and the number of graduates in each field. These statistics, when considered together with other information pertinent to human resources development, offer useful perspective on the skills becoming available to a country.

Data on students and graduates, presented in this study, are grouped according to the following five broad fields of study:

- Education: education science and teacher training.

- Humanities: humanities, religion and theology; fine and applied arts;

- Medicine: medical science and health-related fields, including nursing.

The analysis of this data provides important information about the structure of a higher education system as well as its capacity to respond to society’s need for training and qualifications.

For all regions, higher education mainly involves study at level 6, the type of study program that normally leads to a first university degree. Close to two thirds of all higher education involves study programs at this level (Table 4.1).

Table C2 in Appendix III shows data on the distribution of students for 73 countries that were able to provide information allowing time comparisons over the last decade.

Provision of study programmes at level 7 - which generally is seen as leading to an advanced professional degree or postgraduate degree is relatively rare. It is a level of study which provides a country with graduates possessing training and professional skills that contribute to a nation's capacity in science and technology. However, provision of such training imposes additional demands on a country's resources. It is estimated that just 8 percent of students around the world are enrolled at this level.

When considered on a country by country basis (see Table C2 in Appendix III), the proportion of students enrolled at level 7 in the total student population can range from 0 to more than 40 percent as is the case of the Netherlands (43 percent) and Denmark (40 percent). Almost as is the proportion in Holy See (35 percent), Norway (27 percent), Chad (26 percent), Congo (19 percent), Trinidad and Tobago (18 percent), Israel (18 percent), the United Kingdom (18 percent), the United States (14 percent), Sri Lanka (13 percent), Australia (13 percent), Hong Kong (12 percent), New Zealand (12 percent), Egypt (11 percent), Nepal (11 percent) and 10 percent in France and Malta.

In 1995, most countries and regions had the majority of their enrolments in two broad areas of study - law and social sciences, and natural sciences, which includes also engineering and agriculture. On average, 36 percent of all enrolment was in law and social sciences, while 29 percent of enrolment was in the natural sciences. It should be pointed out, however, that these two fields include a large range and number of disciplines. The dominance of these two areas of study showed little change since 1985 (Table 4.2). Two other broad areas of study are directly related to a country's work force needs - medicine and education. Both are areas that make up a relatively small proportion of students enrolled in higher education.

The following patterns could be observed in the course of the last decade:

In line with population growth and overall increases in enrolment, the world trend has been toward increased numbers of graduates in all regions and in almost all broad areas of study (see Table C3 in Appendix III).

In most countries, education graduates comprise 10 to 30 percent of all graduates, with the lower proportion, around or less than 10 percent, found in the more developed regions. Similarly, graduates in medicine, including related health-professions, comprise 10 to about 20 percent of graduates in most countries. The highest proportions are found in countries of Southern Asia and in the countries in transition. The lowest proportions are found in the less developed countries.

In most countries, the two largest segments of graduates include the sciences and the social sciences. This pattern is parallel to what was seen for patterns of enrolment. For most countries, the sciences, which includes engineering and agriculture, account for 20 to 35 percent of the total number of graduates. The social sciences, which include law, account for about 20 to 35 percent of graduates.

In the past, higher education planners tried to direct the numbers of students who undertook studies at each level and in each field of study. Such rigid manpower planning is now discredited as the modern world of work is emerging in which the equation ‘degree = job’ no longer applies to the same extent as in the past. At present, the statistical evidence seems to confirm that, particularly with regard to the pattern of enrolment and graduation, the popular choices of young people is a major factor. In part, too, these patterns reflect policy decisions on a system of institutional level to enrol more students in fields that require low expenditure such as social sciences and humanities, rather than in high expenditure science or medical fields. Such a development, particularly if it persists for a long period of time, might create a problem with regard adequate supply of trained persons as well as ‘suitable’ employment perspectives for graduates.

The transition to employment for higher education graduates has become a protracted process in many countries, sometimes involving a long search, temporary employment or work that is below their academic qualifications. However, the broader trend is that higher education graduates face lower risks of unemployment than persons not holding a degree and their earnings continue to hold an advantage over those without a degree. The statistical evidence of this situation for OECD countries is presented in Box 4.1.

Box. 4.1. ‘Earnings premium’ for tertiary education graduates in OECD countries: Relative earnings of persons aged 25-64 with income from employment (upper secondary education = 100) by level of educational attainment and gender, 1995

The ‘earnings premium’ for university-level education in OECD countries exceeds 60 percent. It ranges from about 40 percent for men aged 25-64 in Denmark and Switzerland to 80 per cent or more in Finland, France and Portugal. For women in the same age range, the premium ranges from 20 per cent in Italy to 95 per cent in the United Kingdom. University education enhances earnings relative to secondary-level education more for women than for men in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, whereas the reverse is true for the remaining countries. Non-university tertiary education yields considerably smaller earnings advantage than university education. The advantage of non-university tertiary education over upper secondary education is typically 10 to 30 per cent among both men and women aged 25-64, although in the United Kingdom the earnings advantage at this level is over 50 per cent for women.

In a number of countries, but especially in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, earnings differentials between men and women narrow with increasing levels of educational attainment. In a number of other countries, however, including the Czech Republic, Italy and New Zealand, the reverse relationship tends to be true, that is, earnings differences between men and women tend to increase with educational attainment. Thus, although higher education attainment levels are generally associated with higher earnings for both men and women, they do not seem to contribute systematically to reductions in gender inequality in earnings.

The degree to which female students participate in higher education has long been an area of attention in view of a widely recognised argument that low rates of female participation in education have negative societal effects, hampering a country's economic development by keeping a substantial number of its citizens from having the chance to develop their qualifications and skills.

During the period covered by this document - 1980 to 1995 - the enrolment of women students in higher education has grown at an annual rate of 4 percent, compared to 3 percent annually for men students. Consequently, women’s share in student enrolment has increased from 44 percent in 1980 to 47 percent in 1995 (see Table 2.3).

What is particularly encouraging is that all regions participated in this rising trend. By 1995, overall gender balance in enrolment to higher education was achieved in North America, in Europe, and in the countries in transition. Latin America and the Caribbean were also nearing gender balance in student enrolment by 1995, with 49 percent female students overall.

In sub-Saharan Africa, in Southern Asia and generally in the least developed countries, the proportion of women among all students remained low, at 35 percent, 34 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Nevertheless, each of these regions showed some gain in the representation of women students since 1980.

Gains between 1980 and 1995 were recorded for both the more developed regions (rising from 47 percent to 52 percent) and the less developed regions (rising from 34 percent to 40 percent). Large gains took place in several regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, women's enrolment rose from 22 percent in 1980 to 35 percent by 1995. In the more developed regions of Asia and Oceania, women's enrolment moved from 35 percent up to 46 percent during this time. Similarly, a gain can be seen for the Arab States, with an increase from 31 percent to 41 percent of higher education enrolment (see Table 2.3).

Women have an increasing presence at the upper levels of higher education (Table 5.1). Among the 68 countries for which data are available on female students by ISCED levels 5, 6 and 7, the overall percentage of women enrolled at level 7, involving study for postgraduate university degrees, rose from 40 percent to 46 percent. Also, the proportion of women at level 6, generally leading to a first university degree, grew from 42 percent to 45 percent. Such increased representation at levels 6 and 7 occurred in most regions except among the least developed countries.

Patterns vary in terms of women's enrolment for level 5, which involves study for a diploma or award that is considered to be less than, or not equivalent to, a first university degree. Such studies vary in nature across settings; often, this level includes training in practical or occupational areas. Some of these areas, such as fields related to the health professions, disproportionately attract women.

Along with a trend of growing numbers of women enrolled for higher education, women students are also seeing gains in enrolment in certain areas of study. On the basis of data which was made available from 71 countries (Table 5.2), women students in 1995 had a high level of representation in the following fields of study - education (48 percent), the humanities (57 percent) and medicine (56 percent). In each of these broad areas, women's participation has increased during the last decade. Female participation in law and social science studies has increased considerably, to 41 percent, but women in natural sciences, engineering and agricultural sciences persistently remain low: 21 percent in 1995.

Education is an area of study where gender representation varies widely among the world's regions, reflecting different traditions about the way that teaching roles are organised. In the developing regions of sub-Saharan Africa and in Eastern Asia and Oceania, women are a small proportion of enrolments in education. In contrast, gender balance in education appeared in Southern Asia and in other less developed countries. In still other regions including the countries in transition, the more developed regions and Latin America and the Caribbean - enrolments follow a pattern in which women make up at least two-thirds of higher education enrolment in education.

Enrolment in medicine, which includes nursing, also reflects a varying pattern. In some developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Asia and Oceania, women account for one-third or fewer of enrolments in these fields. Women account for about two-thirds of medicine-related enrolments in the more developed regions and about 62 percent of student enrolments in the countries in transition. The natural sciences, including engineering and agriculture, continue to be study fields in which women have limited representation.

In almost all regions, the percentage of women studying in the sciences increased between 1985 and 1995. For all reporting countries, female students enrolled in the natural sciences rose from 17 percent to 21 percent of total enrolment. The largest increase in the sciences, (from 19 percent to 31 percent), occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The relevant data concerning this issue which have been made available to UNESCO suggests that much progress has occurred, world-wide, in removing barriers to the enrolment of women in higher education. Progress is evident by level of study, for most fields, and in most regions. However, questions can still be raised, especially about whether opportunities are sufficiently open to women in certain study areas that are more specific than those reported here. Questions must still be raised as to whether opportunities are systematically restricted throughout the educational process as well as in academic and professional careers. A modern society requires that all of its talented and motivated young people have the opportunity to pursue studies in higher education, so a continued questioning of where and what kind of discriminations still hamper women’s aspirations is still needed along with policies enhancing opportunity for female participation.

Countries have become increasingly interdependent during the last decades of this century, with their internal conditions and planning more influenced by events in other countries. Now and in the future, intelligent decisions, for governments and corporations alike, must take into account the likely ramifications of actions by other countries and other economic partners located all across the globe.

Mobility of students between countries is an element of the growing internationalisation among countries of all kinds of relations and people. Movement of students across regions and countries is, in part, a response of young people to their growing awareness of the world and their interest in preparing themselves to live in an interdependent world. At the same time, governments and employers recognize that the workforce of the future must include well-trained, globally aware professionals if national, regional and individual prosperity is to be ensured.

In 1995, more than 1.6 million foreign/international students were enrolled for higher education study in the 50 major host countries (see Table C4 in Appendix III). More than 900,000 students from less developed regions were enrolled for third level study in a foreign country, as were more than 150,000 students from the countries in transition. About 540,000 students from more developed regions were enrolled for higher education in another country.

There is a complex pattern of student flows across national boundaries, including elements of wide dispersion and other signs of clustering. Much student movement is still influenced by historical and cultural ties among countries and by geographic factors as well.

Patterns of concentration are quite evident when ‘receiving’ or ‘host’ countries are examined. More than three-quarters of all foreign study take place in just ten host countries. As Table 6.1 shows, half of all foreign students are found in three countries: the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

In 1995, about two thirds of the world's foreign students were enrolled in just six countries: the United States (28 percent of all foreign student enrolment), the United Kingdom (12 percent), Germany (10 percent), France (8 percent), the Russian Federation (4 percent) and Japan (3 percent).

Much student mobility remains within a single region. For the following European countries, more than half of their foreign students come from other countries in the same region: Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and Italy. A similar pattern appears among the Arab countries. Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Kuwait, Algeria and Qatar all draw most of their foreign students from other Arab countries. Argentina and South Africa display the same pattern, in which most of their foreign students are from other Latin America and Caribbean countries and sub-Saharan Africa respectively.

The rising trend of international study for higher education is evidenced by substantial growth in the number of students hosted by various countries (see Table C4 in Appendix III). The ten countries, except France, hosting the largest number of students in 1995 had all recorded growth in foreign student numbers since 1985.

For many countries, average annual rates of growth in foreign students are considerable. Japan saw an increase of 15.8 percent annually over the past decade. Australia increased its number of foreign students by 11.5 percent per year during this time. Rapid rates of growth also are found in Europe: United Kingdom, Portugal and Germany recorded average annual increases of 13.9, 13.0 and 8.4 percent, respectively. These increases have been spurred, in part, by the European Commission's initiatives to encourage student mobility within Europe (see Box 6.1).

Several other host countries, although having fewer foreign students, also saw average increases of over 10 percent per year during the last decade. China, which had only about 3,000 foreign students in 1985, recorded very rapid increases (an average 27 percent increase each year of the last decade) in its foreign student total. By 1993, it hosted almost 23,000 foreign students.

Rapid annual rates of growth in foreign student enrolment also were reported by two Scandinavian countries, i.e. Denmark (11.0 percent) and Finland (11.3 percent). Three other countries also saw their foreign student numbers increase by more than 10 percent per year, including: Jordan (14.6 percent), Hungary (11.1 percent) and Cyprus (10.8 percent).

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All regions send some of their students abroad. However, in number, the less developed regions account for most of the students who study abroad. The highest proportion of the students who were studying abroad in 1995 were from the developing countries of Eastern Asia and Oceania, which accounted for 23 percent of the total; from Europe, which accounted for 20 percent of the total, and from the Arab States, which accounted for 12 percent of the total. The countries in transition accounted for another 10 percent of students studying abroad.

The proportion of higher education students studying abroad varies among countries. Table C5 in Appendix III shows student numbers for the fifty countries that had more than 6,000 [which is a cut-off point for the 50 countries of origin] of their nationals enrolled for higher education outside their own country in 1995. The general pattern is one in which a very small proportion of each country's higher education students are enrolled for study in another country - this may involve 1 to 3 percent of the students who are enrolled within the country.

Among the countries with very large national enrolments - those with a million or more students enrolled - the percentage of students who are studying abroad as a proportion of national enrolment is low, generally below 2 percent. Several factors, among them the availability of foreign currency, political and economic conditions, and historical ties between countries, all influence the number of students who study in other countries.

Several distinctive patterns of movement can be observed. For Cyprus, for example, the number of nationals studying abroad was more than those enrolled within the country in 1995. For Palestine, about half of its nationals were studying in other countries, especially Arab countries. For Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, 20 percent or more of their higher education students were enrolled in other countries (Table C5 in Appendix III).

Regions differ according to the primary destinations of their students, a reflection of a myriad of cultural, historical or geographic factors affecting the flow of students. Among the total number of students from Latin America who are studying abroad, over half are enrolled in the United States (53 percent). So too, about half of the students from Southern Asia (51 percent) and from countries in Eastern Asia and Oceania (49 percent) are studying in the United States. Similarly, 62 percent of students who are studying abroad from the more developed countries of Asia and Oceania have chosen to study in the United States.

Other historical ties are reflected in the fact that the highest proportions of Arab students (31 percent) and African students (27 percent) who are studying abroad are enrolled in France. In still another pattern, it can be seen that 41 percent of the students who travelled from the countries in transition were pursuing their studies in the Russian Federation. Similarly, over 30 percent of the European students abroad in 1995 were enrolled in the United Kingdom - accounting for 17 percent of its foreign student population, or in Germany - accounting for 15 percent.

Somewhat different patterns can be seen when student mobility is examined for major host countries. In the United States, which hosted the largest number of foreign students in 1995, the largest component of foreign students are from the developing countries of Eastern Asia and Oceania, accounting for 38 percent of the foreign students in this country. Three other important patterns of student mobility for the United States involve students coming from Latin America and the Caribbean, from Europe, and from the developed countries of Asia and Oceania. Each of these three regions contributed 11 percent of the total number of foreign students in the United States in 1995.

In 1995, the United Kingdom drew a total of 197,000 foreign students. These students primarily came from Europe (42 percent) or from the less developed regions of Eastern Asia and Oceania (28 percent).

Germany was host to a large number of foreign students as well, with a total of more than 159,000 in 1995. The largest segment of these students stayed within the region, however; students travelling from other European countries accounted for 37 percent of Germany's foreign students; another 15 percent were from the countries in transition.

France is another major host country, receiving an estimated 130,000 students in 1995. The majority of its foreign students are from the Arab States and sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting historic ties between this country and these regions. These two regions each accounted for 40 percent and 19 percent, respectively, of France's foreign students in 1995.

The Russian Federation accounted for a total of 67,000 foreign students in 1995. The great majority of these students (about 86 percent) came from the countries in transition, especially from the members of the Commonwealth of the Independent States.

Student flows across national borders are a significant factor in patterns of study in higher education. For the host countries and institutions, international/foreign students represent both an opportunity - especially for richer interaction among students - and a responsibility to ensure that appropriate services and programmes assist foreign students in achieving their study objectives. Host countries and institutions increasingly recognise, too, that international students can be a major source of foreign currency, a factor that must be balanced with educational considerations.

Foreign study offers significant benefits to the ‘sending’ nations as well, especially as students go abroad to pursue higher education studies in fields or at levels where the country's own capacity is not sufficient. Yet, these benefits often are not supported adequately by programmes and financial support for foreign study. Private funds - mainly from students and their families - are the dominant source of financial support for foreign study, while most governments offer a limited number of scholarships. For governments, the benefits of supporting international student mobility can be substantial but can take a long time to manifest themselves. As regional co-operation has grown among the various world regions, governments are giving greater recognition to the broader value of student mobility.

Attending institutions or participating educational programmes offered in another country is and very likely will remain a major form of international student mobility. However with the rapid development of telecommunication technology the new forms of ‘mobility’ can be expected to become relevant for further internationalisation of higher education.

Assessing patterns of spending per student has become a routine practice for many countries as they seek to understand the costs of supporting or expanding their educational provision. Differences in spending patterns over time and between levels of education offer some insight into the choices that governments make, as well as their consequences.

One of the difficult decisions that governments face is to decide on the size of the allocations that support primary and secondary education while also allocating funds for higher education, for adult education, and for vocational training and skill upgrading. For most countries today, education is an increasing social and political priority, as pressures are strong to respond to growing needs of the economy, to increasing aspirations of young people and their families, or to the pressures of population growth.

In considering their allocations for higher education, governments must confront the fact that higher education imposes greater costs, on a per student basis, than does primary or secondary education. Salary costs are greater, because of the advanced training needed for instruction in higher education, and equipment costs can be much greater as well, in view of the sophisticated equipment on which tertiary level students in many fields require training. As Table 7.1 shows, some regions report levels of higher education spending that are as much as six times greater than their spending for primary and secondary education.

To allow comparisons of public expenditure for higher education across countries, data are generally calculated in terms of per-student spending. Such statistics still suffer from underlying differences in the circumstances and methods of data collection, as explained in greater detail in Box 7.1. Interpreted cautiously, however, such international comparisons offer some perspective on patterns of spending for higher education.

On a world-wide basis, spending per-student for higher education has grown considerably in the last decade (Table 7.2). Expressed in US dollars at current prices, the total per student expenditure in 1995 was $3,370. In 1985, the comparable average was $2,011. High increases in spending per-student are found in the more developed regions. Average per student spending in these regions was $5,936 in 1995, up from $3,498 in 1985. The most rapid increase in per-student spending took place in Europe, where such spending stood at $6,585 in 1995. This figure represents a doubling over 1985, when per-student spending in this region was $2,975.

In the more developed countries of Asia and Oceania and North America, a slower pattern of spending growth can be seen. The 1995 figure for Asia and Oceania was $5,488 per student, up from $3,720 per-student in 1985. Similarly, for North America, per-student spending in 1995 was $5,596, up from $3,761 in 1985.

Expenditure patterns for higher education in less developed regions are quite different, exhibiting both generally lower levels of spending and, in many cases, lowered spending over time. In 1995, average spending per-student in the less developed regions was $967. This represents an increase over 1985, when spending averaged $602 per-student.

Lower levels of spending were shown in 1995, compared to 1985, for two of these regions, including sub-Saharan Africa (down to $1,241 from $1,531) and the Arab States (down to $1,588 from $2,211). It should also be reported that in 1995, per-student spending in the countries in transition was $457. But as this region is undergoing radical economic change this figure should be seen with particular caution.

Certain clusters among the less developed regions saw a gain in per student spending during the last decade. Thus, for example, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded a gain, moving to a level of $937 per-student for higher education compared to $548. So too, the developing countries of Eastern Asia and Oceania moved to $709 in per-student spending for higher education, an increase from $406 per-student in 1985.

The most dramatic gain was recorded for the developing countries of Southern Asia, where per student spending for higher education moved to $1,058, more than tripling the spending level of a decade earlier, which was $333 per student.

Public current expenditure on higher education can also be analyzed as a percentage of total public current expenditure on all levels of education (Table C6 in Appendix III). As can be seen, it is only in the European countries that public spending on higher education - in comparison with other levels of education - has increased in the course of the decade 1985-1995.

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World-wide, the teaching staff for higher education reached an estimated total of almost 6 million in 1995. This instructional workforce is divided almost evenly between the more developed regions (2.4 million, or 41 percent of the total) and the less developed regions (2.5 million, or 43 percent of the total). The remaining 16 percent are found in the countries in transition.

The size of the teaching force for higher education has increased steadily over the last 15 years. From a point of under 4 million in 1980, teaching staff for third-level instruction grew to 5 million by 1990 and then to almost 6 million by 1995 (Table 7.3).

Four regions, – the North America the Eastern Asia and Oceania, Europe and the countries in transition, now have teaching staff in the higher education sector of about 1 million. The increase in number of teaching staff in higher education is also evident for other regions (see Table 7.3). In sub-Saharan Africa, the teaching force more than doubled, from 43,000 in 1980 to 118,000 by 1995. A doubling also occurred in the Arab States, rising from 83,000 in 1980 to 167,000 in 1995. The more developed countries of Asia and Oceania expanded their teaching staff by almost 90 percent between 1980 and 1995, although this rapid growth has been affected by system changes in Australia.

On an overall basis, teaching staff has thus grown by 56 percent since 1980. This closely parallels the overall growth in higher education enrolment in the same period, which grew from about 51 million in 1980 to 82 million in 1995, an increase of 60 percent.

This relationship is reflected, also, in the relative stability of the student to staff ratio over the last decade, at least on a world-wide basis. The overall ratio of students to staff stood at 14 to 1 in 1995, unchanged from 1980 (see Table 7.3).

On a regional basis, some distinctive trends are apparent. Among several of the less developed regions, student staff ratios had been relatively low in 1980. Over the last decade, as enrolments have climbed in higher education, the size of the instructional staff in these regions has apparently not increased at the same rate. Student staff ratios have consequently increased. This occurred in the developing regions of Eastern Asia and Oceania. Similarly, the pressures of expanding enrolment led to an increase in the student to staff ratio for higher education systems in Europe. The ratio moved upward, from 12 to 1 to 14 to 1 between 1980 and 1990, but inched downward again, to 13 to 1, by 1995.

The Arab States and the least developed countries have consistently maintained high student to staff ratios for higher education during this period. In 1995, their student to staff ratios were 19 to 1 and 18 to 1, respectively. Notably, the least developed countries had seen these ratios climb to 21 to 1 in 1985, but the ratio dropped back to 18 to 1 by 1995.

North America also has had relatively high student to staff ratios for higher education, at 18 to 1 in 1980 and 1985, with only a slight reduction to 17 to 1 by the 1990s. In some contrast, the countries in transition have had consistently low student to staff ratio and their average ratios was 11 to 1 in 1995.

As higher education enrolments are expanding, there are very strong pressures on governments to provide adequate financial support for higher education institutions and students. Even among developed countries, especially those that already experience high rates of participation at the tertiary level, rising costs and funding pressures do not diminish. Higher education is labour intensive, and teaching and research staff must have qualifications at an advanced level. In a growing number of fields, higher education study also requires the extensive use of up-to-date technological resources and sophisticated equipment.

Governments and higher education leaders have taken several approaches to the funding ‘squeeze’ for higher education, primarily pursuing a policy of diversification of sources of funding, especially through requirements for family contributions or other private funding, and supporting those forms of higher education that operate with overall lower unit costs, such as short cycle or distance studies. As financial pressures continue, such approaches will undoubtedly receive greater attention in the years ahead: this also implies a need for improvement of relevant statistical evidence.

In most countries, higher education plays a key role in support of the nation's research and experimental development (usually abbreviated as R&D). This term encompasses creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, as well as the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications.

A country's level of effort regarding R&D is typically evaluated in terms of two main inputs: the number of highly trained personnel carrying out R&D work, and the level of national expenditure on R&D. In many countries, particularly the industrialized ones, a substantial share of R&D is carried out in a variety of institutions and organizations which are not functioning within the higher education sector, namely: academies of sciences, research organizations of various governmental agencies as well as industry. Nonetheless, higher education, especially its academic and technical staff as well as postgraduate students, represents an important part of the overall capacity of the given country in the field of science and technology.

Countries differ, however, in the extent to which R&D resources are concentrated in various higher education institutions (higher education sector), as compared to two other major sectors – productive sector which includes public/private enterprises, and a general service sector (for definitions see Appendix I). Countries also differ in the amount of financial resources allocated for R&D that will to be carried out by scientists and engineers who are engaged in higher education institutions.

Differences in national reporting systems, time constraints and other methodological factors limit the extent to which such data can be compared across countries, but certain observations can nevertheless be made for the countries that were able to offer information on their R&D activity and the role of higher education in those activities.

One way to understand the national capacity for research is to review the number of persons within a country that are conducting R&D. And to study the contribution of higher education vis-à-vis other sectors, it is appropriate to look at the total number of personnel in higher education carrying out R&D.

Table 8.1 illustrates that, in a majority of countries for which this type of data could be collected, scientists and engineers employed in higher education institutions represent at least one third of the given country’s human resource for R&D. In some countries in the less developed regions, in the countries in transition as well as in the more developed regions, this indicator exceeds 50 percent, i.e. Argentina, Croatia, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mexico, Poland, Spain, and South Africa. The Russian Federation is an exception, where this indicator is below 10 percent of the total number of scientists and engineers engaged in R&D.

Data on the proportion of a country's total R&D expenditure that is spent on the higher education sector offers some perspective on the relative importance the country assigns to R&D performed within universities and other higher education institutions. Such data are shown in Table 8.2. Although collected for a limited number of countries, the data show that the percentage of ‘total domestic expenditure for R&D’ (for its definition see Appendix I) allocated to higher education is lower than the number of scientists and engineers engaged in R&D in higher education sector (see Table 8.1). This pattern can be observed even in the case of more developed regions. The other regions show a remarkable degree of variety with regard to financial resources on R&D allocated in higher education; from a low of 1.1 percent in India to a high of 69.0 percent in Turkey.

This statistical outlook on higher education offers a factual profile of the issues and accomplishments of higher education in recent years. It also indicates the main problems that will confront governments and higher education leaders as they plan for the future. Some of the key trends that have been described - rapid and continuing enrolment expansion, increasing international mobility, high rates of spending and increasing costs of higher education - offer a necessary starting point for efforts to set new policy directions that will guide higher education into the next century.

Several clear implications arise from this statistical review. Of utmost importance, for example, are the issues of balance between quantity and quality - how to ensure that expanded educational provision in higher education can be offered with consistently strong standards. Pressures on quality will continue into the future, due in part to the unrelenting power of enrolment expansion but also due to other forces of change. Rising aspirations among a nation's young people and among social groups that have had inequitable access to higher education also call for responsive actions by higher education. Areas of knowledge are multiplying at a staggering pace, along with growing use of telecommunication (in particular, Internet) and other computer-assisted methods of instructional delivery and various ‘virtual’ forms of higher/tertiary institutions. System differentiation is also proceeding rapidly, with larger systems, new types of institutions, and, in many countries, with higher education offered by private sources. Challenges to quality arise, too, as higher education witnesses increased international mobility among students and responds to the diverse needs of a global marketplace.

Today's pressures on both government and higher education are likely to continue as the new century emerges. There will be an even stronger imperative to find workable funding systems to sustain higher education and to support the work of scientists and others who contribute to the nation's vital activities of research and development. The prospect of still further growth of large, complex ‘mega-systems’ of higher education will, in turn, require a new style of administrative leadership for institutions of higher education. Mega-systems will need to balance complex objectives, on the one hand fostering mission differentiation among institutions while, on the other, promoting necessary co-ordination and coherence.

The opportunities for a renewal of purpose are also evident as a new century emerges. New ideas about curriculum and effective teaching abound. More diverse mechanisms for funding higher education are being tried, with experience being shared widely across countries. Most higher education institutions are committed to finding ways to strengthen their contributions to the needs of their society, the region and their community. If higher education has a larger and more central role in society today it is foremost due to its tremendous resources, especially in the form of accumulated wisdom about ways to train and educate entire generations of young people and in the expert knowledge and deep understanding of its teachers, scholars and scientists.

Many factors affect the extent to which a country can build up a cadre of scientists and engineers able to contribute to the nation's scientific and technological capacity. Still other factors affect whether those scientific workers will be able to carry out their work in academic settings within higher education or, instead, in other research locations. But it is also evident that higher education potential can be better used for the country’s effort in R&D. This is particularly the case in small countries and those in less developed regions where strategic choices must be made in order to support rapid development. All countries must strive to support the training and advanced study of some proportion of their most able young people, but issues of size and scale of the research enterprise are separate, and sometimes difficult, decisions.

The challenges which lies ahead in the new century will call on higher education even more for its unique contributions. Meeting these challenges will require wise policies and cost-effective decisions about higher education investment. It is also imperative to gather better knowledge of the functioning of higher education, and as well as better national and international statistics and indicators.

Most of the tables in this report refer to the years 1985 and 1995. The year 1980 is also shown for overall trends on student enrolment and teachers. When actual data were not available estimates were used to calculate regional and world totals. In the tables by country the latest year available (LYA) was presented when data for 1995 were not available.

The revised version of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1997. However data by ISCED levels and fields of study in this report refer to the 1976 version of ISCED since data were reported according to that version. From 1999, data by ISCED level will follow the revised version (ISCED 97).

Least developed countries (LDC) are countries recognized by the United Nations as low-income countries encountering long-term impediments to economic growth, particularly low levels of human resource development and severe structural weaknesses. The main purpose of constructing a list of such countries is to give guidance to donor agencies and countries for allocation of foreign assistance.

Gross enrollment ratio represents a total student enrolment in higher/tertiary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the five year age-group following on from the secondary school-leaving age.

Students per 100,000 inhabitants represents the number of students enrolled in higher/tertiary education per 100,000 inhabitants of the given country.

Percentage of students by ISCED level: enrolment in higher/tertiary education at each ISCED level as a percentage of total student enrolment.

Distribution of students (or graduates) by fields of study represents enrolment (or graduates) in tertiary education, in the broad field of study specified, expressed as a percentage of the total enrolment (or graduates) in higher/tertiary education. The total may not add to 100 per cent due to ‘other’ and ‘unspecified’.

Percentage of female students on total enrolment in each ISCED level represents female enrolment as a percentage of total (male and female) enrolment at the level specified.

Percentage of female students on total enrolment in each fields of study: number of female student in each broad field of study, expressed as a percentage of the total (male and female) enrolment in the field specified.

Student-staff ratio represents here the average number of students per teaching staff at the tertiary education. Since teaching staff include both full- and part-time teachers, comparability of these ratios may be affected as the proportion of part-time teachers varies from one country to another.

Public expenditure on education, refers to expenditure on educational activities by the public authorities responsible for education. It does not include expenditure for such purposes by other government departments.

Total domestic expenditure on R&D represents all expenditure made for this purpose in the course of a reference year in institutions and installations established in the national territory, as well as installations physically situated abroad: land or experimental facilities rented or owned abroad and ships, vehicles, aircraft and satellites used by national institutions. Amounts spent on R&D carried out by international organizations established in the country in question is excluded from this total.

The following symbols have been used in the statistical tables:

… data not available

- magnitude nil or negligible

* estimated data

./. data included with another category

. category not applicable