spheir: strategic partnerships for higher education innovation … · 2019-11-11 · spheir:...

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SPHEIR programme management:

SPHEIR: Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform

INTRODUCTIONOn behalf of everyone on the SPHEIR team, it is my pleasure to share with you information about the exciting and valuable innovations that are being implemented by partnerships supported by SPHEIR in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

One of the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) objectives was for SPHEIR to provide a transparent and competitive opportunity that would enable higher education institutions and other public and private organisations to pursue innovative reforms in higher education. We deliberately sought proposals based on ‘partnerships’ – a formal collaboration among a group of organisations addressing higher education in ways, and at a scale, that a single organisation cannot.

We looked for great ideas that could change the culture and practices that affect the performance of public or private universities. We sought proposals that would address quality, relevance, access and affordability of higher education, in whatever combination or emphasis required in the context of their respective country or countries.

SPHEIR’s calls for proposals attracted over 290 applications, of which nine were selected. Although all nine partnerships in the SPHEIR portfolio are different and distinct, they share common features, such as attention to good teaching through pedagogical capacity building, curriculum design or re-design, or in maximising opportunities for enhancing access and equity. In different ways, each is also concerned with issues such as blended and distance learning, technology enhanced learning, quality assurance, employer engagement (private and public) and enhancing graduate employability.

It is this commonality, and the presence of creative and dedicated expertise within each partnership, that creates a unique opportunity to share lessons from SPHEIR with those similarly concerned with the state of global higher education.

We will continue to leverage SPHEIR events to enhance national policy engagement on higher education, and exchange knowledge and experience through forums such as the British Council’s Going Global conferences. We hope that this brochure will encourage you to visit the SPHEIR website and join the SPHEIR mailing list, where you will be able to receive notification of events, blogs and other information on specific partnerships.

Enjoy.

Joseph Hoffman, SPHEIR Team Leader

1SPHEIR: Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform

ABOUT SPHEIRStrategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR) is a DFID programme that supports higher education transformation in focus countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Its portfolio of nine partnerships brings together a range of organisations and providers to transform the quality, relevance, scale, accessibility and affordability of higher education.

SPHEIR was launched in 2016 and is managed by a consortium of organisations, led by the British Council in association with Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and Universities UK International (UUKi).

The SPHEIR approach

SPHEIR aims to transform higher education in low-income countries by providing support to projects delivered by partnerships of diverse collaborators.

Working in partnership is central to the programme’s approach and enables SPHEIR to tackle challenges that require the collaboration of actors from different sectors to design and deliver innovative solutions for transforming higher education systems.

Delivering transformative change

SPHEIR draws upon the UK’s world-leading capability and expertise in higher education and innovation, as well as knowledge and expertise from the Global North and South.

By nurturing innovation and scaling up effective solutions, SPHEIR delivers strategic and transformative change in higher education systems, enabling them to meet labour market needs and generate the job-ready graduates needed to accelerate development, build inclusive societies and promote strong economic growth.

SPHEIR: Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform2

GLOBAL COLLABORATIONSPHEIR supports a diverse portfolio of large-scale partnerships. Each partnership brings together different actors from among higher education institutions, private sector organisations, and NGOs to transform higher education through pedagogical and curricula reform, quality assurance, and facilitating access to education.

Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PEDAL)PEDAL is establishing a network of academics in African universities to help transform graduate education and its outcomes by embedding innovative pedagogy within graduate social science programmes.

Pedagogical capacity building

Curriculum design or redesign

Enhancing quality assurance

Blended and/or distance learning

Enhancing access and equity

Assuring Quality Higher Education in Sierra LeoneAssuring Quality Higher Education in Sierra Leone brings together higher education institutions across Sierra Leone to improve quality management in higher education and support outcome-based education.


The Lending for Education in Africa Partnership (LEAP)LEAP is piloting a non-profit social lending fund that provides student financing to otherwise un(der) funded talented youth across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa (TESCEA)TESCEA is developing a scalable pedagogical model to help universities across East Africa produce graduates with the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills needed to solve real-world problems.

Transformation of Pharmacy and Chemistry Degree ProvisionTransformation of Pharmacy and Chemistry Degree Provision is enhancing collaboration between industry and education in Kenya to reinvigorate chemistry and pharmacy higher education provision.

Transformation of Innovation in Distance Education (TIDE)TIDE brings together universities in the UK and Myanmar to improve the quality of distance learning in higher education.

Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL)PEBL helps universities across East Africa share valuable teaching resources through the development of quality assured, credit-bearing courses delivered through blended learning.

Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access (PADILEIA)PADILEIA is increasing access to higher education for refugee and disadvantaged host communities in Jordan and Lebanon through new online and blended learning programmes.

Prepared for Practice (PfP)PfP is addressing Somaliland’s health workforce crisis by transforming health education, putting practice-orientated learning, teaching and assessment at its centre.


SPHEIR HIGHLIGHTS

62SPHEIR brings together

partner organisations from

17countries to work together across

9partnerships.

Key highlights:

SPHEIR partnerships have delivered capacity building activities to

staff in participating higher education institutions to improve their skills and knowledge in teaching, assessment, student support, and curriculum design and development.

557

of the first cohort of graduates from the foundation course designed by the Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access (PADILEIA) to provide pathways to higher education for Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are enrolled in university or employed.

1/3


By October 2021, UK volunteers with the Prepared for Practice partnership will have donated an estimated

hours to support the reform of medical education in Somaliland, contributing time worth over

24,000

Prepared for Practice has supported the development of Somaliland’s first national Medical Education Policy, outlining how government, regulators, universities and other health system leaders can collaborate to produce a well-trained medical workforce to meet the country’s health needs.

£2 million

After launching in 2018, the Lending for Education in Africa Partnership (LEAP) currently supports more than

550students across five Kenyan universities to access higher education through affordable finance.


SPHEIR PARTNERSHIPSPartnerships in SPHEIR bring together public and private organisations drawing on UK and international expertise from the Global North and South.

Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PEDAL)

In many African universities, faculty members don’t receive sufficient training in innovative methods and pedagogies, and teaching excellence is not recognised. This has a negative impact on the learning environment and on graduates’ abilities to use their knowledge to address local needs and find innovative solutions to developmental challenges.

Building on an existing partnership of 13 African universities, PEDAL is working to entrench innovative pedagogy within social science programmes. The partnership is developing the capacity of lead course instructors to catalyse systemic pedagogical change and to establish a community of practice around pedagogical practice. Working to bring about significant change in the delivery of graduate education, PEDAL improves student learning through interaction and interactivity, leading to higher quality graduates, better equipped to obtain employment and contribute to socio-economic development.

PEDAL is led by the Partnership for African Social & Governance Research (Kenya), working with the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Egerton University (Kenya), University of Ibadan (Nigeria), University of Ghana (Ghana), Uganda Martyrs University (Uganda), Alliance for Research Universities in Africa (ARUA), and Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (UK).

Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa (TESCEA)

Many graduates in East Africa are ill-prepared to address the challenges they encounter in the workplace or leverage their skills to meet social needs. One of the key factors contributing to this is the lack of focus on critical thinking and problem solving within university teaching and learning.

TESCEA is working with four partner universities to develop a scalable pedagogical model to help universities across East Africa produce graduates with the skills they need to solve real-world problems. It supports universities to create learning environments that encourage questioning and to offer placements and other practical projects to connect classroom learning to the challenges facing businesses, communities and governments. This improved learning experience will foster the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and allow for practical learning beyond the classroom, improving graduate employability. TESCEA has the potential to improve learning experiences for as many as 3,000 graduates by 2022.

TESCEA is led by INASP (UK), working with Mzumbe University (Tanzania), University of Dodoma (Tanzania), Gulu University (Uganda), Uganda Martyrs University (Uganda), Association for Faculty Enrichment in Learning and Teaching (Kenya), LIWA Programme Trust (Kenya) and Ashoka East Africa (Kenya).

The PEDAL programme challenged us to think critically to deliver to our students. It prepares us for the next moment in our academic life which is centred on improving teaching methodologies to help students become useful graduates.Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, Senior Lecturer, University of Ghana


Transformation by Innovation in Distance Education (TIDE)

Myanmar is at a critical time in its development. Following years of low investment in the country’s higher education system, there is now increasing demand for skilled graduates to meet new employment needs, particularly to ensure environmental sustainability over years of rapid development.

TIDE brings together universities in the UK and Myanmar to improve the quality of distance learning in higher education, with the ambition of benefitting more than 500,000 students, resulting in more employable graduates. It aims to become a catalyst for further improvements across the higher education system, helping to support strategy and leadership for the future of the sector in Myanmar.

TIDE is strengthening and supporting innovation in Myanmar’s distance education system at the institutional level and in the design and delivery of learning, utilising the country’s rapidly emerging ICT infrastructure. It is developing a competency framework and relevant content for Education for Environment and Sustainable Development in collaboration with the private sector. It is also developing teaching approaches and support capacity for distance learning courses and aims to create plans for an institutional framework for open and distance education.

The TIDE partnership is led by The Open University (UK), working with Yangon University (Myanmar), Yangon University of Distance Education (Myanmar), Yadanabon University (Myanmar), Irrawaddy Policy Exchange (UK), Oxford University (UK) and University of Manchester (UK).

Transformation of Pharmacy and Chemistry Degree Provision

Kenya aims to create a globally competitive and adaptive chemistry and pharmacy workforce to meet the needs of its rapidly industrialising economy. To support expanding enrolment in science and technology courses, there is a need to reinvigorate the content of outdated chemistry and pharmacy courses.

The Transformation of Pharmacy and Chemistry Degree Provision partnership is enhancing collaboration between industry and education in Kenya to better link learning outcomes with population needs. Through new needs-based pharmacy and chemistry curricula to address specific shortages of skills in the workplace, the partnership aims to increase the capability of academic staff and develop institutional policies and practices to deliver innovation and improved education. This includes public and private sector placements to increase the employability of graduates, and work on improving outcomes for women and those from under-served communities.

The partnership is led by the University of Nottingham (UK), working with Nairobi University (Kenya), Kenyatta University (Kenya), Maasai Mara University (Kenya), Maseno University (Kenya), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Kenya), Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (Kenya), International Pharmaceutical Federation (Netherlands), Kenya Association of Manufacturers (Kenya) and GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK).

TIDE is a welcome second home for me in my 32-year journey in education.Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Yangon University of Distance Education


Assuring Quality Higher Education in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s higher education system has been negatively affected by poor financing, limited staff training opportunities, an ailing research infrastructure and the lack of an effective quality management system. This has led to teachers at the higher education level being unable to align course content with the needs of the job market and the aspirations of the growing number of students.

Assuring Quality Higher Education in Sierra Leone brings together higher education institutions across Sierra Leone to improve quality management and support the introduction of outcome-based education.

The partnership is supporting the implementation of outcome-based education by strengthening quality assurance systems, realigning curricula, building the capacity of staff, and introducing innovative teaching and learning models across higher education institutions. This will lay the foundation for lecturers to utilise emerging IT opportunities to create a rich mix of classroom experiences for students.

Assuring Quality Higher Education in Sierra Leone is led by the University of Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), working with Njala University (Sierra Leone), the University of Makeni (Sierra Leone), Tertiary Education Commission (Sierra Leone), Sierra Leone Institution of Engineers (Sierra Leone), King’s College London (UK), the 50/50 Group, INASP (UK), and the University of Illinois (USA).

Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL)

East Africa currently faces a critical shortage of academic teaching staff. Coupled with rapid expansion of higher education across the region, this has led to unsustainable teaching loads within many universities, with an adverse impact on teaching quality and the student experience.

PEBL is partnering with universities across the region to ease the burden on teaching staff and expand delivery methods for a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses through blended learning. Through new quality assured courses, taught by academics from other institutions in the region, students can experience high-quality online learning, combined with in-person tutoring, to gain degree credits from their own university. PEBL aims to grow the educational development capacity of its partner universities, building a solid base of expertise amongst academic staff in the use of effective blended learning pedagogies with a focus on developing students’ soft skills.

PEBL is led by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (UK), working with Commission for University Education (Kenya), Commonwealth of Learning (Canada), Kenyatta University (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda), Open University of Tanzania, State University of Zanzibar (Tanzania), Staff and Educational Development Association (UK), Strathmore University (Kenya), University of Edinburgh (UK), and the University of Rwanda.


SPHEIR IMPACT CASE STUDIES PADILEIA – breaking down barriers to higher education for Syrian refugees

The Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access (PADILEIA) was formed to meet the higher educational needs of Syrian refugee students in Jordan and Lebanon. With a shared interest in innovative digital pedagogy, student support models and transferrable skills, the PADILEIA partnership consists of three universities – King’s College London, Al Al-Bayt University in Jordan, and the American University of Beirut in Lebanon – as well as Kiron Open Higher Education, a digital-education NGO, and FutureLearn, a leader in online learning.

1 Dryden-Peterson, S., and W. Giles. “Introduction: Higher Education for Refugees.” Refuge 27, no. 2 (2010): 3–92 Sherab, D. and Kirk, K. (2016) Access to Higher Education for Refugees in Jordan. Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD)-Legal Aid, p. 7

Higher education has often been neglected in traditional humanitarian response strategies but plays a critical role in providing some refugees with a degree of continuity in their educational development and in enhancing their ability to make strategic choices about their futures1. The large number of Syrian refugees has put pressure on the host countries’ educational institutions2, causing challenges for education access. This pressure on the overall education system also creates barriers to higher education access for disadvantaged youth in both Jordan and Lebanon. Therefore, PADILEIA’s courses are open to anyone facing challenges getting into higher education.

A needs assessment conducted by PADILEIA found several barriers to higher education including recognition of prior learning and English language ability – a key requirement for regional universities. Most participants in the study had no prior experience in online learning and, although smartphones were widely available, a stable internet connection was not.

PADILEIA has developed a three-pronged approach to increase access to higher education:

Bespoke short courses: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in subjects identified within the needs assessment such as English, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Healthcare.

Online learning: six to 12 months of online study with student support, leading to the transfer of credits into university.

Foundation Course: eight-month classroom-based blended learning to provide students with the knowledge and ability to meet entrance requirements for universities in the region and abroad. Examples include foundation level maths, science and English courses as well as university application support and building 21st century skills.

CASE STUDY

Before attending the PADILEIA programme, I was against online learning completely. I thought that it is nothing but a waste of time; however, after attending PADILEIA programme I realised that I was completely wrong. Since we started practising and learning online courses either in math, science or English I noticed the continuous improvements that I have got. In general, the whole progamme is really good and very beneficial.Kotana Mashhadani, AUB Foundation Course 2018–19


The story so far

Overall, PADILEIA has found a blended approach to be the most effective to increase students’ participation and completion of courses. Mixed support methods, as well as face-to-face contact are embedded into the programme.

The foundation courses have a high number of contact hours and have proven to be highly successful. In the first year, 31 foundation course graduates gained scholarships or employment and courses have received a 91 per cent recommendation rate from participants. 184 students are projected to graduate by July 2019. Informed by needs assessment, students are selected through an interview, reducing the barrier presented by the requirement of documentation of prior learning.

At Kiron, where more of the students’ learning is completed online on curated pathways built from existing digital content, courses have evolved to include more blended learning, which has improved student engagement. A live chat function and real-time feedback from support staff has also been developed to further increase student support. This adapted model includes working in a blended delivery setting with students.

The short, fully online MOOCs take a different approach, aiming for widening participation and reach and acting as a stepping-stone to university access rather than a full pathway. Three courses have been developed so far, and have been completed by 492 refugee or Jordanian and Lebanese students. PADILEIA has also pioneered a novel form of remote support, using WhatsApp as a low-cost tool to provide mentoring. This has proven to be an accessible method, allowing 30 students at King’s College London to connect with over 100 refugee students studying through PADILEIA. Students receiving the mentoring found it helpful to speak English with a fluent speaker and were able to exchange knowledge and learning about new cultures. Future MOOCs will include assessment and support from King’s College London academic volunteers to further support learners.

CASE STUDY


LEAP (the ‘Lending for Education in Africa Partnership’) – widening access to higher education through affordable finance

After putting herself through medical school for the past five years, Mercy is about to drop out of her programme just shy of graduating, having exhausted all possible options to pay for tuition.

1 Data collected using the Equity Tool questionnaire . 2 Data pulled from the World Bank EdStats Database, using data collected during the most recent 2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). 3 World Bank. 2017. Darvas, et al. Sharing Higher Education’s Promise beyond the Few in Sub-Saharan Africa. 4 World Bank. 2014. Montenegro, Claudio & Patrinos, Harry. Comparable Estimates of Returns to Schooling Around the World. Note: private returns to education are typically defined as the estimated proportional increase in an individual’s labour market earnings from each additional year of schooling completed.

On the other side of Nairobi, Peter dreams of becoming an engineer, but he is the oldest of six, and would be the first ever in his family to pursue a tertiary degree. The government’s support will reduce his tuition fees greatly, but will not cover his housing off campus or the laptop he needs. At 18, with no income or collateral of his own, he was turned away empty handed when applying for a commercial loan.

Opening access to higher education

The Lending for Education in Africa Partnership (LEAP) is a social lending fund that provides affordable finance to Peter and Mercy, along with hundreds of other youth from low and middle-income backgrounds in East Africa who are pursuing higher education and cannot access conventional commercial loans nor benefit from bursaries or scholarships.

In addition to its tailor-made loans, LEAP also offers its Fellows career readiness and financial literacy training, and forges partnerships to create pathways to gainful employment for its supported students.

LEAP is managed by a dedicated team at Volta Capital, in partnership with the Mandela Institute for Development Studies, Future First Global, Equity Group Foundation and Lundin Foundation.

LEAP has been active since 2018 and currently supports more than 550 Fellows, who are enrolled in five Kenyan universities.

LEAP’s impact to date

To date, 83 per cent of LEAP Fellows come from the bottom three wealth quintiles in Kenya, and nearly 40 per cent from the poorest quintile based on the urban distribution of wealth.1 This has far exceeded LEAP’s initial expectations, as students from the top wealth quintile in Kenya enrol in higher education at a rate 13 times higher than Kenyans from the bottom quintile, and only 27 per cent of Kenyan post-secondary students come from the bottom three wealth quintiles.2

In addition, in LEAP’s recent Annual Survey, 85 per cent of Fellows reported that without their LEAP loan they would not be able to finance their studies and 22 per cent of Fellows reported that they had at some point in the past deferred or discontinued studies due to financial need. LEAP Fellows have made it clear through their feedback that LEAP is vitally needed – 99 per cent of Fellows agree or strongly agree that LEAP is important for students like them, and 98 per cent report that they would recommend LEAP to a friend.

At present, nearly half of all Fellows are the first in their family to attend university, and 26 per cent are from a household where their parents/guardians did not complete secondary school. This is of particular importance for two key reasons:

First, children whose parents completed at least secondary school are 10 times more likely to attend university than those whose parents did not.3

Secondly, the investment in higher education is a powerful lever for upward socio-economic mobility. According to most recent data, the return on investment from each additional year of higher education in Kenya is over 20 per cent.4

LEAP looks forward to continuing to empower young people like Mercy or Peter who otherwise would not have access to higher education to substantially increase the well-being of their families and contribute to building stronger, more resilient economies and societies.

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY


Prepared for Practice (PfP) – delivering multilevel health system education reform in Somaliland

Somaliland has some of the worst health indicators in the world, driven in part by a severe shortage of well-trained health workers. In 2015 a health workforce survey estimated that 197 doctors, 1,256 nurses and 344 midwives were serving the population of around 3.5 million, falling far short of the WHO-recommended minimum threshold of 23 health workers per 10,000 population.

Whilst systemic challenges across the health system contribute to poor health outcomes, Somaliland’s health workforce crisis is rooted in challenges in the tertiary education sector. The country’s first university was not established until 1998, and whilst several health schools have since been set up, they are in their early years of graduating medical students. Critical gaps exist in the curricula and for many core health subjects, there is currently insufficient expertise within universities to design and deliver courses. Many academics have had no formal pedagogical training; their teaching practices focus on passive, didactic learning and students lack opportunities to develop their skills in clinical settings.

As a result, teaching institutions are unable to produce graduates who can apply their education to real world practice as health workers. Graduates lack the knowledge, skills, behaviours and practical experience they need to practise safe and quality healthcare.

Led by King’s Global Health Partnerships, PfP seeks to address Somaliland’s health workforce crisis through an integrated approach to health education system reform. Working at an individual level with students, at an institutional level with Hargeisa, Amoud and Edna Adan universities, and at the national level with the ministries of education and health and development, the partnership seeks to graduate a new generation of health workers, and bring about sustainable, systemic change that will transform education for the health workers of the future.

PfP supports the undergraduate education of medical, nursing and midwifery students at three of the country’s leading health schools. Through the design and delivery of online courses in subjects such as clinical reasoning and radiology, the project delivers core components of the curriculum not currently delivered by universities. Online courses are delivered through MedicineAfrica, a digital educational platform that enables students in Somaliland to be taught part of their undergraduate courses by UK health workers. Small class sizes

and live, interactive tutorials maximise discussion and feedback – an approach shown to be effective in developing clinical competencies. Students also participate in hospital ward rounds and field trips to health facilities to gain practical experience in a clinical setting.

At an institutional level, the partnership is building the capacity of higher education personnel. A certificate, diploma and master’s in health education – the first of its kind in Somaliland – build the skills of health faculty to design and deliver engaging, student-centred courses. A postgraduate certificate in administration equips university administrators with the knowledge and skills to lead improvements in the management of their institutions.

At the national level, the Tropical Health and Education Trust is leading a component to reform the governance and management of health education. PfP supported the development of the first national Medical Education Policy which outlines how government, regulators, universities and other health system leaders can collaborate to produce a well-trained medical workforce to meet the health needs of people in Somaliland. The partnership also aims to support the development of a new national undergraduate medical education curriculum; standardised national medical examinations and an assessment of medical schools to ensure that institutions educating students meet internationally recognised education standards.

Programme activities – from the development and delivery of courses, to curriculum development and technical assistance – are delivered by a network of over 100 volunteers who take time out of their work at the NHS and UK university sector to make this work possible. By October 2021, UK volunteers will have donated an estimated 24,000 hours, contributing time worth over £2 million.

www.spheir.org.uk

September 2019

spheir: strategic partnerships for higher education innovation … · 2019-11-11 · spheir:...

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