August 2015


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Based on feedback from participants attending The UWI’s regional conference entitled Institutionalising Best Practice in Higher Education conference, hosted by its Quality Assurance Unit and Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the conference was exemplary in both execution and outcomes. In fact, one foreign presenter, Professor Dan Butin who delivered the keynote address on the second day of the conference commented: “I thought it was a really excellent conference both in terms of the professionalism of how it was put together and the quality of the presentations and discussions. I attended a variety of sessions and found the issues to be fascinating and important and the quality of work superb. I gained a deeper understanding of the issues facing higher education in the Caribbean and hope that I contributed to the conversations.”

The conference took place at the Teaching and Learning Complex, UWI, St Augustine from 24- 26 June ended on a decidedly high note with calls for a revolution in higher education. One of the high points of the conference was confirmation by the Deputy Principal of the St Augustine campus, Professor Rhoda Reddock that as a good practice, the Campus will be integrating additional services to allow for student development in a new Division of Student Services and Development to be launched from August 01, 2015. Delivering the feature address at the formal opening Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said that to foster best practice, “we must insist upon expansion, diversity and higher education cost reduction.” The Vice Chancellor called for a culture of innovation and wealth generation, while Principal of the St Augustine Campus Professor Clement Sankat highlighted the Campus’s commitment to programme and institutional accreditation as a best practice in external quality assurance.

Keynote speaker on the first day, Dr Claudia Harvey, explored an emergent definition of best practice as “an intervention, process or approach which has contextual relevance … is exemplary in its ability to produce superior results when assessed against set and /or against similar practie in the relevant core area; engages internal and external stakeholders; is efficient in terms of resources; is well-documented; has utility and is recognised beyond the practice site.” She advised that “to institutionalise best practice in higher education in the Caribbean, there must be conscious attention to honing a culture of quality.” She also outlined a ‘Resilience Model’ for Caribbean development and illustrated how the Cuba experience provided sound examples in prioritised areas.

Continuing along the vein of a revolution in higher education and a culture of quality, Professor Dan Butin of Merrimack College in the United States, suggested that to transform and engage our students, we needed to consider “flipping the university.” This would involve making the student the centre of teaching, with discussion and authentic, project centred learning as the core of the flipped university.

The idea of the student as centre and the importance of authentic learning were further endorsed by keynote speaker on the third conference day by Dr Paul Kim of Stanford University. Speaking on the topic “Academic Excellence in the Post MOOC Era: Lessons Learned on Technology Best Practice,” Dr Kim stated that “overall, the digital future in higher education is obvious and will be phenomenal.” He illustrated quite visually and eloquently the importance of students having access to the digital world and being able to actively engage in a learning environment.

Reflections on integrating best practice principles in higher education and suggestions for action were provided over the three-day conference during panel discussions, discussion circles and presentations by higher education practitioners from various tertiary level institutions. During the concurrent sessions, topics for paper presentations ranged from transitioning to online teaching, flipping the classroom and exploring foreign language teaching in the online environment to strategies for financing higher education, and using peer assessment as a learning tool. Several recommendations emanated from these discussions.

The conference in accordance with best practice and inclusion provided opportunity to hear from the business community as a major stakeholder and also gave UWI students, as their primary stakeholder, a voice. Thus presentations from representatives of the business community as well as from a UWI student representative formed part of the conference presentations. Teresa White of AnsaMcAL affirmed the commitment of the private sector to collaborate with the higher education sector to meet the needs of higher education students. Her counterpart Catherine Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce made some suggestions for improving the partnership between higher education institutions and the business sector. These included encouraging structured internship opportunities. Ms Kumar supported the Vice Chancellor’s call for greater innovation and alignment of higher education with the needs of the region, by suggesting strategies for innovation.

Representing The UWI student perspective, former President, Guild of Students, UWI Cave Hill, Damini Parris, called for greater attention to the development of 21st century student services that meet the needs of millenials.

Based on the deliberations at the conference several general suggestions for institutionalising best practices in higher education were made, to which higher education administrators, practitioners and various stakeholders should pay attention. These included, but were not limited to, the suggestions listed here:

  • Create appropriate documentation and sharing processes for effective dissemination of best practices and avoidance of duplication
  • Incorporate more authentic, relevant learning in institutions of higher education institutions, with more involvement of all stakeholders and identification of more varied and stable sources of funding for institutions
  • Improve communication within institutions
  • Encourage leadership as well as effective practice in persons at all levels of the institution
  • Associate rewards (and sanctions) congruent with proper valuation of actions of personnel at all levels in the institution
  • Adopt the principles of a learning organization

Further suggestions from the conference deliberations and the conference papers will be made available digitally via UWISpace soon. Sponsors for the conference were Huawei Technologies (T&T) Limited, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), National Institute of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (NIHERST) and Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT).

Dr Anna-May Edwards-Henry is the Director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at The UWI, St Augustine.