Community Colleges, TVET, and Global Counterparts: Institutional Conversions and Academic Drift

• In Event: Community colleges, TVET institutions, and global counterparts: challenges towards sustainability for vocationally oriented jobs

Proposal

Worldwide, Community Colleges, TVET, and Global Counterparts offer unique curricular programs to a largely non-traditional students population. While the number of these institutions are expanding, low status is contributing to academic drift where institutions are upgrading to university status. This presentation examples how and why these changes are occurring and how it relates to job attainment of graduates. Academic drift stems from societal and economic needs, funding options, and low public opinion. Drift includes changing names, merging with other institutions, and changing mission. While the ability to change curricula is a characteristic common to these institutions, the extent and intensity, to which academic drift is occurring today is noteworthy.
THEORY
Massification theories explain the extent to which opportunity is linked to socio-economic mobility gains (OECD, 2015; Gallacher, 2017). Stratification theories link already existing social class inequities to continued employment inequities (Strydom and Lategan, 1988). Finally, social mobility theories allege that access to higher education enhances occupational mobility (Anzai & Paik, 2012; Schofield & Dismore, 2010).
METHODOLOGY
I use an update of the Raby and Valeau (2009; 2012; 2018) literature review of institutions in the Community College and Global Counterpart sector. The review of literature includes 1,516 publications from 1970-2018 that include journal articles, book chapters, dissertations/thesis, conference presentations, and monographs, policy documents or government reports. Data analysis included a quantitative charting of the date, type of publication, institutional name, keyword identification, and geographical focus. Qualitative content analysis included how author(s) defined the institution and described academic drift patterns.
FINDINGS
Since 1971, literature shows that institutions within the Community College, TVET, and Global Counterpart sector have undergone academic drift. Leading causes are the expense to run vocational and career-oriented institutions, high levels of internal inefficiency, curricula not aligned with work, and poor placement of graduates. Limited capacity and resources of the state challenge the mission and successful implementation of these institutions. Yet, despite the challenges, students, in large numbers, enroll because the opportunity exists, and sometimes because it is the only opportunity that exists. Moreover, the process of introducing a community college or global counterpart institution into a society results in increased access for non-traditional students, and at some level, opportunities for jobs and career/personal advancement. These institutions provide a foundation for social equalization in contexts where none previously existed, even in the poorest nations, their stories need to be told. These institutions do provide new opportunities and at a great or even minimal level, represent the opportunity for change. Equally important is that these institutions represent new voices that need to be recognized as part of the higher educational landscape.

REFERENCES
Anazi, Shinobu and Chie Matsuzawa Paik. 2012. “Factors influencing Japanese women to choose two-year colleges in Japan.” Community College Journal of Research and Practice 36(8): 614-25.
Gallacher, Jim. (2017). Higher education in the college sector: widening access or diversion? Questions and challenges from the Scottish experience. Journal of Education and Work 30(7): 712-721. DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2017.1380753
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 2015b. Skills beyond school synthesis report. http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/skills-beyond-schools-synthesis-report.htm
Raby, Rosalind Latiner, Janice Nahra Friedel, and Edward Valeau. 2016. “A discussion on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts completion policies.” Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Published Online: Jan. 22, 2016. DOI: 10.1080/10668926.2015.1108253
Raby, Rosalind Latiner and Edward Valeau (eds). 2009. Community College Models: Globalization and Higher Education Reform. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Publishers.
Raby, Rosalind Latiner and Edward Valeau. 2012. "Educational borrowing and the emergence of Community College Global Counterparts.” (Manuscript # M1701). In Community Colleges Worldwide: Investigating the global phenomenon (p. 19-26). Edited by Wiseman, Alexander W., Chase-Mayoral, Audree, Janis, Thomas and Sachdev, Anuradha. Vol. 17, International Perspectives on Education and Society Series, London, England: Emerald Publishing: UK.
Raby Rosalind Latiner, and Edward J. Valeau. (2018). Handbook on Comparative Issues of Community Colleges and Global Counterparts. Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Springer Publishers
Schofield, C., and Dismore, H. 2010. “Predictors of retention and achievement of higher education students within a further education context.” Journal of Further and Higher Education 34(2): 207-221.
Strydom, Ah Kalie and Laetus O.K. Lategan (eds). 1998. Introducing Community Colleges to South Africa. Bloemfontein: University of the Free State Publications.

Author

• Rosalind L. Raby, California State University, Northridge, University of Phoenix