The Evolution of Private Higher Education in Kuwait Imad M. Al-Atiqi Secretary General, Private University Council- Kuwait Imad@puc.edu.kw Lafi M. Alharbi President, Arab Open University- Kuwait Branch lalharbi@hotmail.com Farida M. Ali Deputy Secrteary General, Private University Council-Kuwait faridah@puc.edu.kw Private Universities Council – Kuwait WWW.PUC.EDU.KW 1. Introduction The Kuwaiti government has recently taken fundamental steps in facilitating private higher education. In early 2000 the Kuwaiti National Assembly passed what is known as law 34/2000 for Private Universities in the country. Immediately thereafter, the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) formed a special committee formed of senior expertise in the filed of higher education to propose the executive bylaws. A proposal for organizing the private universities in Kuwait was put forward to the Minister of High Education and. An open meeting comprising various representatives of the public and the private sectors of the Kuwaiti community was organized and presented with the proposed bylaws to be discussed. At that meeting, the final version of the executive bylaws was drafted for approval. It was only October 2000, and the executive bylaws were passed by the Kuwaiti’s council of ministers. It is also worth noting that it was the executive office which put together the procedures and regulations for licensing and accrediting private institution. The following discussion will cast light on the evolution of Private higher education in Kuwait, the legal framework and executive bylaws of private university at Kuwait. Particularly, we will present, herewith in 1 some detail, the formation of the Private University’s Council (PUC), policies adopted for licensing private institutions; criteria for evaluating the proposed institution, such as: the proposed mission for the institution, administration, teaching staff, facilities, student and financial affairs. In addition, quality assurance and other key success factors shall be outlined. 2- Chronological Development 2.1 The seeding phase: The evolution of private higher education in Kuwait began with interest from the private sector which formalized at least three groups that demanded licensure prior to the government action. Intellectual efforts that contributed to the awareness of society needs were also taking place in Kuwait University. The project titled "Establishments of Community Colleges in Kuwait" provided evidence of demand exceeding supply and suggested governance options using feasibilities study and Delphi type surveys (1). The policy makers encouraged the government to act and an executive office was initiated in 1999. A law was then drafted and passed in July 2000 by the lawmakers as law 34/2000 for the establishment of private universities (2). Another executive office was formed for drafting the executive bylaws for implementation and the council of ministers granted approval in January 2001. The minister of higher education acted soon and the governing body, the Private Universities Council (PUC) was formed in May 2001 (3). The council set out to work immediately, with the assistance of the exceutive committee who drafted the original bylaws and proceeded with approving the licensure guidelines and procedure in July 2001. Several applications were received and the first application obtained license was given for The Gulf University for Science and Technology in July 2002 (4). The license is issued by the highest authority in the country i.e. the Emir himself. Other parallel development was taking place at the same time which was the selection of the State of Kuwait to house the Arab Open University, a pan Arab project supported by the UNESCO and Gulf Countries governments under academic guidance from the British Open University. This was actually inacted by law 31/2002 (5) and operation immediately commenced late in Oct. 2002. This Arab Open University (AOU) has branches in several Arab countries, and Kuwait Branch was adopted under the PUC umbrella in January 2004, via a ministerial decree (6). This systematic chronology illustrates the speed of development and government commitment for this new economic sector in Kuwait, taking into consideration that the education minister seat was rotated twice from 2000 to 2003. 2 2.2 The bandwagon effect: the private university office received upward of 50 petitions to open private universities, junior colleges and branch campuses in the period from 2001 to 2003. Out of these around 16 applications were turned in but only 5 licenses were granted by the end of 2003. They were two vocational colleges, two universities and one MBA school in addition to AOU. Four more licenses were granted by the end of 2005.The license requires international affiliation with qualified universities or colleges. Most are with American schools, two with Australian TAFE institutes (one foreign branch and one with articulation agreement) and the MBA college is a branch from Maastricht school of business from Holland. The Arab Open University is affiliated with the British OU with a joint degree agreement. By March 2007 we still have the same number of 10 licenses. Six of these are operational, with students in excess of 10000. For comparison purpose, consider that the first public university in Kuwait, Kuwait University commenced operation in 1966 and has now a population of almost 20000. The other four licenses are either in construction or seeking construction permits. 2.3 Internal Organization: the administrative processes that took place so far can be classified into three categories; internal organization, regulatory orders and supporting activities. The internal organization started with the PUC formation. This was followed later by the replacement of the executive office with a general secretariat in July 2002 to provide implementation support for the council (7). The council also formed two committees in Dec. 2002: the licensing committee and the accreditation committee (8). The general secretariat was temporarily managed by the former director of the executive office till a general secretary was formally appointed by the Emir as a deputy minister in Nov. 2003 (9). The general secretariat was commissioned to follow implementation of the PUC decrees but had no formal executive power till Nov. 2006 when the Council of Ministers formally recognized it as the sole executive arm to the PUC and provided it with administrative and financial authorities (10). As for the PUC itself two more committees were formed in 2005: the internal scholarship committee and the research and development committee (11). The functions of these latter committees will be discussed later. 2.4 Regulatory Orders: Soon after the PUC commenced operations, it started putting together a comprehensive package of guidelines for the perspective license seekers. The package was designed to ensure transparency of the process as well as smoothness and quality assurance. A noteworthy component of the package is the policy statement of the PUC which highlights the goals and objectives of the 3 PUC from licensing HE institutions. The mechanics of application registration and review is also included to ensure uniformity of treatment. Of special interest is the guidelines set forth for preparation of market and feasibility study and building/facility standards for cost estimation. Furthermore, the qualified list of accepted international institutions for branch campuses, articulation and affiliation is also included as well as the minimum expectations in the affiliation agreement. As for the accreditation process, an innovative process and was developed between the years 2002-2004 after considerable research and brainstorming. These will be explained briefly later in this paper. The scope of PUC authority is so comprehensive that it is not possible to provide details of all activities within regulations. But we should mention briefly that rules and guidelines for transcript/degree endorsement, internal scholarship and research and professional developments were all developed and implemented. 2.5 Supporting Activities: the establishment of private universities would not have been possible without co-operation from other government agencies/authorities. On the top of the list would be the land grant facility that was awarded to PUC in the year 2002 from the municipality. After considerable effort and considerations, six lots were awarded in the six governorates in Kuwait, each measuring 150000 m2 (12). The ministry of Education also awarded three lots of existing schools to be remodeled for university purposes. Housing universities in these lots was no trivial affair, requiring considerable permits and approvals from different departments. However, with subsidized rent that was approved by the concerned authorities, it was worth the effort. Another important facility available for institutions is the financial offset program enabled by the ministry of finance. This program requires that foreign contractors reinvest part of their profit in the country in certain developmental projects. Several schools benefited from this program considering that a high multiple was applied for educational projects to offset the obligation. These facilities proved very effective in managing the cost of establishing the schools. The third noteworthy facility was internal scholarships which were activated Sept. 2006. Although it was designed and orchestrated within the PUC, success of the program would not have been possible without the HE ministers support and co-operation from the ministry of Finance and the members of the parliament. This program underpins the desire of PUC to pursue business model of Public Private Partnership. The government would secure 80% of the scholarship for qualified students and the institution would subsidize the other 20%. The process was implemented in a co-operative decentralized manner such that institutions advertise for the scholarships after the rules 4 and procedures are set by PUC (13). The students apply within each institution and independent reviewers screen the applications and raise it to PUC secretariat. Over 1000 student benefited from this scheme. Most important consideration was to provide equity for low income families to enroll their children in private higher institutions and maintain social coherence. 3. Private University Council (PUC) The Private Universities Council (PUC) is an independent organization composed of eight members in addition to its chair; the Minister of Higher Education. The PUC memberships, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers upon the recommendation of the Minister of Higher Education, are specialists possessing a wide range of experience and commitment to the filed of higher education. Those members shall not be involved, direct or indirect, in the business of running private education throughout the period of their membership. The PUC fulfills the following missions (14): Decides on the establishment of a private institution. Determines the requirements of the academic credibility of the private institution, and constantly apply quality and control measures to insure full compliance with the proved terms and conditions in the decree of establishing. It also applies quality and control measure on the approved programs of study. Adopts universal standards while approving programs of study, and frequently reassesses these standards for the better of performance and higher quality of higher education. Regulates measures of accreditation, accredits institutions and their programs, and validates degrees and certificates issued from private institutions, and equates them with their counterparts according to the approved procedures and regulations. 5 Looks into cases where the activities of a private institution are to be adjourned, combined and/or cancelled. Looks into further issues of concerned as referred by the Minister of Higher Education. The following diagram outlines the PUC and its active organizational Structure. General secretariat Licensing Committee Internal Scholarships Committees Private University Council Accreditation Committee Evaluation Teams/Agencies Figure (1): PUC Organizational structure. 6 Research & development committee 4. Licensing Procedure: Proposals for new private institutions are put forward to a designated committee (proposal-study committee). Based on careful examination of various parts of the proposed institution, the committee recommends dismissal, approval, or sometimes resubmissions. The licensing procedure takes basically two turns. Initially, a preliminary application will be pt forward for preliminary review. If tentative approval is issued, then, the procedure will be supplemented with a detailed application. As the licensing procedure will be highlighted in figure 2, it is worth mentioning herewith a brief description of the anticipated content of each stage. 7 Founder Clarification Preliminary Application Licensing committee Phase 1 Recommendation PUC Preliminary approval Rejection Founder comments Detailed Application Licensing Committee Phase 2 Recommendation PUC Final Approval Rejection Council of Ministers Institution License by His Highness the Amir Figure 2 : licensing process 8 4.1 Phase I: Preliminary Application. The preliminary application will include the following details (15): Name of institution. Mission and objectives of the institution accompanied with the institution’s administrative system and its source of fund. This will be accompanied with a singed statement of the founders to rule out other objectives contradicting the institution’s statement of mission and aims. Names of founders whether individuals, groups, or otherwise, and their detailed CVs. Affiliation with other institutions, or other bodies involved in the funding. Resources (both: human and materials) available for the establishment of the private institution. Financial assets allotted whether cash or otherwise, and shares distribution of the founders. Detailed technical and economic feasibility study. The institution’s proposed structure. Regulations governing: policy of enrolment, academic requirements, study fees and scholarships. Terms of study, examination, awarding of degrees, certificates and diplomas, accompanied with the preapproved programs of study by the affiliate international institution, if any. Programmed plan of institutional and program accreditation. Names of proposed First Council of Trustee and their CVs. The proposed dates for commencement of study. The proposal-study committee will look into the abovementioned detail, and thoroughly examine the content of the preliminary application to assess to what degree the application meets conditions and standards set by the PUC. In particular, the assessment at this stage will be chiefly concerned with the statement of the proposed institution and to what degree it serves the objectives of high education in the country, and if so, does the proposed institution possess the material and human resources to achieve its mission. If these concerns are positively answered, then the committee recommends the concerned institution for initial approval, and 9 a decree to that effect will be issued by the PUC. At this stage, the concerned institution proceeds to file-in a detailed application. 4.2 Phase II: Detailed application Within one year from date of the approval of the initial application, the founders should submit the following documents (16): A detailed plan of the buildings, including facilities such as: study and research halls, libraries, labs, appliances and student activity’s services and management buildings and service. Such plan must be drawn on the basis of the approved standards of efficiency by the PUC. The planned drawings should be approved by a certified engineer and in compliance the universal rating. Financial statement of guarantee to insure the availability of the said fund for execution of the project. This statement must be approved by PUC. Within six months of the submission of detailed application, the PUC will answer back to the founders of the decision made on their proposal, either to submit further document, or the final approval. Upon PUC recommendation, the Council of Ministers will issue the decree to establish the private institution. It is worth mentioning here that the private institution may not commence its activity prior to proper establishment of its required material and human resources, and a written approval by the PUC. 5. Accreditation Criteria and Procedure: PUC requires every licensed institution to go through institutional and academic-program accreditation. Institutional accreditation is carried by an independent external team formed by PUC. Program accreditation is carried by internationally recognized accreditation body in the program field of specialization. The institutional accreditation criteria are described by the executive PUC bylaws as follows: Mission: 10 Private university shall aim to contribute to achieving the goals of higher education and applied education I the country in a manner that provides research service and serves the goals and the needs of the developing society. Management: The Decree for establishing the private institution will explicitly state its legal status, form of organization, colleges and institutes, the Council of Trustees, and its financial resources. In addition, it states the degrees granted and conditions for obtaining these degrees. From date of the decree, the private institution shall enjoy an independent legal status, and will be legally presented by its chairman to practice the rights to obtain various types of funds, to be part of financial contracts, and to accept donations. Council of trustees of the private institution is the highest authority therein and it shall look after its interests, sets its general policy, manage its execution. In particular, it shall carry the following responsibilities: approves the internal regulations manages its funds elects its chairman and other key figures Upon permission from the PUC and the standards determined by Council of Ministers, the private institution shall accept donations, grants, gifts and trust fund (waqf) in a manner that shall not contradict its mission and objectives appoints the financial auditor, which must be a licensed accountant approves the annual balance sheet and financial account. Teaching staff: The teaching staff at private institutions and/or the branches of foreign universities should be holders of PhD (or equivalent). Full time staff shall not be less than 70% of the total staff. The appointed teaching staff with PhDs in the private institution shall not be less than two thirds of the teaching staff. Assistants to the teaching staff and their qualifications, titles, and their percentage to the 11 overall teaching staff will be determined by the internal bylaws of the concerned institution with consultation of the PUC. The internal bylaws and regulations of the private institution shall determine the rules organizing staff contracts, renewals, promotions, system of delegating and secondments, and policy governing evaluation of performance and others of administrative issues. Students’ affairs & degrees and certificates Students not obtaining a certificate of completing secondary school study or its equivalent may not be enrolled at the private educational institution. Within the framework of the regulations decided at the decree, the private institution shall establish polices, regulations, conditions and procedures of enrolling students, procedures of following ups, dismissing, re-entering, and graduation, as well as schema of student registration and guidance and other issues concerning student affairs. Financial affairs Private institution must observe a regular maintenance of its financial resources and keep up-to-date records of its accounts and financial records. Periodical financial statements shall be subject to the approval of one or more licensed auditor whom Council of Trustees shall appoint. Council of trustees must approve the annual financial report of the private institution. 12 Technical committee Financial Report Technical Report Evaluation Team Self – assessment Report Assessment Report Licensed Institution Feed back on Assessment Accreditation Report Committee Recommendation PUC Accreditation Decision Figure 3: Institutional Accreditation Process 13 6. PUC Business Model-Critical Success Factors (17) Traditional Business Model Feature PUC Business Model Feature Long vertical organization Flat organization (two levels of authority) Authority is within individuals Authority is retained or delegated by council Committees are advisory Line managers have facilitator/ advisory role Experience is not critical in every level Experience/skill is critical in all levels Administrative employees are majority Technical employees are majority Figure 4: Organizational Features of PUC 6.1 Flat Organization: as shown above the PUC adopted organization that is flat. Pertinent to this structure is the retention of power within two levels of hierarchy at maximum thus enabling one step delegation when necessary. This arrangement sown in Figure 5 proved very handy when faced with sudden introduction of a new system like the internal scholarships which was conceived and implemented in 4 weeks. Another important feature is the facilitator role of line managers such that their function is aligned with the rest of the organization. 14 6.2 Networking association: a critical feature for the PUC is its ability to mobilize, network and utilize available expertise through careful selection, training, qualification and certification of professionals. A technical Committee of Engineers was commissioned to set guidelines for construction and supervise permits and plans. Evaluation teams were mobilized for institutional accreditation support. External experts for feasibility studies were qualified and short listed. International accreditation agencies were short listed and outsourced to fill the expertise gap. It can be said that although PUC is a government agency, its mode of operation resembles that of an association of the private universities, a designation often attached to it by third parties. In fact, the universities/colleges are comfortable working with PUC secretariat as partner while observing its role as a regulator. PUC also certifies qualified professionals as Certified Educational Institution Auditor (CEIA), a designation that is given to persons who demonstrated substantial institutional quality assurance and accreditation experience, and agreed to the code of conduct set by the PUC. Evaluation teams or auditors are neither employees of PUC nor they are employed by the institutions subject to the audit. They are selected or approved by PUC concerned committees and the institutions and contracted by the institutions. There reporting and compensation is governed by the PUC through the general secretariat. This arrangement ensures independent opinion that is received from these teams, some of which comes from international QA or accreditation agencies. This trilateral arrangement is a cornerstone for PUC business model and is shown in Figure 5. 15 Figure 5: Private University Council Business Model Facilitator role Authority role PUC S. G . Office Manager s S. G. Office Instit utions ners C o m m i t t B o a r d s Auditors/ Experts/ Audi team s s 16 e e s/ Adhoc Committee 6.3 The Regulatory Model: the regulatory model follows a standard feedback control system arrangement as shown in Figure 6. The target or OBJECTIVE for the institutions is to be globally competent. This is measured with a reference point of the global 200 universities listed by the Times Higher Education Supplement or equivalent. The PUC monitors and observes the gap that exists and put forward policies and control tools to achieve the desired target of quality. After considerable brainstorming and analysis, these tools or control actions were grouped into four interactive main domains: license standards performance audits and accreditation scholarship system research and development system PUC view these tools as critical to the success of private universities sector. Quality assurance is considered to be dependent on the implementation of these tools by the institutions. The General Secretariat acts as a final control element, communicator and gate keeper for the execution of the regulatory system ant large. The executive power given to the general secretariat in Nov. 2006 ensures the sustainability of its designated function. It is important to note that these tools are implemented in parallel as much as practical and not be considered as sequential, although their historical evolution may suggest so. That is to say for example, providing scholarship seats for institutions is not regarded as reward for achieving some performance target. It is part of the system that aims to achieve quality of performance. In a different context, we view scholarships as a means to achieve social equity and justice for the community as well as a means to provide the institutions with qualified intake of students. The incentive is then applied for institutions which achieved certain performance by controlling the number of seats available for scholarships. 17 PUC General secretariat Universities / Colleges Globally Competent Global Excellence TOOLS Standards Performance Audits Scholarship system Research and development system Evaluatio n Times Higher Private Universities Council ∑ Global 200 Policies Figure 6: PUC Implements 4 Critical Tools to Achieve Regulatory Function 7.The outcome 7.1:the response of Kuwaiti community to the law establishing private institutions was overwhelming. Over 30 applications for establishing private higher institutions were received. There were some factors in favor of private institutions in Kuwait: • Specialized institutional accreditation. 18 • Mandatory international affiliation. • Mandatory Program accreditation. • International campus design standards. • Little political interference. • Training, research, development and business incubators encouraged. • Give priority to job market demand 7.2: as mentioned before, ten decrees have been issued to license private higher institutions. Five private institutions have already commenced their activities.Table (1) below lists the approved areas of study in these institutions. Four private institutions in Kuwait are branches of internationally accredited institutions, and six institutions have affiliation agreement with internationally accredited institutions. Table (2) below summarizes the international partnership of the licensed institutions. As of 2006/2007 academic year over 10,000 students are enrolled in private institutions. Table (3) lists the number of students in each institution. Table (4) provides the statistics of internal scholarships. The approved student capacity is 18,000 and the projected capacity by year 2025 is 60,000 students. All operating institutions have been awarded the institutional accreditation by PUC, obtained positive quality assurance assessment from their international partners. Three academic programs were suspended following an accreditation exercise in one institution for two institutions received warning for operating few academic programs without license. This later proved to be misinterpretation of the license scope and the institutions filed these programs for approval with PUC which was granted.One institution obtained international program accreditation (Kuwait Maastricht MBA program from AMBA). Three institutions awarded their students foreign degrees through their articulation agreements: ACK from TAFE institutes, AOU from OU and KMBS from its mother Maastricht Business School. 19 Diploma Bachelor Maritime Engineering Management and business administration Information science & technology Engineering & design technology Nursing Health science Education English language Master General &strategic management MBA Communication & media studies social sciences Hospitality and tourism Environmental study safety science Management and business administration Computer science Architecture Medical and Health science Engineering Information science & technology Table (1): licensed fields of study Country Number of Affiliated/Branch Institution United states of America United Kingdom Australia Canada Holland India Licensed 4 1 2 1 1 0 Table (2): International Partnership 20 Preliminary Approved 3 2 0 1 0 1