pattern in which sector training was the responsibility of the relevant sector ministry. In other countries, vocational agriculture courses were offered as part of general second level education. In both cases, these have been largely production oriented, for which demand has been declining in many cases in line with the decline in NAE farm employment. Many NAE countries are reviewing these arrangements. In France, for example, there have been proposals for radical reform aimed at developing wider suites of programs oriented to a broad range of rurally based occupations. In Ireland, steps have been taken to integrate the specialized agricultural colleges with the national system of higher education and training awards and an increasing provision of rural development or agribusiness programs leading to these qualifications, in addition to traditional programs which are now set in a wider environmental and livelihoods context.
6.3.2.7 Stimulate links between higher education and research and facilitate the harmonization of the different education systems
The links between higher education and research could be strengthened as a key component of human capital development for the agriculture, food and rural sectors. A crucial interface between the research and education areas lies in the development of significantly expanded doctoral level studies in NAE higher education institutions that would be essential for expanding the training of adequate numbers of future researchers and higher level educators who will educate the next waves of AKST personnel. NAE higher education could develop far-reaching programs at the doctoral level producing a cadre of scholars capable of seriously addressing the wider issues and new paradigms associated with the enlarged vision of agriculture in appropriate interactive knowledge networks. One example of strengthening the links between higher education and research in a European country is the promotion of special cooperative centers that must include a university (under aegis of Ministry of Education) and an agricultural research centre (under aegis of Ministry of Agriculture). This is a brave attempt to cross ministerial boundaries in an attempt to rectify the excessive compartmentalization of research and higher education when research becomes concentrated in National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs), to the detriment of developing a research base at the university/college level. Another such example in the US is that of the many researchers and extension personnel of the USDA who are based on university campuses, embedded within the appropriate academic departments, with adjunct university appointments and benefit from both worlds.
Another important issue is the development of greater harmonization among the various widely differing national education systems across NAE that will have enormous implications for curriculum design and delivery, articulation and transfer arrangements, institutional "niche marketing", international student and staff mobility arrangements and potential development of transnational program delivery not just for initial higher education but also for lifelong learning. Greater harmonization does not of course imply uniformity. The challenge is to encourage articulation and mobility, without compromising academic freedom and organizational diversity. |
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6.3.2.8 Promote lifelong learning and create a learning society
There is a need to ensure that the remarkable growth in demand for education throughout the lifetime of every citizen can be satisfied and to demonstrate that this demand can be filled at the highest level of quality imaginable, along with the greatest efficiency possible. More universities and colleges could consider making continuing learning a part of their core mission. This could lead to the creation of a learning society that values and fosters habits of lifelong learning, ensures that there are responsive and flexible learning programs and that learning networks are available to address all student needs. (Kellogg Commission, 2000). Such a development of a learning society could have enormous value in promoting more widespread understanding of the issues and opportunities associated with multifunctionality among a wide range of rural and urban residents. It could also enhance a wider set of skills necessary for functioning with various parts of a multifunctional agriculture. It could also stimulate the creation of new knowledge through research and other means of discovery and use that knowledge for the benefit of society and as a result could promote the wider recognition that investments in learning contribute to overall competitiveness and the economic and social well-being of nations. It is recommended that greater effort be expended on accreditation of lifelong learning courses within national or even wider mutual recognition systems so that proper credit accumulation procedures could more easily enable adult learners to progress to more advanced courses with organizations other than their original providers. Such credit accumulation and articulation arrangements could make it easier for rural residents to widen their knowledge/skills to work with the new paradigm and also to deepen their knowledge in specific areas, now set in the wider context. It would also make it easier for potential learning providers to identify opportunities for program design, learner recruitment and program provision.
6.3.3 Strengthening information and knowledge-based systems
Currently, we remain in the throes of an information technology (IT) boom that began over 30 years ago. The speed and quantity of information is still rapidly increasing and the modes of information acquisition are becoming increasingly more convenient and inexpensive. The conversion of this information into knowledge is a process that lags considerably behind (Hassell, 2007). It is expected that these trends will continue at least for the next two decades, ushering in unprecedented flows of information. The policy framework surrounding agriculture will also lead to the delivery of standardized information to various public authorities.
These changes, when allied to the paradigm shift developed earlier in this chapter, will create several significant challenges for the NAE AKST system that will also require adjustments in institutional arrangements. If the paradigm shift is to lead to really meaningful developments, the NAE AKST information and knowledge-based systems will need to be expanded and strengthened to enable rapid flow of information both to and from the various agricultural sectors and the AKST system, including those parts of the system involved in the policy framework. For example, informa- |