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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B6. Istanbul 2004
3.2 Demand
Although there is still a considerable demand for degree
education, ITC observes distinct changes with an increased
demand from its traditional clientele for flexibility in terms of
duration, location and delivery mode (distance education in
particular). Moreover ITC experiences a distinct increase in the
demand for short specific training that could not be met by the
traditional delivery modes applied by and at ITC up till some
years ago.
3.3 Development cooperation policy
3.3.1 General: Perhaps the most important developments
that are due to affect ITC's operations are those part of
development cooperation policy, Dutch development
cooperation policy in particular (Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
2003). Although education is given priority in the Dutch policy,
this is restricted to basic and lower vocational levels, while
financial support is provided through the national budgets of the
recipient countries.
3.3.2 Funding: This policy has a direct bearing on the
funding arrangements for students who want to study in the
Netherlands. The Netherlands Fellowship Programme up till
2003 available to ITC will be available under competitive
conditions with twice the number of programmes and thrice the
number of providing organisations. This implies that
possibilities for study at ITC from NFP will most likely be
considerably restricted as from 2004.
The Dutch policy differs from that of other donors as well in its
drive for untied aid. Most of Dutch aid, which is all in the form
of grants, is increasingly provided as untied aid. In other words,
recipients are free to spend the aid money in whatever way and
country that they consider best. It is not unlikely that in the not
so far away future the fellowships provided under the
Netherlands fellowship Programme may be used to study in
other countries but the Netherlands as well.
3.4 Societal changes
3.4.1 Economic changes: The rapid economic development
that takes place in the developing world and emerging nations
has an effect on national ability to fund capacity building from
national resources, rather than development aid. At the same
time a policy is observed that prefers spending national budgets
locally rather than abroad, and spread over larger number of
persons for shorter training than to a limited few for an
academic degree. ITC observes a increased demand for tailor-
made capacity building, increasingly so to be organised locally.
34.2 Technological changes: The rapid development of ICT
has increased the possibilities as well as the demand for
distance education. Although many institutions are heavily
involved in this new delivery mode, even entire GIS degree
courses are based on it, ITC has thus been hesitant to engage
massively in distance education. The nature of its educational
programmes that are a component of ITC's capacity building
efforts, based on concept rather than techniques with intensive
group interaction is considered not well suited to that delivery
mode. Developments are thus that ITC may well have to adjust
its strategy in this respect accordingly.
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3.5 Internationalisation of Dutch higher education
For some years now Dutch Higher Education institutes are
actively engaged in attracting foreign students. In doing so they
are supported by the Dutch Government. The major reasons
behind this drive for internationalisation among Dutch Higher
Education Institutes, has, apart from being involved in
education rather than capacity building, nothing in common
with. the development-oriented mission of ITC. The main
reasons for such institutes to attract foreign students are:
l. Address the under-utilisation of existing capacity: to
compensate for falling Dutch student numbers
2. Address the lack of interest among Dutch students to be
engaged in PhD research in technical-oriented subjects
(e.g. some 50% of the PhD candidates at Twente
University, one of the three technical universities in the
Netherlands is non-Dutch) and;
3. Address the shortage of academic staff in the technical-
oriented subjects.
In other words, where institutes for international education
strongly advocate against "brain drain", higher education
institutes in the Netherlands, or across the western world for
that matter, are more interested in "brain gain".
Moreover, Dutch institutes of higher education that pursue
internationalisation are also confronted with major problems,
such as language abilities, cultural adjustment problems,
different learning styles and expectations, and their tendency to
cluster and form groups vis-à-vis Dutch students (Powell, P.
and H. Adriaansens, 2004).
3.6 New policies on Higher Education in Europe
3.6.1 Introduction of the Bachelor-Master system
In 1999 the Ministers of Education of European nations signed
the Declaration of Bologna, agreeing to introduce, throughout
Europe the Anglo-Saxon Bachelor-Master system, replacing the
various systems that had thus far been applied in individual
countries. The main purpose of doing so was to create an
academic-educational landscape that would allow individual
students to "shop around" and do part of their study at other
institutions than those in their own country.
In the Netherlands the Master of Science degree was not
officially recognised up till recently. International education
institutes in the Netherlands were allowed a special exception in
this respect in allowing the issue of an MSc degree for the
international (rather than the Dutch) market.
3.6.2 Accreditation
The introduction of the so-called Ba-Ma system at Dutch
universities requires a complete redesien of existing
programmes based on the old system. These new programmes
have to go through a system of accreditation for which a new
organisation has been set-up. This organisation is currently
elaborating procedures and criteria for accreditation and aims at
having all programmes at Dutch Universities accredited by the
end of 2006. The International Education Institutes in the
Netherlands, and their academic programmes, will become an
integral part of this system and have been given till the end of
2007 to have their programmes accredited.
