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25 Years of Equity

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  • About IHEP
    • Message from our President
    • History
    • What We Do
      • Current Initiatives
        • Postsecondary Data Collaborative
        • Degrees When Due
        • Assessing The Impact of Prison-Based Postsecondary Education Programs
      • Previous Initiatives
        • Global Initiatives
          • Global Policy Fellows Program
        • IHEP Champions of Access and Success
        • College Not Prison
        • Minority-Serving Institutions-Models of Success Program
        • Film Series: Federal Student Aid History
        • Summer Academy
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        • Symposium on Financial Literacy and College Success at Minority-Serving Institutions
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        • Redefining Access for the 21st-Century Student
        • Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery
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Home / About IHEP / What We Do / Previous Initiatives

Global Initiatives

IHEP recognizes that international efforts to improve institutional transparency, accountability, and financing can help to inform our nation’s own efforts to improve college access, affordability, and student success, especially for underserved populations.  Therefore, IHEP regularly contributes to global dialogues on institutional quality, improvement, transparency, and equity. Key initiatives related to these efforts are listed below.

International Ranking Systems Work (2002-present)

IHEP has been involved in the international discussions about college ranking systems since 2002, using the lessons learned to inform United States policy and practice. In collaboration with the former UNESCO-European Centre for Higher Education, IHEP helped establish the International Rankings Experts Group (IREG) and  published the Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions to promote a system of continuous improvement and refinement of the methodologies used to conduct these rankings. IHEP has also focused on how rankings impact the decision making structures of higher education institutions and whether federal and state policy-makers take rankings into account in developing their own assessments of higher education institutions. IHEP continues to be an active participant in IREG and the international ranking dialogue. 

Global Policy Fellows Program (2006-2009)

Through the Global Policy Fellows (GPF) program, IHEP helped strengthen higher-education policy around the world. The program provided an opportunity for committed individuals—whose backgrounds included working at government agencies, non-government organizations, professional associations, and university-based research centers—to make thoughtful contributions to local and global higher-education policy research. Participants represented the following countries: Brazil, Mongolia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, and the United States.

Measuring Global Performance Initiative (2007-2009) 

The Measuring Global Performance Initiative (MGPI) offered a new understanding of the rapidly changing global context for higher education learning and credentialing and the impact of these changes on U.S. higher education.  MGPI explored two key areas of interest: what U.S. higher education can learn from the reconstruction of European higher education carried out under the Bologna Process; and potential ways to construct more enlightening international comparative indicators of participation, pathways, and attainment in higher education. 

Global Center on Private Financing (2006-2008)

The Global Center on Private Financing of Higher Education (GCPF) focused on access around the world by examining how private capital can help widen access to higher education as a supplement to government funding. The center culled data and trend analysis of private-financing strategies and tools in order to provide guidance to nations seeking new knowledge about how to expand and raise the quality of their higher education systems.

For more information about these initiatives, contact institute@ihep.org.

Publications

  • The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight
  • The Role and Relevance of Rankings in Higher Education Policymaking
  • Impact of College Rankings on Institutional Decision Making: Four Country Case Studies
  • Learning Accountability from Bologna: A Higher Education Policy Primer
  • The Global State of Higher Education and the Rise of Private Finance
  • College and University Ranking Systems: Global Perspectives and American Challenges
  • Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions

News

  • Re-Evaluating the College Rankings Game (Jun 1, 2014)
  • E.U. Seeking Better Clarity on Ratings (Jun 1, 2014)
  • New Comparison of International Data Reveal U.S. Higher Education Rates and Global Competitiveness Higher Than Initially Reported (Nov 4, 2009)
  • The Intersection of College Rankings and Public Policy (Sep 10, 2009)
  • There Has Been a Global Shift in Higher Education Leadership: Europe Is Heading It Up as the United States Starts to Follow (Apr 8, 2009)
  • Global Ranking Systems May Drive New Decision Making At U.S. Higher Education Institutions (May 21, 2009)
  • IHEP Creates Online Clearinghouse to Further Discourse and Knowledge Surrounding Global Phenomenon of College Rankings Systems (Oct 8, 2008)
  • Accountability Challenges In The U.S. Higher Education System Are Setting Students Up For A Tough Time In The Global Economy (Jul 25, 2008)
  • Private Financing Grows to Become Global Phenomenon in Funding Rising Costs of Higher Education (Aug 7, 2007)
  • Study: Institute for Higher Education Policy Calls for Global Accountability of Ranking Systems to Ensure Quality and Understanding Across Borders (Apr 18, 2007)
  • The Institute Establishes a New Global Center to Explore Private Financing Sources for Higher Education (Sep 18, 2006)
  • International Partnership Issues Groundbreaking Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions (May 30, 2006)

Policy Priorities

  • Accountability & Transparency
  • Critical Communities & Institutions

Funding Partners

Ford Foundation
Lumina Foundation

Research

  • Message from our President
  • History
  • What We Do
    • Current Initiatives
    • Previous Initiatives
      • Global Initiatives
      • IHEP Champions of Access and Success
      • College Not Prison
      • Minority-Serving Institutions-Models of Success Program
      • Film Series: Federal Student Aid History
      • Summer Academy
      • Community Partnership for Attainment
      • Symposium on Financial Literacy and College Success at Minority-Serving Institutions
      • Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative
      • BEAMS
      • Project Win-Win
      • Redefining Access for the 21st-Century Student
      • Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery
      • Pathways to College Network
  • Who We Are
  • Partners
  • Working at IHEP

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© Institute for Higher Education Policy
1993-2014.
1825 K Street, N.W., Suite 720 
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 861-8223 TELEPHONE
(202) 861-9307 FAX
institute@ihep.org
Join Our Mailing List