Foreword
“Knowledge
and advanced skills are critical determinants of a country‘s economic growth
and standard of living as learning outcomes are transformed into goods and
services, greater institutional capacity, a more effective public sector, a
stronger civil society, and a better investment climate. Good quality,
merit-based, equitable, efficient tertiary education and research are essential
parts of this transformation” (The World Bank, 2003).
Globally
as higher education markets are liberalized
, there are increasing demands for the implementation of
standards and mechanisms to assure the quality of institutions and the
programmes they offer. Trinidad and Tobago is striving alongside many
developing countries including our CARICOM
neighbours
, Jamaica and Barbados in
establishing a national quality assurance and accreditation system for post
secondary and tertiarylevel education.It is therefore
significant that the Government has rendered its commitment to establish the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and
Tobago (ACTT) as a matter of priority. This is a major step towards ensuring
that tertiary education institutions can respond to global challenges and meet
the country’s developmental needs.
The Government’s policy objective for widening
access and increasing social participation in tertiary education focuses on
ensuring that affordable, high quality education is readily available to all
citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, thereby requiring an increased expenditure in
this sector.The establishment of ACTT will guarantee
that government’s increased investment is supported by a regulatory framework
that allows for performance-based allocation of resources and a rigorous system
of accountability that will result in higher levels of efficiency, improved
quality and greater returns on this investment in human development.
In
order to achieve these goals it is important for ACTT to enjoy a high level of
public confidence and the respect of the regional and international
communities. The Council must therefore be seen to act independently, without
fear or favour, to safeguard the public interest and to meet the needs of all
stakeholders.
An
expansion in public and private tertiary education is necessary in order to
ensure that Trinidad and Tobago’s current and future skill requirements are
met. The challenge in this context is to improve the quality, access and
relevance of tertiary education while ensuring equity, accountability and
efficiency in the sector
. The establishment of ACTT at this
time, thereby indicates that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago functions as
both a catalyst and a partner in prevailing over this challenge.