Blog

BH Associates was asked to prepare a Roadmap for a Skills Audit for the Ministry of Skills Development and Audit in Zimbabwe. The report was submitted in July 2025.

The main body of the report focuses on the framework and roadmap for undertaking a skills audit in Zimbabwe – the rationale for the approach, key steps, data collection strategy, the roadmap methodology, challenges and risks, implementation coordination structure and deliverables, milestones and timelines. 

BH Associates is finishing its work with the Accreditation Board and the Ministry of Education, St Kitts-Nevis, to restructure the national accreditation system. A full review of the Accreditation Board of St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN AB) during 2020-2021. A visit is planned later in 2025.

Ellen has been appointed to the Expert Group of HEInnovate. HEInnovate is an initiative of the European Commission's DG Education and Culture in partnership with the OECD.

Read Tom Boland’s commentary on the proposed ATEC, its role, responsibilities and functions and its relationship with the universities and the Government.

Despite years of increasing and widening participation strategies, there is evidence of widening inequality gaps and growing divergences in educational opportunities and outcomes across countries. In every country where data is available participation in higher levels of education continues to be unequal from a social background perspective.

Writing in Times Higher Education, Ellen Hazelkorn (author A framework for building a world-class post-compulsory education system for Wales. Welsh Government.) cautions that establishing an integrated regulator is no guarantee for a seamless and equitable post-compulsory system. Medr must go further.

A central recommendation in the Report of the Australian Universities Accord is that the Government establish an Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC). The Government are acting on that recommendation, have established an implementation advisory group and the Department of Education has issued an “Implementation consultation paper”. 

In September 2024, the Australian Innovative and Research Universities (IRU) held their annual Leaders Forum in Murdoch University. A key issue on their agenda was the ATEC.

Tom Boland was invited to share Ireland’s experience, and experience internationally, to inform the universities on the role, responsibilities and functions of the ATEC and its relationship with the universities and Government.

Ireland is among several countries, talking about ‘tertiary education’, with the aim of bringing universities and colleges closer together in terms of how they are funded, regulated and managed.

Join Ellen Hazelkorn, Joint Managing Partner, BH Associates, talk about these issues with Professor Ewart Keep, Oxford, and Tom Richmond, EDSK think tank, UK.

Podcast with Ellen Hazelkorn on how she started her journey in international education by researching on global university rankings for the OECD in the early 2000s.

Listen in: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7AjRq4kv6AtWzauyoJemA7?si=b14b158bd2ed4825&nd=1&dlsi=3f2bff0bb64d4a86

Tom Boland and Ellen Hazelkorn have published an op ed piece in The Irish Times, 23 April 2024, in response to recent events in Ireland concerning the universities.

Prof Ellen Hazelkorn has been appointed as a FET/VET Expert to the FET Practitioner Expert Panel by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). The Expert Panel forms a key part of the FET Transformation programme

Ellen Hazelkorn gave the opening keynote talk at the Policy Forum for Ireland: Next Steps for Research & Innovation Policy and Funding in Ireland, Tuesday 30 January 2024.

Her talk focused on three high-level ideas that should influence our approach to policy going forward: 1.     Global Science System & Global Enablers; 2.     People/Talent; and 3.     Regionalism & Innovation

From the vantage point of 2000, it would be difficult to comprehend the scale, ambition and internationalised scope of Irish higher education and research. The underlying ambition of our science policy must be towards positioning Ireland as a European, even a global, leader. Our social, cultural, economic and ecological sustainability requires nothing less.

Tom Boland and Ellen Hazelkorn were appointed to advise the Minister and his Department. As part of our work, we are writing several thought-leadership papers, which will feed into a Tertiary Education Strategy for Ireland. Paper 1 has just been published (26 October 2023).

Paper 1 sets out the context for why a unified tertiary system is being discussed and promoted now; examines the current Irish post-secondary education and training system – successes and challenges – and considers the implications for skills, the economy, and society. It does this while placing Ireland’s experience within the context of trends, developments and policy making, internationally. It outlines, at a high level, what a well-functioning unified tertiary system might look like and the risks and challenges achieving this outcome presents. It concludes with some prompts to further and deeper discussion by way of questions to think about as we move forward.

Read Ellen Hazelkorn’s review of Assessing the Contributions of Higher Education. Knowledge for a Disordered World. 

Ellen Hazelkorn was the keynote speaker at the Western Balkans Ministerial Conference “Quality and Quality Assurance in Higher Education – Trends and developments in the EU and Western Balkans“ held in Skopje in cooperation with the Education Reform Initiative of the South Eastern Europe (ERI SEE) Secretariat, 26-27 September 2023.

Writing in The Irish Times, in response to Philip Altbach and Hans de Wit’s argument, In creating new technological universities, did we make a mistake?, Tom Boland and Ellen Hazelkorn say: our answer is an emphatic “No”.

The institutes of technology developed in leaps and bounds from their early beginnings, enrolling about 40 per cent of the student cohort and expanding into areas such as PhD education, research and international student recruitment. All the while they retained their commitment to widening participation, and their regional and vocational mission.

Read Tom and Ellen’s response here: Technological universities are not a ‘mistake’, they’re a milestone in 21st-century higher education

Ellen was asked to reflect on the global position of UK higher education and research, for the 20th anniversary publication of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), based in Oxford, UK.

What is particularly striking is that throughout the 20th century and earlier, the UK played a critical role in helping to shape the global and European higher education landscape. In contrast, at a time when the values of higher education and transnational collaboration are vulnerable to the crosscurrents of a geopolitically contested world, the UK’s position has become more ambiguous. Time for a rethink?

Writing in The Irish Times, Ellen Hazelkorn and Tom Boland commented on the recent performance of Irish universities in the QS global rankings.

Any day that seven of our universities achieve improved positions in a major international ranking exercise (QS World University Rankings 2024) is a day for celebration and for congratulations to their leadership, students and staff. It reflects positively on the Irish (higher) education system as a whole.

See full articles here and https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/07/03/what-do-university-performance-rankings-really-mean/

See also the Editorial in The Irish Times which draws on and references.

Ellen Hazelkorn gave a Keynote address examining the factors informing a tertiary education strategy. The paper looked at some factors driving the policy shift to tertiary education and identified some elements of a tertiary strategy.  But first, the paper reflects on the concept of systems and raises the idea of a tertiary ecosystem.

See Working Paper: Is it Time to Rethink our Model of Post-Secondary Education? Progressing a Tertiary Education EcoSystem (2023, July). Working Paper 89, Centre for Global Higher Education, Oxford. https://www.researchcghe.org/perch/resources/working-paper-89july-2023.pdf.

See “We need a dynamic new model for post-secondary education" published in University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230620120848977

Link to Webinar: https://www.researchcghe.org/events/cghe-seminar/is-it-time-to-rethink-our-model-of-post-secondary-education-progressing-a-tertiary-education-eco-system/

Read an article written by Tom and Ellen on the new policy to progress a tertiary education system in Ireland, and listen to a podcast featuring Ellen talking about developments in Irish tertiary education.

BH Associateshas been appointed by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, St Kitts-Nevis to undertake the implementation phase of new policies and procedures for accreditation and quality assurance. This follows on the review of the Accreditation Board of St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN AB) undertaken by BH Associates during 2020-2021.