EDUCATION Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson said yesterday that because of the intellectual and economic benefits of tertiary education to a country, the state does have a responsibility to fund it as a public good and guard against intellectual flight towards developed countries.

“.Higher education is indispensable to national development (and) without it there will be no quality basic education,” she told yesterday’s official opening of Research Day at the University of West Indies in Mona, St Andrew.

The theme of the two-day event was “High Education: Pathway to Success”.

Minister Henry-Wilson noted that conventional wisdom held that the early childhood and secondary education sectors were public goods and so required and demanded the state’s financial support, while higher education was seen as a private gain and therefore had to be funded by the individual.

However, she pointed out that government support of tertiary education was justified, particularly because of the “supportive role of tertiary education in the education system as a whole”.

There are currently 19 tertiary educational institutions in the island that are funded by the government.

Meanwhile, with the opening up of the education sector in Jamaica, and the large numbers of foreign-based institutions now offering courses here, the minister warned about the quality of higher education being delivered.

“The growing commercialisation of higher education requires that increased attention be paid to questions of quality and portability of higher education qualifications.

“.Fears that the increasing commodification of education products with the market determining supply and demand could have consequences for programmes offered and the purpose and values of higher education,” said the education minister.

“Will these (programmes) be based on market demand? Will less popular and often more costly programmes (many indispensable to sustainable national development) be abandoned? Will research and service be subordinated to merely earning a degree? What about the traditional values of collegiality, academic freedom and institutional authority? Where is their place in this new paradigm?” Henry-Wilson questioned.