The objectives of the Higher Education Improvement Project for Costa Rica are to improve access and quality, to increase investments in innovation and scientific and technological development, as well as to upgrade institutional management, all in Costa Rica's public higher education system. There are two components to the project, the first component being institutional improvement agreements. The objectives of this component will be: (i) to help public universities increase access by investing in infrastructure for teaching, learning and research; (ii) to increase the quality of higher education by, among others, upgrading faculty qualifications and fostering evaluation and accreditation; (iii) to increase relevance in higher education by focusing resources on priority subjects that are key to the country's development; and (iv) to strengthen public universities' management capacity and accountability. Finally, the second component is strengthening institutional capacity for quality enhancement. This component includes three sub-components: (a) strengthening the national system for the accreditation of higher education; (b) developing the labor market observatory and the public higher education information system; and (c) supporting the project's coordination, supervision, and evaluation.
