If the United States is to dramatically increase its pool of college graduates in the next decade, universities must be able to do more with less without sacrificing the quality of their degrees.

That was the message from the Obama administration’s assistant secretary for post-secondary education, who spoke to a group of higher-education experts from around the Asia-Pacific region Thursday.

"Never has the role of higher education been so critical to the economy. Never has higher education been faced with such challenging conditions," said Eduardo Ochoa, keynote speaker at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s higher-education summit, which runs through Saturday at the East-West Center.

To continue to serve more students, he said, universities have to operate more efficiently, in part with "continued advances in information technology."

"It wouldn’t just be the engineers in Silicon Valley that are looking to make things faster, better and cheaper," he said, "but our own faculties starting to direct their creativity to how do we accomplish the same learning outcomes in a way that actually costs less and achieves as good or better outcomes."

More than 100 delegates from 20 APEC economies are attending the summit, which focuses on ensuring quality in higher education.

The University of Hawaii and the East-West Center proposed and organized the summit, with APEC funding, as a way of highlighting the vital role that post-secondary education plays in the global economy.

The gathering is a prelude of sorts to November’s APEC summit on Oahu, which will attract more than 20,000 participants for a week of economic talks.

Linda Johnsrud, UH executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, helped organize the higher-education summit and said the gathering comes as the quality in post-secondary education is increasingly becoming a complicated issue.

More universities, she said, are moving to help employers and students determine the value of their degree.

"People want to know, Is the degree from this institution comparable to the degree from that institution?" she said.

Ochoa also said quality can’t be overlooked in talks of improving access to higher education, especially given the growth of for-profit universities.

"The pace of reform in the higher-education assessment movement has been painfully slow," he said. "There has not yet been movement or a national base-line agreement on what college graduates should know or be able to do."

The summit features several discussions centered on new and current ways of gauging the quality and rigor of university degrees. Panelist will discuss college rankings, accreditation systems and the global competitiveness of higher-education institutions.

The summit comes as higher-education institutions in Hawaii and across the nation are looking to boost the number of students they graduate to meet the demands of a more competitive work force.

The Obama administration has set an ambitious goal of again having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. The U.S. is now ranked ninth.

Ochoa, in a 20-minute keynote address, said the federal government will play a major role in boosting college-going and graduation rates, by continuing to provide Pell grants and other support to remove financial barriers for students.

But he acknowledged that federal funding for higher education might shrink as part of long-term debt reduction plans, and pointed out that state funding for higher education is also falling.