International News

Soft diplomacy exchanges

The US is entering into lucrative contracts with governments to help develop technology in their countries or to promote cross cultural understanding in America. In return, US universities gain access to rich markets of students abroad.

The government of Portugal agreed to pay $80 million (Rs.360 crore) over five years to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and $42 million (Rs.189 crore) to Carnegie Mellon University to expand research and education in engineering, communications and management at Portuguese universities. A similar deal is being negotiated between Portugal and the University of Texas at Austin.

Under the initiative, MIT will help universities in Portugal to expand research and education in engineering and management. It will also team up with automotive companies including VW Auto-Europa to improve manufacturing. Carnegie Mellon will focus on information and communication technologies. "The duty of a responsible government with an eye towards the future is undoubtedly to foster scientific and technological skills and to recognise the essential role of research and development activities," Jose Socrates, Portugal’s prime minister, said at a ceremony to announce the MIT deal.

Meanwhile the Chinese government has given $1 million (Rs.4.5 crore) each to the universities of Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan State to promote the teaching of Chinese language and culture through the first of what will be 100 Chinese-funded institutes at universities worldwide.

Dirk Messelaar, dean of corporate, continuing and distance education at the University of Massachusetts describes the initiative as a form a soft diplomacy. "I think it’s a case of foreign governments attempting to leverage academic institutions to help the American and foreign cultural and business communities learn about each other. Higher education is a good forum for that."

Money from the Chinese Language Council International is underwriting Confucius institutes at US universities to help train Chinese-language teachers and promote Chinese culture. Some 100 centres — along the lines of the Goethe Institute and Institut Francais — are planned by 2010. Some have opened in Australia and Scotland.

In exchange, the US universities get special access to Chinese institutions which are potential sources of students and potential markets for academic software and other services. "The advantage (for US universities) is that we have a close relationship with the ministry of communication in China, which gives access to government officials, business leaders in China they otherwise wouldn’t have," says Messelaar, whose university offers 1,500 online courses which could be taught in China.

Massive R&D effort

China has overtaken Japan in research and development spending, making it the world’s second highest national research spender, claims the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Based on recent data, China will have spent more than $136 billion (Rs.612,000 crore) on R&D in 2006, exceeding Japan’s $130 billion, says the OECD. It says the US would remain top with more than $330 billion (Rs.1485,000 crore) spent in 2006. The former 15-member European Union, which includes Britain, France and Germany is expected to spend more than $230 billion (Rs.1035,000 crore).

Comments Dirk Pilat, head of the OECD’s science and technology policy division: "The rapid rise of China in terms of money spent and researchers employed is stunning. To keep up, OECD countries need to make their research and innovation systems more efficient and find new ways to stimulate innovation."

His department noted that the proportion of China’s gross domestic product allocated for research and development went from 0.6 percent of GDP in 1995 to 1.2 percent in 2004. This is an increase from just over $17 billion in 1995 to $94 billion in 2004, a rate that exceeds the country’s breakneck economic growth of between 9 and 10 percent a year.

China has 926,000 researchers while the US has 1.3 million.

Call for fundraising mindset change

Academics must rethink their attitude towards university fundraising if they are to help raise the billions of pounds needed to compete with American universities, says education philanthropist Sir Peter Lamphl. A report by the Sutton Trust, a charity set up by Sir Peter to help disadvantaged young people, suggests that UK academics should follow the example set by their peers in the US, where alumni giving is the norm and academics at all levels are part of the "asking culture".

The report says that Harvard University has an endowment of £13.4 billion (Rs.114,000 crore) while the combined endowment of all UK universities is £7.8 billion — and most of that is given to Oxbridge. According to the report, although UK universities have improved fundraising efforts in the past three years, a step change is needed. In three years, the gap between the ten largest university endowments in the UK and the US has widened by £12.5 billion. "I think some academics and vice-chancellors think ‘why bother’ with fundraising from alumni when the amounts of money are so small. I don’t think academics are against fundraising, but some just see it as irrelevant. But for US universities it makes a huge difference, and it can for UK universities too. We need to develop an ‘asking culture’ in our universities."

The report, University Fundraising: An update confirms that most of the money donated to UK universities is given to Oxford and Cambridge universities. The two ancient universities held endowments worth £6 billion (Rs.51,000 crore) in 2004-05, while the combined endowment of all other UK universities was £1.9 billion. One in every ten alumni donated to Oxford; the figure for other universities was closer to one in every 100. Only 13 UK universities raised more than £5 million (Rs.42 crore) in 2004-05.

Sir Peter’s report recommends that the government match pound-for-pound donations up to £5 million at each institution. It calls on ministers to simplify tax laws to encourage giving, and says universities should be more open about how much they are raising from their alumni.

Continuous Taliban pestilence

The Taliban ‘night letters’ delivered to headteachers convey a clear message: "We have told you many times to close down your school… So wherever you are, your death is near." Intimidation of teachers is worst in the troubled south and east of Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan, where British, Afghan and other international troops are struggling to suppress a determined insurgency.

In Ghazni, in the south east, the scene of fierce recent fighting, 46-year-old teacher Mohammed Halim was part-disembowelled, then torn apart, with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, because he taught girls. In September, Safia Ama Jan, who ran an underground school at her Kandahar home under Taliban rule (1996-2001), was gunned down outside her home by two men riding past on motorbikes. Under the Taliban, girls were banned from attending school. After the regime fell, Ama Jan opened schools for hundreds of girls and became the director of women’s affairs for Kandhar province.

A Taliban rule book, handed out to the hardline group’s new recruits, recommends beating or killing Afghan teachers who refuse to leave their classrooms, and burning down their schools. A list of 30 rules includes three that single out Afghanistan’s education system for attack. For Afghan teachers who earn around Rs.2,732 a month, it has become a hazardous profession.

The Taliban death threat, written in Afghanistan’s southern language Pashto and sent to the headteacher of one of the three girls’ schools in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, where UK troops are based, reads: "If you will live in any part of Afghanistan, we will not leave you. We have told you many times to close down your school, but still teachers, girls and foreigners are coming to your school. We can kill you because it is permitted in our seven religious books. So wherever you are, your death is near." With respect, Mullah Abdul Bari.

Since the fall of the Taliban, pupil numbers have risen dramatically, from around 1 million in 2002 to around 5 million at Unicef’s last count. More than 500 British schools helped raise £250,000 in a campaign run by The Times Educational Supplement and Unicef to provide new buildings and equipment.

Despite this improvement, more primary-age children are out of school than in. For many in rural areas, there is no school to go to, says Human Rights Watch, either because there is no building, no teachers, or because the school has closed after intimidation. Afghan ministry of education figures show that this summer, when the insurgency intensified, 208 schools in the south and east closed down and 144 were destroyed by arson.

U21 Global’s cloudy future

The future of an online university established by the Universitas 21 international consortium is uncertain because its American partner, Thomson Learning, is being split in three and the divisions sold off.

U21 Global was set up five years ago to deliver Masters and graduate diploma courses over the web. It launched its first MBA in 2003 and had 3,000 students based mostly in India, China and the Middle East. It is a joint venture between Universitas 21’s 19 research-intensive universities and Thomson Learning, owned by the giant Canadian-American company Thomson Corporation, with both sides contributing $25 million (Rs.112.5 crore) each. It is unclear whether the future owner of the higher education division will want to invest in U21 Global — which is not expected to make a profit until 2008.

Universitas 21 was initiated in 1997 by Alan Gilbert, vice chancellor of Manchester University, when he was head of the University of Melbourne. Four UK universities are members: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Nottingham. Prof. Gilbert floated the idea of a virtual university to tap into what was claimed to be a $200 million (Rs.900 crore) a year industry of unmet demand for higher education from 32 million students.

Six years ago, he predicted that by 2011 the e-university would enroll more than 500,000 students with Melbourne alone earning $40 million a year from the sale of courses. Melbourne has so far contributed more than $15 million to the venture but has yet to see any return on its investment.

Mukesh Aghi, chief executive of U21 Global, says he is not concerned about the sale of Thomson Learning. "Thomson Learning sees us as one of the crown jewels in its assets," he asserts.

Teacher training reform initiative

France’s teacher training institutes face a major overhaul as they prepare to integrate with universities and make their programmes longer, with a greater emphasis on practical elements.

In early December, Gilles de Robien, education minister outlined the changes, due to start by autumn 2008, after recommendations by the Haut Conseil de L’education (HCE). The HCE was set up to advise on the education system under a 2005 reform to establish a "common core" of knowledge and skills that every pupil should achieve. The same law set in motion the integration of the 31 Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maitres (IUFM) postgraduate teacher training colleges, with universities.

De Robien asked HCE to propose teacher training improvements. He took inspiration from other European countries, such as encouraging secondary-level trainees to teach more than one subject. "Reform of teachers training has become urgent," says de Robien adding that the training must be adapted to the needs of pupils today.

The HCE aims to professionalise the theoretical approach to teaching. It challenges the assumption that expertise in a subject makes a teacher competent. It lists additional practical skills that teachers must master. These include recognising pupils’ diversity; ability to control a class; working with colleagues in a multidisciplinary team; coping with parents and difficult situations; and acting ethically.

The HCE recommends that training starts before students attend the IUFM and continues afterwards. Undergraduates should be able to follow multidisciplinary degrees including ‘observation’ placements. Teachers’ first posts should be at schools in the authority where they were trained, so they continue to receive guidance from their IUFM for two years after starting work. In-service training should be compulsory throughout teachers’ careers.

Escalating demand for online education

Demand from students for online courses at open Universities Australia (OUA) could soon outstrip the supply from current providers. The OUA, Australian equivalent of the UK’s Open University, is a company owned by seven universities and is the country’s fastest growing online higher education service.

It began in 1991 as a television-based learning system, when it was called Open Learning Australia. Over the past 15 years, more than 100,000 students have taken one or more study programmes, many without qualifying for university entry, making the scheme unique in Australian higher education. In 2004, the programme changed its name and, last year, the federal government amended its rules to allow students to borrow to cover the cost of courses. Since then, the number taking web-based and distance education units has doubled to more than 20,000 full-time-equivalent students a year.

But the 14 institutions providing the courses are finding it difficult to keep up with demand and OUA is seeking other universities willing to help. "Four or five years ago our numbers were significantly lower. Universities saw us as marginal," says Stuart Hamilton, OUA chief executive. "Their original notion was not just opening up access to Australians who may have been unable to gain a place at a conventional university but also dealing with their surplus capacity. Now, they don’t have that excess."

Hamilton says that in 1999 undergraduate registrations were about 15,000 while this year the figure is 43,000 (20,000 full-time-equivalent students). "Providers are now saying that they can’t take more students, so we have to look for other suppliers and a different way of dealing with constraints," he says. The latter includes providing more cost-effective tutorial support for students, such as online discussion forums.

Hamilton says the government’s decision to give OUA students access to its loan scheme has boosted postgraduate numbers. These doubled last year to nearly 700 and doubled again in 2006. The growth in undergraduate and postgrad enrollment has had a powerful impact on OUA finances: last year, it had a surplus of A $1.8 billion (Rs.6,100 crore) compared with a A$634,000 deficit the previous year.

Declining interest in learning Russian

Viktor Sadovnichy, Moscow State University head, has called for urgent steps to protect and promote the Russian language. New figures show that the number of Russian speakers — the world’s fourth most widely spoken language after Chinese, English and Spanish — will halve within 20 years, meaning there will be the same number of speakers as there was in 1900. It will be overtaken by French, Hindi, Arabic and Portuguese unless more is done to promote it within the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the rest of the world, Prof. Sadovnichy told the second assembly of the Intellectual Russia World Forum in Bryansk.

Up to 114 million people speak Russian as a foreign language or as their second tongue, but a growing number of Russians prefer to use other languages. "We are witnessing more cases where Russian school children who have studied at a college in London for a year or so, ask us to set exams in English," says Sadovnichy.

His comments were based on a study by the Russian Academy of Sciences Centre for Demography and Human Ecology, which studies ethnic migrations and analyses the position of ethnic Russians in former Soviet republics. The study found that key factors driving the decline were reduced international prestige for the language that once dominated the communist world, and Russia’s fast declining population.

Growing adoption of native languages in the former Soviet republics for everyday as well as official use is creating a generation for whom Russian is an alien language and English the preferred choice of second tongue. Fewer than 1 million people study Russian in central and Eastern Europe today, compared with 10 million in 1990 before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the centre estimates.

A law passed by the Russian parliament three years ago banning the use of foreign words in official debates has done little to stem the tide of references by ordinary people to 'biznesmyen’ and going away for ‘veekend’ breaks. Elena Lenskaya, deputy director of the British Council in Moscow and a former Russian deputy education minister says that although English is a study priority for many governments in parts of the former Soviet Union, Russian is gaining through tourism.

(Compiled from Times Educational Supplement and Times Higher Education Supplement)