International News

First Amendment see-saw

If American academics were looking for the perfect representative around which to construct a case for academic freedom, Ward Churchill probably wasn’t it. The University of Colorado professor of ethnic studies was found to have plagiarised, falsified and fabricated some of his research, according to a two-year university investigation. Even his claim of American Indian ancestry is in doubt. The university fired him in July for academic misconduct.

But the unapologetic professor is also a lightning rod because of his political opinions. He blamed American foreign policy for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and called the victims "little Eichmanns", a reference to the Nazi bureaucrats who managed mass deportations and extermination camps.

Some of his supporters have, if grudgingly, agreed with Prof. Churchill that he is himself a victim, sacked primarily because of his controversial comments. No matter how egregious, they say, the remarks were protected by the First Amendment — the free-speech provision of the US Constitution — and by the principle of academic freedom. It is a principle to which academics have resorted more and more often in the polarised and partisan time since 2001. And Prof. Churchill has become its unlikely symbol.

"Firing Prof. Churchill in these circumstances does not send a message about academic rigour and standards of professional integrity," says Aaron Barlow, a blogger and a faculty member at the New York City College of Technology. "It sends a warning to the academic community that politically unpopular dissenters speak out at their peril."

But if more and more academics have drawn angry public condemnation because of comments considered unpatriotic or inappropriate since September 11, the intensifying spotlight on the issue has also made universities more wary of firing them. Caught between warring constituencies of opposite political stripes, university presidents have been quick to criticise unruly faculty, but — until Prof. Churchill — have otherwise seldom done anything more than reprimand them.

When a University of New Mexico history professor joked on the afternoon of September 11 itself that anyone who blew up the Pentagon would get his vote, he was reprimanded but not fired. And at Northwestern University, the president routinely condemns the views of a Holocaust denier on the faculty but defends his right to hold those views. Students who prefer not to enroll in the professor’s classes are given the option of being taught by someone else.

Speakers on American campuses have been given more leeway recently. Over the past few decades, the courts have tended to side with universities that fired or suspended faculty or staff for doing such things as over emphasising sex in a health course, using profane language in a classroom, protesting against the Vietnam War and discussing religious beliefs in a physiology class. The courts have ruled that a university’s interest as an employer outweighs a teacher’s free-speech interest.

Degree sale scandal

Emilija Stankovic, the deputy minister of higher education and a senior member of the faculty of law at the University of Kragujevac, was arrested on suspicion of corruption along with several members of her faculty. Their arrest surprised even the police, not least because the case against them began after a police officer investigating a car theft was allegedly asked to forget it in return for a complimentary law degree.

Investigators say they have uncovered a thriving industry at Kragujevac where a single exam pass costs about €600 (Rs.33,680) while a degree without the hassle of sitting exams, will cost about €6,000 (Rs.3.3 lakh).

In Ukraine, Iyan Rizak a Ph D graduate of Uzgorod University and former governor of the TransCarpathian Region, has been charged with, among other things, corruption, extortion and involvement in a serious assault on a student.

Meanwhile, in Hungary a popular joke in academe goes like this: the supervisor in charge of a university entrance examination opens his briefcase and addresses the students: "I shall now distribute the exam questions… to those among you who have not yet obtained them from the internet." All this points to something rotten at the heart of higher education in Eastern Europe. But to understand its struggle to come clean, the issue must be viewed in a larger context.

The transition to democracy for the former Communist states involves a great many changes, including fundamental reform in the governance of all institutions, including universities. Universities and other state institutions have been shaped by decades of an often corrupt, Soviet-inspired administrative machinery.

Transition is proving a painful and slow process that sometimes produces surprising results, says Nazym Nuraliyeva, senior lecturer in the department of political science and sociology at Kazakh-Turkish University in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Having studied corruption in the higher education institutions of post-Soviet Europe, Dr. Nuraliyeva believes that bribe-taking has increased during the current economic privatisation process.

In Serbia, the arrest of one third of the Kragujevac law faculty has shocked the political elite because some of the 15 professors now under investigation had been involved in the appointment of judges. Prof. Stankovic has been summarily dismissed from the government. Snezana Sokovic, the former vice-dean of law at Kragujevac, has now taken over as deputy minister of higher education. Vacancies are being filled by professors seconded from other universities.

At another Serbian university, one faculty is said to have issued more than 1,000 fake degrees between 1999 and 2004. Allegations of similar practices at institutions elsewhere in Eastern Europe are rife in the popular press. Levels of public cynicism are high as a result.

Grade inflation or better teaching?

Every August, British teenagers achieve ever more stellar results: a fifth of all GCSEs (the test for 16-year-olds) and a quarter of all A-levels (taken by 18-year-olds) are now awarded the top grades. To some, this is yet another case of debased government figures. Recently, the Liberal Democrats called for an independent inquiry into exam standards. Sir Peter Williams, who was recently appointed by the government to review primary mathematics teaching, says it is a "testable fact" that A-level maths and physics are getting easier.

The government, predictably, has a more upbeat explanation: "high quality teaching and strong investment", says Jim Knight, the minister for schools. It is certainly true that many more billions of pounds are being spent — on higher pay for teachers, more support staff and fancy new buildings. But attempts to judge whether this money has been put to good use tend to become circular, with rising exam results invoked as proof.

Knight is right to focus on "high quality teaching". Research in America has identified the skill of teachers as the most important educational influence on how well children do at school. In July the government agency responsible for teacher training described the latest crop of trainees as "better qualified than ever", trumpeting that 58 percent held good degrees (a 2.1 or better) up from 51 percent seven years earlier.

"A bit of spin," says Alan Smithers, a professor of education at Buckingham University: this is simply the consequence of grade inflation in degrees, and there is still a worrying wide variation between subjects. Worse, many lessons are taught by teachers with no relevant qualification. In 2002 (the most recent year for which figures are available) around a quarter of those teaching maths to 11-18 year olds had not studied beyond A level themselves. Only half of the lessons were taught by someone with a maths degree. The situation is unlikely to have improved since then, despite higher pay and golden hellos for trainees in subjects where they are in short supply. Suitable graduates still have many other, more lucrative options.

The national figures mask enormous local differences. Despite the shortage of well qualified teachers, some new trainees with good degrees still find it difficult to get a job. Much teacher training is done in universities in the north of England, where pupil numbers are falling rather than in the south-east, where immigration keeps numbers up. Officials say that trainees should consider moving south in search of work — but a third of them are over 30 and so are likely to have families and mortgages, making this blithe suggestion difficult to follow.

As a result there are localised gluts. "In much of the country, schools can pick and choose between dozens of newly trained teachers — even in subjects like languages and mathematics," says John Howson, whose company, Education Data Surveys, monitors advertisements for teaching positions. His findings are borne out by the many sob stories posted on Times Educational Supplement’s website by recent trainees who have failed to secure a single job interview.

Hard times for academics

Many of Cuba’s best academics are leaving the profession or are taking second jobs in tourism to supplement their income. The standard of living in Cuba fell dramatically during the so-called Special Period, which began in 1991 and lasted throughout the 1990s, when Russia was created after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the new Russian government stopped the export of heavily subsidised oil and gas to the island.

Critics of the Cuban government claim that living standards have not recovered since that time. They also say that many academics — along with other professionals — have been forced to take jobs as taxi drivers, waiters, porters or other tourism-related work to earn hard currency.

Comments Juan Clark, a Cuban-born professor emeritus of sociology at Miami-Dade College and author of Cuba: Myth and Reality: "Unfortunately, there are many academics who prefer to be waiters because of the chance to get some tips in dollars. Others work in the black market. They are academics by day, and if they have a car, for example, work as taxi drivers by night. I have even heard of cases of female academics being forced to become prostitutes for foreign tourists."

Junior academics start on salaries of about 400 Cuban pesos (Rs.16,175) a month, while more senior academics can earn 600 Cuban pesos (Rs.24,263) per month. In many Latin American countries, academics who teach disciplines such as law, medicine or engineering are able to work in the private sector to supplement their income, but this is prohibited in Cuba. They can only work in government departments or state-run agencies which pay badly.

Traditionally, the island has had one of the best-educated populations in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, standards may have slipped since the Special Period. According to the Unesco Institute for Statistics, Cuba’s gross enrollment for tertiary education of the relevant age cohort was 61.5 percent in 2005 against 53.6 percent in 2004. The equivalent 2005 figure for the UK was 59.7 percent and 82.7 percent for the US.

Says Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami: "One must remember that everything in Cuba occurs through an ideological prism. There is not the free flow of information over the internet, for example. The government puts a number of filters in place — anything political is barred. Not everyone has internet access. There are internet cafes on the island, but they are very expensive to use."

An indication of how isolated most Cuban academics are from the rest of the world is the fact that they are not allowed individual e-mail addresses at their academic institutions.

High seas learning initiative

The Oceanic II has been cruising the oceans under various guises for more than 40 years, but her next voyage will be her most unusual. From September 5, the liner has become home to about 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students participating in the maiden voyage of The Scholar Ship, a seaborne university. The renamed ship has been refitted with lecture halls, seminar rooms and a library to transform it into a floating campus. Wireless technology has been installed, providing access to an on-board intranet, housing, course materials and lecture schedules.

Starting in Piraeus, near Athens, students will spend 16 weeks on board, being taught courses such as international business and conflict studies. Sea-bound classes will be complemented by on-shore activities. The liner will stop off in Lisbon, Panama City, Auckland, Shanghai and other places en route to its final destination, Hong Kong. A second voyage, taking a new batch of students to Europe will start in January.

Start-up capital and cruise industry expertise have been provided by Royal Caribbean Cruises, but those hoping for roulette wheels and sequined cabaret singers will be disappointed. Students must organise their own social activities. Academic credibility is bestowed by a consortium of international universities. At the end of the voyage Australia’s Macquarie University will award successful students credits that can count towards a full degree elsewhere.

Enrollment is not cheap: the September voyage costs just under $20,000 (Rs.8 lakh). Take-up has so far fallen well short of an initial forecast of 600 students. Yet kooky as it sounds, the idea of an ocean-going campus does fit into wider trends.

One is internationalisation. Whether opening campuses abroad or organising exchange programmes, universities are keen to burnish their multicultural credentials. Another hot trend is "experiential" learning — getting students out of the classroom into different environments.

A cruise ship scores highly on both counts, claims Mike Bonner, the venture’s chief operating officer. The students drawn from 35 countries, will find it hard not to mix with people of other nationalities. And if the passenger numbers do not increase, there is an obvious money-making fallback. Having lots of young people who do not know each other trapped in a confined space is a perfect reality-TV format.

Skills shortage paradox

It seems odd. in the world’s most populous region the biggest problem facing employers is a shortage of people. Asia has more than half the planet’s inhabitants and is home to many of the world’s fastest growing economies. But some businesses are being forced to reconsider just how quickly they will be able to grow, because they cannot find enough people with the skills they need.

In a recent survey, 600 chief executives of multinational companies with businesses across Asia said a shortage of qualified staff ranked as their biggest concern in China and south-east Asia. It was their second-biggest headache in Japan (after cultural differences) and the fourth-biggest in India (after problems with infrastructure, bureaucracy and wage inflation). Across almost every industry and sector it was the same.

Old Asia-hands may find it easy to understand why there is such concern. The region’s rapid economic growth has fished out the pool of available talent, they would say. But there is also a failure of education. Recent growth in many parts of Asia has been so great that it has rapidly transformed the type of skills needed by businesses. Schools and universities have been unable to keep up.

This is especially true for professional staff. Airlines are one example. With increasing deregulation, many new carriers are setting up and airlines are offering more services to meet demand. But there is a dreadful shortage of pilots. According to Alteon Training, the commercial-pilot training arm of Boeing, India has fewer than 3,000 pilots today but will need to find more than 12,000 by 2025. China will need to find an average of 2,200 new pilots a year just to keep up with the growth in air travel, which means it will need more than 40,000 pilots by 2025.

Similar problems are bedevilling the legal profession, which is suffering from a grave shortage of lawyers and judges. This can cause a long backlog of cases and other complications in what are sometimes rudimentary legal systems. According to the All-China Lawyers Association, the country has only 122,000 lawyers. That is 70,000 fewer than California where the population is only 37 million (against China’s 1.3 billion).

Technical skills, particularly in information technology, are lacking in many parts of the region, even India. One of the main concerns is that there are not enough skilled graduates to fill all the jobs being created in a vibrant sector. Nasscom which represents India’s software companies estimates that there could be a shortfall of 500,000 IT professionals by 2010.

There is also a severe shortage of good managers. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that 75,000 business leaders will be needed in China in the next ten years. It estimates the current stock at just 3,000 to 5,000.

China is even suffering from something of a brain drain. In recent years the Chinese have been able to travel abroad more freely to study and acquire skills. But many do not return. A recent report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found that between 1978 and 2006, just over 1 million Chinese went to study overseas and some 70 percent of them did not come back. The brightest are often tempted to stay abroad by local employers, because the competition for jobs has become global.

Rising private spending

The use of private funding in education has risen substantially around the world, according to a report by the US-based Institute for Higher Education Policy. According to the report, private finance increased by 5 percent worldwide as a proportion of total spending on higher education between 1995 and 2003, including tuition fees, donations and collaboration with industry.

The greatest rises in the use of private finance in education were seen in Australia, Italy and the UK. Each of the three countries saw a rise of more than 9 percent from 25 percent, 17 percent and 20 percent respectively in 1995. The Czech Republic, Ireland, Norway and Spain experienced decreases during this period.

The report identified Greece as having the highest ratio of public-to-private spending in education, and Korea the lowest of the countries monitored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Increases in enrollments and costs had helped to prompt the increase in private financing. However, strong political opposition to charging students for tuition in some European countries means that the trend to sharing costs with the private sector could stagnate, says the report.

(Excerpted and adapted from Times Educational Supplement, Times Higher Education Supplement and The Economist)