International News

Record inflow of Indian students

Indian students are enrolling in british higher education institutions in record numbers, up 24 percent from last year. According to Higher Education Statistics Agency data, the figure rose from 19,205 in 2005-06 to 23,835 the following year. India remains second in a list of nations with the most students at UK institutions, despite numbers from China, which tops the list, falling 2 percent from 50,755 to 49,595.

Among other non-European Union countries with significant increases are Nigeria, up 16 percent from 9,605 students to 11,135, and Pakistan, up 17 percent to 9,305. The number of American students in the UK rose 8 percent to 15,955, putting the country third in the table.

Rich Trainor, president of Universities UK (UUK), says the figures underline the UK’s position as one of the main players in the global higher education market, and that the rise in Indian students is "particularly welcome". "Despite some fierce competition, UK continues to punch above its weight, with only the US attracting more international students in absolute terms," says Trainor.

Meanwhile, a row has risen over cuts to a government-funded scholarship scheme that helps international students study in England. UUK says the decision to cut about £10 million (Rs.79 crore) in two areas may in turn damage British students’ opportunities to study abroad.

The Chevening Programme, which provides 2,300 postgraduate scholarships a year, is to see funding fall from £27.3 million to £18.8 million (Rs.148 crore) from next year, while the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan will be affected from 2009-10.

Says David Miliband, the foreign secretary: "The schemes have had real strengths. But we need to refocus them to ensure that these strengths are consistent." Scholarships will be focused on countries such as China and India, he says, "which are going to be most important to our foreign policy success over coming years."

However Rob Wilson, the shadow minister for higher education, says that "Universities are fed up with the government cutting funding without any consultation. At a time of global uncertainty, there is a danger that the UK will be seen as unfriendly or, at worst, hostile to international students."

Bad times for picture books

The children’s book fair staged in Bologna in early April was full of the bubble and squeak that such events elicit. But a serious sub-theme lurked: how to revive picture books — those lavishly illustrated creations that teach children to love books long before they can read them.

Britain has been the market leader in the field since Kate Greenaway filled books with her delicately garbed girls in the 1880s and Beatrix Potter came up with Peter Rabbit 20 years later. Modern stars include Julia Donaldson, of ‘The Gruffalo’ fame, and Michael Rosen. But a growing number of writers and illustrators warn that British picture books are now in danger.

All publishers find it hard to deal with cut-price internet selling, harder-nosed back-street booksellers and people’s reluctance to read. Picture books present another problem: they cost a bomb to produce, and unless they are seen and handled, their price can seem prohibitive. Bookstores say sales in Britain dropped sharply last year, and so has shelf-space for them. Obviously picture books cannot be published for British readers alone — but the international market is becoming less welcoming than it was. Americans are favouring home grown talent, says Wayne Windstone who sells children’s books, and east Europeans and Asians are developing their own distinctive styles of illustration.

Michael Rosen blames the obsession with synthetic phonics for reducing children’s reading horizons to badly drawn leaflets. For Jane Ray, an illustrator, a "culture of safety" among publishers has much to answer for.

Not all are quite so gloomy. The Booktrust, a charity, has launched the Big Picture campaign to raise the profile of picture books. At the Illustration Cupboard, a London gallery, John Huddy reckons the market is correcting itself, rooting out inadequate contenders. Panicky book folk may be talking their business down — but new ways to sell cheaper products across borders must certainly loom.

Peer-approved research under threat

A controversial funding system responsible for funnelling $1.6 billion (Rs.6,400 crore) to academic research without peer review is thriving in the US. The number of so-called ‘pork barrel’ projects funded by non-competitive grants known as earmarks has risen to record levels, despite lawmakers’ vows to cut back. Earmarks are distributed by members of Congress, often to their own constituents, without peer review. Critics say the system is weakening research by restricting competition for funding, with knock-on effects for the US economy.

An analysis by The Chronicle of Higher Education, following new legislation forcing Congress to publish details of earmarks, reveals that 2,300 projects at 920 institutions received such grants last year, a 25 percent increase on five years ago. The total sums allocated to projects receiving patronage through earmarks rose to $2.25 billion (Rs.9,000 crore), a slight increase on 2003, and a massive step up from the $528 million (Rs.2,112 crore) allocated a decade ago.

While some was for capital spending, about two thirds — or $1.6 billion — went to scientific research, equal to about 5 percent of all government funding for academic research in the US. The analysis also found this discretionary funding was often focused in politically sensitive areas of research.

It suggests that the war in Iraq, for example, led to an increase in earmarks for medical research into spinal injuries, of the sort often sustained by soldiers, while funding for biofuel research coincided with rising oil prices. Although the total sum distributed was slightly higher than in 2003, the average earmark fell from $497,000 (Rs.2 crore) to $462,000 as the total number of grants increased.

Of more concern to critics, however, is the fact that rapid growth in spending on the peer-reviewed grants between 1998 and 2003 has levelled off in the past five years. Last year, in response to universities’ pleas, Congress passed the America Competes Act, promising to double spending on the National Science Foundation and other physical sciences programmes over seven years. However, much of the proposed increase for 2008, which amounted to $600 million — equal to just over a quarter of total spending on earmarks — was cut from the final spending bill.

Despite concerns about the impact of earmarks, there is evidence to suggest that universities may be compounding the situation by chasing the grants in private, even as they claim to disapprove of them. The Chronicle of Higher Education quoted one president as saying that "they then go home and call up their congressman to ask for an earmark".

Schooling an occupational hazard

The threat of kidnapping and the risk of being killed on the way to school is putting parents in Afghanistan off letting their children attend. Schools in the south of the country are in crisis, says Unicef; nearly a third of them have shut because of insecurity and a lack of teachers. Girls have been particularly hard hit by a shortage of female teachers, nearly seven years after the fall of the Taliban regime which banned them from school.

However, classes in Kandahar, the second largest city in the country, are still full of girls. Most of them walk to school wearing burkhas, which they tuck under their desks during lessons, often given by male teachers. At the Shalid Abdul Karzai School in Kandahar, the head teacher, Dawood Shah, admits that many parents are deeply worried. "The main problems are explosions, kidnappings and assassinations," he says. Two years ago 16 pupils died when a bomb exploded outside the school.

Some pupils have been withdrawn because their parents fear them being targeted for abduction. A more everyday problem is intimidation of girls by men who approach them as they walk home. In deeply conservative Kandahar, girls’ education is still opposed by many men.

Afghan education chiefs are trying to get more community involvement in managing schools as a way of protecting buildings, staff and pupils from attack. In remote areas, the government’s control of the education system has broken down after teachers fled. Informal schooling at local mosques is the only teaching available in districts where there are no female teachers.

Taliban guerrillas were blamed for a spate of attacks two years ago, including some school burnings. Afghan officials blame the Taliban for the murder of a female teacher in Kandahar last year and for burning down of a school last month.

However, Unicef officials say the main problem is the insecurity in lawless areas and the risk of children being hurt or killed during fighting between guerrillas and Afghan government or Nato forces. Comments Sam Mawunganidze, resident programme officer for Unicef in Kandahar: "The community wants girls to go to school but they often don’t have female teachers. Most women teachers are not confident about going outside the city."

According to Unicef figures, 136 out of 326 schools in Kandahar province are closed, most in remote rural areas that have seen some of the fiercest fighting of the past couple of years. Teachers, whose salaries were recently raised from about £15 to £20 (Rs.1,580) a month, have simply quit in many lawless areas. Asks Mawunganidze "how can you put your life in danger for £20 per month?"

Government targeting teachers

Teachers in Ethiopia have been tortured, imprisoned and even killed for daring to ask for better pay and conditions and improvements in the education system. Gemoraw Kassa, general secretary of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association, says the government in Addis Ababa is so afraid of teachers speaking out against the regime that they are subject to intimidation, forced transfers, dismissals and even killings.

Kassa told British academics at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference held in Manchester in late March, that the regime had even stolen the name of his union and launched its own version that wouldn’t challenge its powers. He said the Ethiopian government also plotted to divide the union along ethnic and linguistic lines in an attempt to weaken its ability to contradict those in power. "All they want is to improve civil society, but for the government, so long as we are not serving their purpose, they don’t care about the education system," said Kassa.

Steve Sinnott, NUT’s general secretary who visited Ethiopia recently to see problems for himself, says he saw the alley where deputy leaders of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association had been killed. "It encapsulates the dangers of being a teacher trade unionist in Ethiopia. In our country we do not take any risks in speaking out, but it takes brave people to do so in Ethiopia," he says.

Shaky start of MIT’s European rival

The creation of Europe’s flagship technology institute, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), was officially confirmed in mid March. The future of EIT, conceived as a European rival to the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was assured when the European Parliament agreed a "common position" on the institute with European Union (EU) member states. Its activities are now expected to begin in summer, having been delayed from a January start.

The main issue outstanding, and on which the EU heads of government must decide, is where to locate its administrative headquarters. The Polish, Hungarian and Austrian governments have made bids, but there is no frontrunner. Strasbourg in France has also been mooted by MEPs (Members of Europe’s Parliament) as a possibility.

The project has evolved greatly since it was first put forward — to a distinctly lukewarm reception — by the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. The original name, European Institute of Technology, has been abandoned in favour of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, although the original EIT acronym will be retained, "so parallels could be drawn to MIT", says a source.

There have also been significant changes to its substance. Rather than being a physical institute such as MIT, it will consist of virtual "knowledge and innovation communities" (KICs) of universities, research organisations and businesses working in areas such as climate change, renewable energies and information and communication technologies. Plans for the EIT to award degrees have been abandoned.

Finance has been the biggest sticking point. While the intention is to obtain public and private funding, the commission had struggled to identify where the public finance will come from. A commission spokesman says that Euro 300 million (Rs.1,890 crore) of the Euro 308.7 million of public money budgeted for the EIT up to 2013 will come from "unallocated margins" of the EU budget (unspent money from various sources).

Comments Giles Chichester, Conservative MEP for the South West of England: "The added value offered by the EIT has not been demonstrated. Nor has the source of funding. This proposal seeks to emulate the MIT while ignoring the fact that the MIT is privately financed and not state-owned, which is a principal reason for its success."

New university’s academic shopping spree

Three US universities have signed deals to help a new Saudi Arabian institution design a curriculum and hire faculty. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a $10 billion (Rs.40,000 crore) research institution due to open next year, has announced arrangements with Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin. Stanford and Berkeley will each receive $10 million (Rs.40 crore) over five years, plus another $15 million (Rs.60 crore) to fund collaborative research. Berkeley will assist in the recruitment of faculty members and help to design a mechanical engineering curriculum, while Stanford will focus on applied mathematics and computational science.

The University of Texas has also signed a deal worth $27 million (Rs.108 crore) over five years to help establish a programme in computational earth sciences and engineering. Announcements concerning other US institutions are expected shortly.

However, some academics are concerned about potential limits on academic freedom in Saudi Arabia, the possibility of discrimination against women and certain religious groups, and the danger that the Saudi institution might be seen to be "buying" prestige from US universities. The Contra Costa Times, a Californian local newspaper, quoted a Berkeley academic as saying that the arrangement had raised "huge concerns" among faculty members, while an engineering professor told the San Francisco Chronicle that Berkeley was "selling its prestige". "It is like we are selling our name for the new university to be able to say, ‘we have Berkeley-class faculty’," he said. "A public university has no business saying that."

Albert P. Pisano, chairman of Berkeley’s mechanical engineering department, acknowledges that concerns had been raised about discrimination in Saudi Arabia, but insists: "We are going to have an agreement in which any kind of discrimination will be forbidden. This new university will have no discrimination at all."

Ahmad O. Al-Khowaiter, the Saudi institution’s interim provost says that these concerns are based upon "uninformed criticisms". "The King Abdullah University was established on the highest standards of non-discrimination," he says.

The research collaboration is expected to focus on areas that are mutually beneficial for the Middle East and California. This may include the development of alternative energy sources and improvements to methods of extracting drinking water from seas and oceans.

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