International News

Falling behind fears

America’s global competitiveness is being threatened by a failure of its universities to educate those needed to replace baby-boomers in high-level jobs who have reached retirement age, says an independent report. The latest ‘national report card’, issued every two years by the National Centre for Public Policy and Higher Education, says the US has fallen behind other nations in the race to educate its workforce, and the problem is being exacerbated by the rising cost of higher education.

James Hunt Jr, chairman of the centre’s board of directors and former governor of North Carolina, says the findings "challenge the notion that the American higher education system is still the best in the world". "Our country must not remain satisfied with past achievements or reputation. We can and must mobilise our nation, our states and our colleges for success in this global competition."

The imminent release of long-awaited recommendations from the US government’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which Governor Hunt also chairs, is expected to spark a debate. This year’s report card was given extra gravity by the presence of Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, who appointed the commission.

Universities have been successful in softening the harsh criticism of them in earlier drafts of the commission’s recommendations. But there is growing evidence that US higher education is losing its international dominance.

The latest findings show that young Americans are falling behind their counterparts in other countries in terms of the level of university enrollment and completion rates. While the US is still a world leader in the proportion of people aged 35 to 64 with degrees, it comes seventh in this measure for 25 to 34-year-olds. Several nations have overtaken the US in access, and in the most recent international comparisons, the US ranks in the bottom half in terms of university completion rates.

"Our country could experience a drop-off in college-trained workers just as the rest of the world is gearing up to surpass us in higher education," says Hunt.

Britain

Challenge to A level exams

An alternative to the common ‘A’ level exam backed by top independent schools like Eton could end the ‘level playing field’ between state and private sixth form (class XII) students, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has warned.

The private schools’ sector has drawn up the Cambridge Pre-U. Teachers from Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse and other independent schools have devised a traditional-style exam, which will have oral presentations or vivas, extended essays and long problems in maths and sciences. There will be no modular exams.

The Pre-U, to be introduced fraom 2008, is supported by private schools which feel the A level exam no longer fulfils its original purpose of a rigorous and educationally valid selection exam for university. The present A level system is also being undermined on another flank because the government appears to be moving towards a 14-19 curriculum closer to the blueprint set out in the Tomlinson report.

In September, prime minister Tony Blair and Alan Johnson, education secretary, were on the verge of announcing at the Labour party conference that all pupils were to be given an entitlement to study for the International Baccalaureate. It is understood a last-minute decision to hold off for now was taken, in part, due to concerns it would be seen as a U-turn over Tomlinson.

But ministers are believed to be keeping an open mind and are also considering introducing extra courses for A level students to ensure they are up to scratch in English and maths.

Comments John Bangs, NUT’s head of education, about the proposed Pre-U courses from Cambridge International Examinations (CIE): "We are very concerned about this indeed. It looks like an attempt by private schools to get a unique and special qualification, so they can claw back their dominance of leading universities. It’s a separatist move, which could be costly for the vast majority of kids."

Shortly thereafter, Andrew Boggis, chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, said private schools risked damaging the exams system if they opt for courses like Pre-U. But Kevin Stannard of CIE, says the board is seeking accreditation for the Pre-U to be taught in state schools as well and is committed to making it widely available. "This is not an attempt by independent schools to establish pre-eminence, but a recognition that improvements are needed in the quality of what students and teachers experience (in A levels)," he says.

The A level is also under threat from the International Baccalaureate. Ministers have noted more state than private schools are now offering the baccalaureate and are considering how to respond. Blair has already declared himself a fan. During last year’s election campaign he praised the broader range of subjects it offered and called the A level "too narrow".

Windsor provokes retirement age storm

The province of Ontario has introduced an age discrimination law that will make it illegal to force university staff to retire at 65. The law takes effect in December, making Ontario the eighth among 13 provinces and territories either to abolish mandatory retirement or rule the practice discriminatory.

The law ending mandatory retirement was approved last year. The government offered institutions a one-year transition period to implement the change. Most universities in the province allowed professors who reached the age of 65 in 2006, before the law came into effect, to stay on. Many accepted that since the practice had been ruled discriminatory, they should ban the practice before the law kicked in.

Only one of the province’s 18 universities recognises 2006 as a year of mandatory retirement. The University of Windsor has terminated the full-time status of all its 2006 retirees, including 18 professors. It has been accused of taking advantage of the last few legal months of mandatory retirement to save on salaries.

Windsor’s faculty association alleges that bringing in new faculty, while releasing full-time staff whose experience puts them on the top salary rungs, is financially motivated. The association claims that the university has gone on a hiring spree, recruiting 422 tenure-track professors over the past eight years. Some departments have rehired retired academics as lower-paid sessional staff. The university says it is a case of early planning — all retiring staff were replaced with "bridge" appointments and there were insufficient funds to keep on both sets of faculty.

Neil Gold, vice-president academic, rejects accusations of a cost-saving strategy, claiming that new staff weighed heavily on his budget when recruitment costs were factored in. But, according to a university document, five of the new positions were introduced after the legislation was announced, meaning that Windsor could have avoided hiring replacements and kept on staff who were reaching 65.

Brian Brown, faculty association president, questioned why retiring staff could not carry on working. "If other universities can do that, why not Windsor?" Observers say the episode suggests that legislation abolishing mandatory retirement might backfire. If governments give universities time to hire faculty to replace staff coming up for retirement, some might try to save money by shedding older, expensive faculty.

HIV-Aids researchers on warpath

South Africa’s HIV-Aids researchers have accused the government of depriving them of the support they need to fight the disease. Hoosen ‘Jerry’ Coovadia, who chaired the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban in 2000 — the first held in the developing world — has sharply criticised the government’s unscientific approach to the virus. He says the government is undermining research and crucial interventions, "embarrassing" the country and ambushing efforts to halt the epidemic.

The government’s attitude has been "an utter disaster, as it has promoted anti-scientific policies, treatments and methods of intervention", says Coovadia. "Many interventions that were worked out globally and in South Africa have not been able to be tested. Funding agencies are saying that we know what has to be done but cannot intervene beyond research projects… without the support of the government. It has also been incredibly difficult to get approval and support from state-related bodies such as the Medicines Controls Council, which gives permission for scientific studies."

There were 11 South Africans among the 81 scientists who wrote to President Mbeki. Kgosi Letlape, chair of the South African Medical Association, accuses the health minister of confusing the public and breaking the law. Within days Ms Tshabala-Msimang was stripped of sole responsibility for HIV-Aids, and deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has assumed a more active role as head of a revitalised National Aids Council.

A government spokesman stressed that its programme "is based on the belief that HIV does cause Aids".

Research control row

French scientists are furious about alleged government plans to gain control over the forthcoming Research Evaluation Agency. The mounting protest is the latest in more than two years of revolt against reforms to France’s research system. It is mainly over a top-down rather than bottom-up method of selecting members of the ad hoc evaluation committees to be set up by the agency.

An open letter to prime minister Dominique de Villepin, calling for the withdrawal of a draft decree on the agency is being launched on the web and on paper by all the higher education and research unions. The opposition continues despite a government climbdown on one important point in early September. A draft had said the new agency would evaluate all research institutes, laboratories, degrees and training, but the government offered to return to a proposal for existing organisations to continue to evaluate laboratories.

"This issue has upset most of the scientific community," says Jean Kister, deputy general secretary of the science researchers’ union SNTRS-CGT and union representative on the board of directors of Inserm, the biomedical research agency. "The fact that the government has backtracked on labs shows that it is aware how extensive opposition is to the decree."

But the unions are still upset by a lack of consultation before the publication of the draft and the proposed cascade system for nominating members of the ad hoc evaluation committees. These will be chosen by the management of the Research Evaluation Agency and the directors of its three evaluation sections.

The agency will in theory be independent, but the research minister will appoint the management team and the three directors. This "seriously strengthens" the government’s hold over basic research, says the SNTRS-CGT. The agency will also authorise procedures for the basic research agency CNRS, Inserm and the National Committee of the Universities to assess their staff.

Until now, research and researchers have been assessed by committees of elected peers.

Soft anti-nepotism code

The University of Bologna has introduced an ethical code to address issues such as discrimination, academic freedom, conflicts of interest, intellectual property, plagiarism, sexual harassment and nepotism. Pier Ugo Calzolari, Bologna’s rector, says the code "seeks to cover those issues that are not governed by law", but adds that it will not result in imposition of disciplinary sanctions: if violations are found by the commission charged with applying it, staff will receive reprimands only.

The Italian media has suggested that the main target is nepotism, a scourge that affects to greater or lesser extent the country’s entire university system. Nepotism is covered in the greatest detail in the code, describing the types of relationships that would come under suspicion. It states that where there is a family link between a senior academic and a graduate student or junior academic, there is nepotism if the "protector" and the "protected" work in the same subject area, and/ or if both work in the same department.

It seems unlikely that the code will strike terror into hearts of academic barons striving to place their protégés. First, the composition of the commission to enforce the code is yet to be defined. If it is made up of academics, it seems unlikely that they will deal harshly with a colleague. Second, the rector has no powers to dismiss or transfer anyone.

New anti-terror law hits research

A respected academic who won one of Australia’s biggest research grants has been forced to drop plans to interview international terrorist leaders as part of a study into suicide bombers. Riaz Hasan, an emeritus professor of sociology at Flinders University, Adelaide, who was born in Pakistan, had to abandon the idea of interviewing the leaders after the intervention of Australia’s attorney-general Phillip Ruddock. Ruddock sought a meeting with the academic and told him he should abide by Australia’s new anti-terrorism laws.

The organisations Prof. Hasan had planned to approach included Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, Islamic Jihad in Egypt and Jemaah Isalamiah in Indonesia. The Australian government considers each of these groups or their military wings to be terrorist organisations.

The Australian Research Council awarded Prof. Hasan a grant of A$ 829,000 (Rs.2.56 crore) for a five-year project that includes compiling a database of suicide bombings over the past 25 years. He went to London after the July 7, 2005 bombings to develop contacts within the Muslim community, but he says he would now rely on results of the inquests.

In an interview on ABC Radio, Ruddock said he did not expect that genuine academics would break the terrorism laws, but that under the legislation it was an offence to associate with terrorists. He said academics needed to consider whom they chose to interview.

Meanwhile Prof. Hasan has modified his research design and will find other ways of obtaining information to achieve his research objectives. The first component of the research project will be to prepare a comprehensive database of suicide attacks, who carried them out and who was involved. The second stage initially involved interviews with leaders and organisers responsible for the attacks, their members and other functionaries, as well as the families of suicide bombers and survivors.

Many academics believe they and their students are being monitored by intelligence agencies and federal police. At Monash University, a Ph D politics student was questioned by federal police after borrowing university library books on the Palestinian conflict as part of his studies in martyrdom.

IDP acquires commercial muscle

An online employment and training company with offshoots in the UK and New Zealand has bought a half share in Australia’s biggest recruiter of foreign students. In end-September Seek Ltd paid A$36 million (108 crore) for 50 percent of shares in the commercial arm of IDP Education Australia.

IDP was formerly a not-for-profit company owned by 38 of Australia’s 40 universities. The company faced financial collapse 18 months ago, when rapid growth of Australia’s A$7.5 billion (Rs.22,500 crore) a year education export industry suddenly stalled. Savage cost-cutting pushed IDP back into the black last year and the company generated a profit of A$6.64 million from revenues of A$82 million. To boost capital, the university shareholders decided to form a commercial company and find a partner from the private sector.

IDP, formed in 1969, recruits international students on a commission basis for all education sectors — universities, vocational education and training, English language colleges and schools. Federal education department figures show that more than 330,000 foreign students are undertaking courses in Australia this year, with half enrolled in higher education. Their fees contribute A$3 billion (Rs.9,000 crore) a year to university coffers and represent the institutions’ biggest single source of non-government revenue.

Anthony Pollock, IDP chief executive, says the company plans to offer extra services to foreign students, such as assisting with accommodation, travel arrangements, healthcare, study resources, job research and career counselling. "New offices are being set up around the country," says Pollock. "We’re saying to parents and students that we can look after their interests in Australia once they arrive as well as assist with the overseas application process."

Testing foreign students’ competency in English is one of IDP’s more profitable ventures, generating more than A$30 million (Rs.90 crore) last year. The company has one-third ownership of the International English Language Testing System through its majority-owned subsidiary, IELTS Australia. In 1989, IDP joined with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and the British Council to form IELTS. The following year, the first IELTS Australia centres were established in Australia and overseas, and now 75 are scattered across the world.

Pollock says the validation and certification of students’ language and communication skills is likely to be an expanding part of the business. This is especially so in Australia, where there have been complaints about foreign students completing degrees with very poor English.

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