Transcript Presentation - UNESCO Bangkok

Higher learning and the pursuit of
a democratic regionalism
Peter Quiddington
University of New England
Australia
Presentation to the Asia-Pacific Sub-regional Preparatory Conference for the 2009
World Conference on Higher Education.
Facing Global and Local Challenges: The New Dynamic for Higher Education.
Macau, September 24-26, 2008.
Introduction
•
Two students are shot dead and five are wounded when a Chinese student armed with hand
guns opens fire on a tutorial at Monash University. The gunman was in his mid 30s and
excelled at his studies in econometrics, but classmates said he was a loner who struggled
with English. (2002)
•
A young Chinese student is bashed to death by her boyfriend, but her body is not found for
another eight months. She is not missed by the university and her killer flees back to China,
causing legal complications over several years, partly due to the lack of an extradition treaty
between China and Australia. (2004)
•
A 22-year of Chinese woman, a student of commerce, is brutally murdered and left half
naked in a street in Perth. (2004)
•
A 41-year old Chinese academic is attacked by a gang of youths and beaten on his way
home from Victoria University, in Melbourne. He dies later in hospital. (2008)
Typical missions
•
‘Advocating and upholding fundamental human and civil rights as the only
just, sustainable basis for a humane civilisation, and challenging all staff and
students to understand and accept their moral educated,informed, tolerant
citizens of their own societies and of the responsibilities as wider international
community’
•
‘…commitment to improving the human condition and our support
for social justice, human rights and a sustainable environment,
our research and educational programs will embrace themes and
problems relevant to the regions and countries in which they take
place…’
Key argument
• The university is essentially a civil institution.
• The civil and social outcomes are not secondary, but
primary to its business.
• Pursuit of these outcomes provide the basis of the
institution’s comparative advantage.
‘higher education remains an institution one of whose outstanding
features is an immense and omnipresent organisational memory–a
feature shared by few other social institutions, with the obvious
exception of the churches, the law courts and the legislature’ (Neave
& van Vught)
Higher learning, state formation and
transformation
Globalisation as an ongoing process
• Organised higher learning in scribal cultures - urban-based
technological societies
• Autonomous institutions (the academy) - the emergence of the
prototype state (ancient republics)
• The medieval university - genesis of the secular state (1100-1200s)
• The reawakening of Platonic humanism - the spread of the system of
states
• The Scientific Revolution - the modern state and global bipolarism
• Late (post) modernity - mulitpolarism and regionalism
Movements and cycles
• The spread of humanism across Europe (1400 -1600s), Mass
movement of students: ‘The Grand Tour’ high fees, declining
standards
• Advent of printing, court society, princely bureaucrats, taxation and
the rise of absolute monarchs,
• Treaty of Westphalia 1648
• Retreat into nationalism in 1600s
• Scientific Revolution, better navigation, imperialism
Current and Proposed Regional Agreements in the Asia
Pacific Region
Source: Hufbauer G.F & Schott J.J. (2007)
Formal university-to-university links
(Australia-China, Australia-United.States).
0
en
d
u
St
t
ch
x
e
y
ud
t
S
a
100
200
ge
n
a
oa
r
b
d
ge
n
a
h
xc
e
f
e
af
t
iv
t
S
ra
o
b
la
l
Co
Source: Universities Australia (2008)
300
400
500
600
700
China: Active
China: Not Active
US: Active
US: Not active
Source: Butler 2005
Medical and
Health Sci
Germany
Singapore
Agric, Vet and
Envir Sci
Engineering
Canada
China
Inf, Comput,
Comm Sci
Biological
Sciences
England
France
Earth
Sciences
USA
New Zealand
Chemical
Sciences
Physical
Sciences
Mathematical
Sciences
Percent
Distribution of international collaborations
- by field and country
Japan
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Selected award course completions 1996-2006
Domestic
Overseas
2005
2005
2004
2004
2003
2003
2002
2002
2001
2001
2000
2000
1999
1999
1998
1998
1997
1997
1996
1996
0%
20%
Source: DEST 2007
40%
60%
80% 100%
0%
Natural & Physical
Sciences
Management &
Commerce
Society &
Culture1
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Selected degrees awarded by citizenship 1996-2005
Domestic
Overseas
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Doctorate by Research
Master's by Coursework
Source: DEST (2007)
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
0%
Doctorate by Coursework
Bachelor's Honours
Master's by Research
Bachelor's Pass
International student experiences 1984-2005
Feel unsafe
Loneliness
2005
Discrimination
1984
Financial difficulty
Language
competence
0
10
20
Sources Goldring (1984) and (Deumert et al 2005)
30
%
40
50
60
70
Au
st
r
Fr ali
G a a
er nc
m e
Ir an
el y
a
Ja nd
pa
To
ta U n
l O .S
EC .
D
Au
st
r
F a
G ra lia
er n
m ce
Ir an
el y
a
Ja nd
pa
To
ta U n
l O .S
EC .
D
Au
st
r
F a
G ra lia
er nc
m e
Ir an
el y
a
Ja nd
pa
To
ta U n
l O .S
EC .
D
Au
st
r
Fr ali
G a a
er nc
m e
Ir an
el y
a
Ja nd
pa
To
ta U n
l O .S
EC .
D
Basic research as a percentage of R&D performed by sector
0.9
0.5
Higher Education
0.8
Private Non-Profit
0.7
0.6
Government
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
Business
0
1981
Source: OECD, extracted by Vincent-Lancrin 2006
1992
2003
Conclusions
Australia has been a policy innovator and catalyst, taking a leading role in bringing a
greater level of market based competition to higher education across the region.
.
What now needs to be recognised is that there exists a zero sum game in the
expansion of higher education. A focus on the instrumental aspects can undermine the
most important functions of the university, that both generate its comparative advantage
and enrich its civil purpose.
A clearer vision of higher learning emerging for the future will fully acknowledge the
instrumental and symbolic functions of advancing knowledge.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
GLOSSARY
ANZCERTA : Australia and New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade
Agreement AFTA : ASEAN Free Trade Area
APEC : Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation APTA : Asia Pacific Trade Agreement
(Known as Bangkok Agreement)
ASEAN : Association of Southeast Asian Nations BIMSTEC : Bay of Bengal Initiative
for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
CAFTA-DR : Central America Free Trade Agreement and The Dominican Republic
CEPEA : Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia
EAFTA : East Asia Free Trade Area FTAAP : Free Trade Area of the Asia–Pacific
NAFTA : North American Free Trade Agreement SAARC : South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation
SAFTA : South Asian Free Trade Area
(Note Many involve the Pacific Islands but far too many to include)