academic mall
Globalisation affects tertiary education worldwide, but the southern hemisphere has unique problems
Marianne Merten
Harvard law professor Arthur Miller sold his teaching material to an online education provider, but the Ivy League university blocked the transaction and the matter is now before the courts. Pharmaceutical companies have stepped into the funding gap at universities by supporting research, but frequently proscribe the publication of findings until several years later. Murdoch University in Australia, which maintains the right to lease its land to petrol stations and fast-food outlets, was nicknamed “McMurdoch” during student protests against the corporatisation of the campus. These examples of how globalisation has affected tertiary education emerged during an international conference of higher education researchers, experts and academics in Cape Town this week. Globalisation and Higher Education:Views from the South was organised by the British-based Society for Research into Higher Education, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Education Policy Unit at the University of the Western Cape . But the impact of globalisation is different in southern hemisphere countries, where academics are often underpaid, and there is a lack of private funding and pressing social needs. The head of the Centre for International Higher Education at Boston College in the United States, Professor Philip Altbach, said globalisation is not necessarily a bad thing but could negatively affect academic freedom.
Due to financial pressures university administrators often push academics into collaborations with the private sector without looking at the consequences. This corporatisation can limit academic freedom, what research is conducted and who has access to knowledge, Altbach said. Globalisation-induced trends include the move from university administration to management in line with best business practices, short-term contracts tied to performance evaluations instead of tenure for academics and an increase of student enrolments through new teaching possibilities made possible by information and communication technology. Pressure also led to the establishment of international cooperation between universities like Universitas a network of universities from Australia, Britain, theUS and New Zealand linked through Net technology and education-for-profit groups like the US-based Jones International. According to Centre for Higher Education Transformation director Nico Cloete, the increase of foreign private tertiary education institutions in South Africa is one consequence of globalisation. Many white school leavers are opting to attend these institutions, believing they will gain global skills even if this is not so. Such institutions must register with the Council on Higher Education before they can operate locally. Council CEO Saleem Badat said it was not a case of not wanting foreign private institutions in South Africa, but a question of what their aims were. Many foreign private higher education institutions are merely setting themselves up to expand their student numbers and thus market shares. The registration process is aimed to protect students and ensure quality. Badat said South Africa faces a double challenge. It must deal with the pressure to be a global player while addressing social needs like primary health care, HIV/Aids and literacy. “In our context because of our history we have to address them almost simultaneously,” he said, adding that universities in the north dealt with these issues one by one over decades. The government’s human resource development strategy, currently before the Cabinet, will set general targets for what types of graduates the higher education system should produce. In keeping with international pressures on South Africa, it is expected that the focus will fall on science, economics and technology. The national higher education plan, released on March 5, aims at student enrolments of 40% in the humanities, 30% for science, technology and engineering fields and 30% in business and commerce. Yet globalisation has also generated a bias against academics and scientists in the south, regardless of their quality. One delegate said South African scientists work worldwide, but must do so at a cheaper rate than their counterparts in the north.
World Bank commissioner and former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Dr Mamphela Ramphele, who participated in an international task force on higher education and developing countries, said commercialisation is a risk that must be managed correctly. She said universities of the south and north should cooperate. While it was important for tertiary education institutions to collaborate with the private sector, universities in the south must use their unique local knowledge to negotiate the manner and aim of such collaborations. “Globalisation is like the weather. It changes. When there is snow, do we fight it or do we protect ourselves against the chill?” asked Ramphele. “What is bad is when the dominant players use their dominant position to crush the small players and when there is a push for uniformity.”