Attended the Virtual VietTESOL International Convention 2021

 

Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom

 

Confucius Institute Established in University of Battambang

Battambang (FN), Dec. 27 – the University of Battambang officially celebrated the inauguration of Confucius Institute on Thursday, 26 December 2019. The institute is located at the University of Battambang campus.

The inauguration ceremony was presided over by Sar Sokha, secretary of state of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, represented by Academician Hang Chuon Naron, Minister of Education, Youth and Sport. Confucius Institute of the University of Battambang is jointly established by University of Battambang (UBB) and Guilin University of Electronic Technology (GUET). There are two co-directors: Cambodian director is Dr. Sam Rany, and Chinese director is professor Dr. Wang Jianian.

Confucius Institute at the University of Battambang has four main objectives: first, to teach Chinese to the general public in northwestern part of Cambodia, secondly to train Chinese teachers, to prepare Chinese language exams, and to certify Chinese language teachers. Third, to consult on Chinese social, economic, cultural, and education, and fourth to provide Jointed-PhD program in China and to award a Young Leadership Fellowship.

Sar Sokha mentioned the diplomatic relations between Cambodia and China, which began on 19 July 1958, with the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk founding with Chinese leaders.

This path of communication has continued to be strengthened and expanded under the wise leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen and has become a strategic and comprehensive link to being good friends, neighbors, brothers and partners.

Sar Sokha also mentioned the reform of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport for physical education and sports in preparation for the SEA Games in 2023, which Cambodia will host. Significantly, the Cambodian sports industry has been steadily improving; for example, athletes have been steadily gaining medals in the recent SEA Games.

Uk Sarun, under-secretary of state, a representative of Prak Sokhonn, minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has highlighted that Cambodia and China have a longstanding relationship since 13th century when Chinese envoy, Mr. Zhou Daguan, who visited Angkor for studying Khmer civilization in 1296–1297. When he returned to China, he wrote his dairy notebook that were crucial documents for the Cambodian history. He said that, the most remarkable relationship is, Prince Norodom Sihanouk and former prime minister Zhou Enlai had a first meeting in the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. This first meeting reached to exchange official visits of highest leaders of our two countries in 1956, and established Cambodia and China diplomatic relations on 19 July 1958. From that time, our two leaders has strived to maintain strong relationship and development and reach to set up “a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation Cambodia –China” on 13 December 2010.

Zuo Wen-xing, Charge d’Affairs of China’s Embassy to Cambodia stated that Confucius is a great thinker and educator in ancient China. Confucius' Confucianism has had a profound impact on the development of Chinese civilization for more than 2000 years, and it is an important part of Chinese traditional culture.

“The Confucius Institute, named after Confucius, not only has distinct Chinese characteristics, but also carries the good desire of China to strengthen cultural exchanges with the world and inherit the friendship between China and the people of all countries in the world.”

Since the establishment of the first Confucius Institute in the world more than ten years ago, the construction of Confucius Institute has developed rapidly. So far, 162 countries and regions have set up 550 Confucius Institutes and 1172 Confucius classrooms in primary and secondary schools. There are 69 countries In the United States, there are more than 2.

8 million Chinese students; in the United Kingdom, there are 200,000 Chinese students in more than 5200 primary and secondary schools, according to Zuo Wen-xing.

She also stated that the establishment of the Confucius Institute at the University of Battambang will certainly play a positive role in enhancing mutual learning between Chinese and Cambodian civilizations, deepening the friendship between the two peoples, and close cooperation in the fields of culture and education between the two countries, and making important contributions to inheriting the brotherly friendship between the peoples of China and Cambodia.

Dr. Ma Jianfei, deputy chief executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters has sent a congratulatory message to the Confucius Institute at the University of Battambang. He noted that both China and Cambodia have a long history and splendid civilizations, and the friendship between the two countries has been enhanced with the passage of time.

“Cambodia is one of the first countries to respond to the “Belt and Road” Initiative. China and Cambodia are strengthening their mutual political trust and expanding pragmatic cooperation in various fields,” he said.

“Cambodia has become China’s important trading partner and investment target country in Southeast Asia. Cambodia has become a major trading partner of China and is one of the target countries for business investment in all sectors in Southeast Asia,” he added.

Dr. Ma Jianfei hoped that the two universities would give full play to their respective advantages, cooperate sincerely and work together to consolidate the foundation of Chinese language teaching, carry out varied cultural activities, and strive to make the Confucius Institute a bridge for education, cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, promoting mutual understanding and cementing the friendship between the people of China and Cambodia.

It should be reminded that Confucius Institute of the University of Battambang is the second institute in the Kingdom of Cambodia, which was approved by the Headquarter Confucius Institute at the end of 2018 after the Confucius Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia established in 2009. Confucius Institute of the University of Battambang will open to all students from Battambang with official enrollment from 2020. These majors such as Chinese, along with Information Technology, E-commerce, Tourism, Law, Engineering, and Agriculture.

=FRESH NEWS

Source: http://en.freshnewsasia.com/index.php/en/localnews/16316-2019-12-28-01-56-28.html

Orientation Workshop on Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) Presented by the EdUHK at UBB, Cambodia

On the evening of March 04, 2018, the University of Battambang (UBB) organized an Orientation Workshop in Hong Kong Ph.D. Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) to study at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), China. This fellowship is funded by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong since 2009. Prof. Lo Sing Kai, who is Associate Vice President and Dean of the Graduate School of EUHK, together with two other delegates, Ms. Poon Sin Yi Teresa, who is Assistant Registrar and Head of Administration and Ms. Wang Yifei who, is Special Project Manager of Graduate School have presented the detailed information about the fellowship and how to prepare an impressive application to succeed in this prestigious fellowship.

Consistent with the One Belt One Road Policy announced by the Chinese Government, the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) is keen to get Ph.D. students from Cambodia, particularly in the UBB. On behalf of H.E. Sieng Emtotim, Rector of UBB, lecturers and students, Dr. Sam Rany, Vice-Rector of UBB has expressed his profound thanks to the delegates who contributed their valued time and resources to motivate UBB’s staff and students to apply for this fellowship and he strongly hoped that UBB’s lecturers and students will get this Ph.D. Fellowship under their facilitation and cooperation. 

Rectors' Meeting in Brussels

Photo: March 6th - 10th, EURASHE (European Association of Institutions in Higher Education) and project coordinator co-organised meeting of twelve leading representatives from TACTIC partner universities from Cambodia, Vietnam and Mongolia. The Rectors’ Meeting took place in Brussels, Belgium in the EURASHE headquarters.

“UBB Delegates attended the TACTIC Rectors’ Meeting in Brussels” Responding to the official invitation from the European Association of Institution in Higher Education (EURASHE) under TACTIC Erasmus+ project, two UBB delegates, H.E. Sieng Emtotim, Rector of UBB and Dr. Sam Rany, Director of Institute of Foreign Languages have attended the Rectors’ Meeting at Brussels, Belgium on March 6-10, 2017. This meeting aims at providing educational leadership training for top leaders from six Asian Universities in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Mongolia, and strengthens the international cooperation among these countries. UBB delegate acquired new knowledge related the roles of stakeholder in development of European Higher Education Institutions including European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), European Students Union (ESU), European University Association (EUA), and EURASHE. Furthermore, they learned how to apply for some academic and research projects funded by European Commission and agencies. The last day, our delegate has visited the Odisee University in Brussels.

The 3 days intensive program started by the TACTIC presentation by the coordinator of the project Violeta Osouchova from Masaryk University, Brno. Thereafter the presentations of each of the partner institutions followed with emphasis on the expectations from TACTIC project. After the lunch break, EURASHE Project Manager Marko Grdosic and Policy and Communications Officer Alexandre Wipf led the evaluating discussion about strengths and weaknesses of the partner universities, followed by two European Commission representatives Manel Laporta Grau and Antonella Giorgio who covered equally important aspect of the cooperation - the role and significance of European Union in supporting the capacity building in higher education outside European Union.

Second part of the program included presentations on importance of European associations for representing the interests of higher education institutions and role of stakeholders in development of higher education in Europe. Speeches were given by Michal Karpisek, EURASHE Secretary General, Paula Ranne (ENQA, European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) and Anna Widegren (ESU, European Students Union).

On the last day of the program the participants visited ODISEE University College in Brussels. The day followed by presentation on management of higher education institutions in Belgium by Johan Cloet, former EURASHE Secretary General, former General Director of Lessius University College/Vice-General Director of Thomas More University College in Antwerp, Belgium. After that, with reflections of the participants the Rectors’ Meeting was officially closed. We are looking forward to the meeting of all partners in Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 2017.

A Colonial University for South-East Asia? The Indochinese University in Hanoi (1906-1945)

A Colonial University for South-East Asia? The Indochinese University in Hanoi (1906-1945)
By Sara Legrandjacques

(Sourse: Kyotoreview.org): The article is available at: https://kyotoreview.org/yav/indochinese-colonial-university-for-south-east-asia/

In 2006, Hanoi University celebrated its 100th birthday. In his celebratory speech, the University Rector, Prof. Dao Trong Thi, emphasized the importance of the institution’s history. Referring to its colonial birth, he highlighted almost a century of Vietnamese higher education.

Created by the French twice, in 1906 and 1917, the Indochinese University particularly developed in the interwar period after its rocky start. It remained open during WWII before its appropriation by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945. It might be suspected that this post-colonial era would have reduced its zone of influence; but from the start, Hanoi University always had striven to be a regional academic hub, especially in South-East Asia.

The 1906 foundation decree by Governor General Paul Beau (1902-1908) introduced this regional goal:

 “A set of higher classes for students from the colony and neighbouring lands is established, in Indochina, under the name “Indochinese University”. This institution aims to expand in the Far-East, especially through the use of French language, European scientific knowledge and methods.” ¹

Since 1902, Chinese students had started to enrol in Indochinese higher schools, mainly Hanoi School of Medicine.The university tried to enlarge this Asian recruitment in order to increase the French influence in the area through the propagation of French knowledge. At that time, Japanese higher schools, renovated in the 1880s, were attracting increasing numbers of students. The British were also creating new institutions in Hong Kong and Singapore. A French institution was seen as a way to compete with them and to prevent local students leaving the colony. As early as 1906, Paul Beau sent letters to French diplomatic representatives in China, Siam, the Philippines, Indonesia and a few more distant lands including Japan and India as an effort to attract potential students. But this regional advertising was hardly efficient: South-East Asian students stayed away from Hanoi and the first – and only – year group was comprised solely of Vietnamese, mostly from the Tonkin region of northern Vietnam. This project suddenly floundered: having opened in 1907, the Indochinese University was closed in 1908 because of financial issues.

This first failure did not prevent some Asian students from heading to Indochina: Chinese students from the borderlands, especially Yunnan, continued seeking out the school of medicine in the years that followed. They generally frequented Franco-Annamite or Franco-Indigenous schools in China. Furthermore, some of them were resuming their studies. Lieou Han Kouang from Kai-Houa (Yunnan), quit a military career to head to Hanoi to study medicine. This non-commissioned officer had learnt French in Shanghai and Mongtseu. After having his so-called “worthiness” checked, and thanks to support from Hanoi School of Medicine’s French director, Dr Cognacq, he left China on February 2, 1918 and enrolled in the school. ² The Hanoi University would reopen in 1917-1918 for the second time. However, French authorities were becoming increasingly suspicious of cross-border nationalism so some new rules were dedicated to this specific audience. Students were admitted for precise purposes, like helping and assisting French medical doctors in their country of origin.

Did the reopening of Hanoi University in 1917-1918 give a new momentum to this regional influence? It seems difficult to say. The renewed institution was comprised of five schools: medicine, public works, administration, teaching, and agriculture-forestry. Despite students from Southern China being attracted to Hanoi particularly by medical studies, this assessment must be put into perspective: most of the Chinese, according to the French historian Daniel Hémery, would rather chose France, ³ or other Asian, European or American countries, instead of Indochina. The Indochinese University’s audience remained local, all the more so as no mention of a regional purpose was included as part of Governor General Albert Sarraut’s plan in 1917:

“I’ve established a Board for Higher Education whose mission is to prepare the creation, organize the system and formulate the curriculum of higher schools that will be opened in Indochina to French and Native students and will be gathered to constitute the Indochinese University.” ⁴

When the Business School (1920), the School of Applied Sciences (1922), the School of Fine Arts (1924),  the School of Veterinary Training (1928) and finally, a Law School (1931) opened, this local trend still remained. By 1929, 511 students frequented the university. About half of them came from Tonkin, the northern province of Indochina where Hanoi is located. Around one-quarter were from the South, Cochinchina, and between 10 percent and 15 percent were from Annam (central Vietnam). In a nutshell, the Indochinese University was above all else a Vietnamese University. It was neglected by the Cambodians and the Laotians, even though their lands were parts of French Indochina. As Buddhist education was preserved by the colonizers, they were taught in pagoda schools, inside or outside the colony, in Siam for instance.

This trend would become noticeable in the later colonial period, when in 1939-1940, 732 students were studying at Hanoi university (table 1).

	French	Tonkin	Annam	Cochinchina	Cambodia	Laos	Chinese & Others

Biography of Dr. Sam Rany, Cambodia

Dr. Sam Rany was born on March 11, 1982, in Kampot province, Cambodia. He is currently the Vice-Rector of the National University of Battambang (NUBB), which is a public university in the northwestern part of Cambodia. Dr. Rany is the former Director of the Institute of Foreign Languages at UBB, from September 2008 to May 2017. He has also been a co-director of the Confucius Institute of the National University of Battambang (CINUBB) since 2019. 

He earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the School of Educational Studies, University of Science Malaysia (USM) in 2016. His doctoral thesis is entitled "The Influence of Institutional Integration Factors on Students’ Intellectual Development: A Case Study of Three Cambodian Public Universities". He obtained a Certificate of General Administration from the Royal School of Administration, Cambodia in May 2017, and he received a Certificate of E-Teacher Certificate of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) from Oregon University and a Certificate of Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom from Iowa State University, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to Cambodia in 2010 and 2021 prospectively. He graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Law (LL.B & LL.M) from the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), Cambodia in 2004 and 2007 respectively. His bachelor's thesis is entitled" State Responsibility in the International Law", and his master's thesis is entitled" The Notions of Goodfaith in the International Sale of Goods."

 

He has also been a lecturer at NUBB since 2008; he has worked closely with the US Embassy in terms of educational cooperation since 2009. He had hosted three US English Fellows, Mrs. Connie Leonard, Dr. Virginia Simmons, and Mr. Adam Aultowski, who had been sent by the US Embassy to work at the University of Battambang. He has successfully completed a two-year project with 25 disadvantaged students funded by the US Embassy, namely, the English Access Micro-scholarship Program from 2015 to 2017 at NUBB. He is also actively involved in some project coordinators' work, including Erasmus+, KOICA, JICA, USAID, and World Bank (HEIP). His areas of interest included English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Legal Studies, Public Policy and Public Administration, Cambodian Educational History, Higher Education Leadership and Administration, Educational Assessment, and other Social Science Research.

MYANMAR: Students to hold emergency meeting over education law

Mizzima17 October 2014 Issue No:339

 

 

Myanmar students are planning an emergency meeting to deal with concerns over the draft higher education law. Here students protest at Dagon University on September 2 against the proposed law. Photo: Nyain Thit Nyi/Mizzima

 

 

(MANDALAY) – The All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) is planning to hold an all-Myanmar students’ emergency meeting in November, said ABFSU central working committee and research committee official Aung Hmine San.

“The ABFSU, in cooperation with other organizations, needs to oppose the national education law,” Aung Hmine San said. “We think other students organizations also need to collectively oppose it. That’s why we plan to organize the students emergency meeting so that ABFSU, the University Students Union and other students organizations will be able to work together to make plans.”

Students and civic groups say the proposed law allows centralized control of universities and curtails efforts to bring about autonomy of the country’s institutions of higher learning.

An organizing committee was set up on October 4 to arrange the students’ emergency meeting. The committee comprises of 10 members of the ABFSU and 10 members of the University Students Union.

Students and education experts will discuss the national education law on the first day of the two-day meeting.  On the second day, the students propose making plans as to how to proceed.

The time, date and venue for the students’ emergency meeting have not yet been announced.

CHINA: Universities to get more autonomy

Global Times17 October 2014 Issue No:339

 

Pessimism lingers regarding effectiveness

China's top education authorities have approved new regulations for nine top universities, which seek to increase the schools' autonomy, while observers have expressed concern about their effectiveness.
The nine universities include the country's top two universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, the Ministry of Education announced on its website on Wednesday, adding that the newly established regulations will help the systematic reform of higher education and aid academic development.

Since 2013, a total of 32 universities have already seen their new regulations, which were drafted by the universities themselves, approved by the authorities.

All other Chinese universities are scheduled to establish their own regulations by the end of next year, according to the ministry.

To run a university according to its own regulations is the foundation of academic independence, Professor Xiong Bingqi, an expert in higher education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the Global Times.

With these new regulations, the universities' management is supposed to operate with a higher-level of academic autonomy than previously, he added.
Peking University's new regulations indicate that more power over school management should be delegated to students.

The university set up a supervision committee for the first time to deal with disciplinary violations by students and school staff. The committee consists of students, teaching staff, members of non-Communist parties and the university's disciplinary watchdog.

Under its new rules, Peking University students also have the chance to become members of the school's academic board, allowing them to supervise the election of academic staff and investigate academic corruption, along with professors and delegates appointed by the university president. The number of delegates appointed by the president cannot surpass 15 percent of the board members.

No details have yet been revealed regarding any selection standards or what proportion of the board will be made up of student delegates.

Although the university is encouraging students to join these new bodies, students seem to be less enthusiastic, judging by the responses of students reached by the Global Times.

"We know very little about how those student delegates will be selected and who will select them. Even if we can participate in discussions about university affairs, the administrative staff will still be in charge of making any decisions," a history postgraduate student studying at Peking University, surnamed Huang, told the Global Times.

Tsinghua University has also emphasized its autonomy as it highlights the importance of budget independence.

Xiong expressed pessimism about the enforcement of these regulations as these universities' officials are still appointed by the government and universities are still entirely government-funded.
 

GLOBAL: How Germany managed to abolish university tuition fees

The Conversation17 October 2014 Issue No:339

 

If Germany has done it, why can’t we? That’s the question being asked by many students around the world in countries that charge tuition fees to university. From this semester, all higher education will be free for both Germans and international students at universities across the country, after Lower Saxony became the final state to abolish tuition fees.

It’s important to be aware of two things when it comes to understanding how German higher education is funded and how the country got to this point. First, Germany is a federal country with 16 autonomous states responsible for education, higher education and cultural affairs. Second, the German higher education system – consisting of 379 higher education institutions with about 2.4m students – is a public system which is publicly funded. There are a number of small private institutions but they enrol less than 5% of the total student body.

Back and forth with fees

Until 1970-71, West-German higher education students had to pay tuition fees at the level of about 120 to 150 German Marks per semester. There were needs-based exceptions but basically these fees had to be paid by every student.

When they came to power in the late 1960s, Germany’s Social Democrats supported higher education expansion by promoting widening participation and equal opportunities and by increasing the number of higher education institutions. From 1971 onwards, a system of state financial assistance for students was established and tuition fees were abolished. The assistance came first as a grant, later as a mix of half repayable-loan and half grant.

During the peak period of higher education expansion in the late 1960s, exclusive funding of higher education by the states became too much of a burden. New provisions were introduced for a framework law laying down the general principles governing higher education across West Germany. The first law, introduced in 1976, included a prohibition of tuition fees.

Despite a flirtation with the idea of re-introducing tuition fees under the conservative-liberal coalition government in the 1980s, a stalemate ensued over whether tuition fees would lead state governments to reduce their regular funding to universities.

Fees win out in late 1990s

The fall of the Berlin Wall and German Unification put all reform plans on hold for several years until the whole East German system of higher education institutions and academies had been evaluated and reformed. A new discussion about tuition fees then started around the mid-1990s, with their re-introduction seen as a solution to a number of existing problems in the higher education system.

Around the end of the 1990s, the dam of resistance broke by allowing the introduction of fees for so-called long-term students: students who had been enrolled several semesters past the regular duration of their study programme and had not finished.

Those states with a conservative government filed a law suit in 2002 against the framework law of higher education, arguing that its prohibition of tuition fees was an illegitimate intervention into the legal authority for educational matters of the states. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld the complaint in 2005; immediately, seven states introduced tuition fees.

In 2006, the framework law was abolished under wider reforms of German federalism. Tuition fees were capped at 500 Euros per semester, but Berlin and all East-German states refused to introduce them.

Excellence and crisis

Yet the same reform of federalism led the states to reclaim complete authority and responsibility for their higher education. This led the Federal Ministry for Education and Research to refuse any further co-funding with states on higher education. And it left the federal ministry with a lot of spare money. A large part of this was eventually invested into the German Excellence Initiative, a competitive funding programme launched in 2005 to support a group of universities to become global players.

But this also meant that the poorer states faced a funding crisis for their higher education institutions. The problem was aggravated by the fact the a number of the poorer states were located in East Germany, where all states had decided not to introduce tuition fees in the hopes to attract more students.

Gradual abolition

In successive years, as soon as state government elections have elected social democratic or green party governments, tuition fees have been abolished. The state of Hesse, for example, had tuition fees for only a single year. In the end only two states were left with tuition fees: Bavaria and Lower Saxony. The conservative government of Bavaria gave into the mainstream and abolished tuition fees in the winter semester 2013-14, with Lower Saxony abolishing fees in the winter semester 2014-15.

But the heads of higher education institutions negotiated with their ministries, arguing that they could not properly do their job of offering high-quality student experience if the loss of income from tuition fees was not compensated one way or another.

So most states have agreed to compensate their higher education institutions with extra money – not quite covering the loss in fees though – which was to be invested exclusively into the improvement of the quality of studies and teaching. Most ministries decreed that students had to be involved in decisions about how and for what purposes the money was going to be spent.

How funding works now

The present situation is that all higher education institutions receive a budget from the responsible ministry of the state in which they are located, based on annual or biennial negotiations. This basic budget is complemented by additional agreements between higher education institutions and the state concerning the intake of additional numbers of students and the money to compensate the loss of income from tuition fees.

There are additional funding programmes – some funded jointly by the states and the federal ministry – for supporting and promoting research, in the competition for excellence.

Of course, most higher education institutions continue to feel underfunded. The pressure on academic staff to attract external research funding has increased, as has competition for such grants. Still, compared to other countries in Europe, German higher education institutions continue to be rather generously funded by their states – an estimated 80% of their overall budgetary needs. There are also ample opportunities and considerable amounts of external research funding available.

Publicly funded, but for how long?

Despite the fact that competition for funding and accountability has increased in German higher education, there is still a general consensus that it is a public system and should be state-funded. The abolition of tuition fees, even by conservative state governments, reflects this consensus too. In fact, the new Federal Minister for Education and Research, a member of the Conservative Party, recently announced a major increase in the levels of needs-based state financial assistance to students that will start in the 2016-17 academic year.

But funding varies considerably depending on different institutional and regional factors. The winners of the German Excellence Initiative have received and are receiving considerable amounts of additional funding in the hope that more German universities will be able to achieve better positions on world university rankings. There were 12 German universities in the 2014-15 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, up from 10 the year before.

Higher education institutions in the poorer states (most of them in the east of Germany) receive less money and academic staff are being paid lower salaries while higher education institutions in the richer states (typically in the south) are better funded.

The debate about tuition fees – though dead for the moment – can easily be revived in the future. It has not been dropped from the agenda once and for all. Government policies continue to be in favour of tuition fees, most representatives of institutional leadership are as well, though for different reasons. But there is currently a lack of general public support. Once this has changed – and influential advisory bodies and think tanks are working towards such a change – the idea of tuition fees will be introduced again.
 

GLOBAL: Academic reputation affects citation count

Geoff Maslen15 October 2014 Issue No:339

 

An academic’s reputation plays a key role in generating increases in a scientific paper’s citation count early in its citation life cycle, before a tipping point, after which his or her reputation has much less influence relative to the paper’s citation count. This is the intriguing finding from a study by a team of collaborating social science analysts in Belgium, Finland, Italy and the US.

Using data compiled by Thomson Reuters Web of Science, the team studied 450 highly cited scientists, nearly 84,000 articles in scientific publication, and 7.6 million citations tracked over the equivalent of 387,000 publication years!

The scientists studied included 100 top-cited physicists, 100 highly prolific physicists, 100 assistant professors in physics, 100 top-cited cell biologists, and 50 top-cited pure mathematicians.

In a paper published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describe how they analysed, for each central scientist, his or her production as measured by the number of publications in a year, the cumulative number of citations received by publications, and a quantitative reputation measure defined as the net citations aggregated across all publications.

Combining several empirical features of the analysis, the researchers then investigated the role of the reputation effect, showing that author reputation accounted for a significant increase in the number of citations an academic could attract.

“Over a scientist’s career, a reputation is developed, a standing within a research community, based largely on the quantity and quality of his or her publications. Here, we develop a framework for quantifying the influence author reputation has on a publication’s future impact,” they write.

“We find author reputation plays a key role in driving a paper’s citation count early in its citation life cycle, before a tipping point, after which reputation has much less influence relative to the paper’s citation count. In science, perceived quality, and decisions made based on those perceptions, is increasingly linked to citation counts. Shedding light on the complex mechanisms driving these quantitative measures facilitates not only better evaluation of scientific outputs but also a more transparent evaluation of the scientists producing them.”

The researchers say that scientific reputation has emerged as a key “signalling mechanism” to address the dilemma of excessive information that arises in tasks such as evaluating, comparing, and ranking publication profiles in academic competitions. As well, a scientist’s reputation plays an important role as a signal of trustworthiness and quality, “a role that addresses directly the ‘agency problem’ characterising the reward system in science”.

“With little time to read every paper on a given topic, this trustworthiness signal is anecdotally consistent with the common practice of perusing the author names when preliminarily evaluating the relevance of a newly found publication,” the team says.

“In the past, an author’s identity and associated reputation was mainly linked to reference lists and personal interactions. Nowadays, an author’s reputation is becoming increasingly visible through searchable publication databases, laboratory websites, press, and other media, in addition to citations.”

In their introduction to the paper, the researchers say that citation counts are widely used to judge the impact of both scientists and their publications. Although many factors outside the pure merit of the research or the authors influence such counts, few investigations have been made into identifying and quantifying the role of author-specific factors.

They note it is also likely that institutional affiliation and journal reputation play a role in the citation dynamics. But they suggest that disentangling the interaction between the multiple reputation sources will likely be challenging and remains an open avenue for investigation.

Nevertheless, as measures are becoming increasingly common in evaluation scenarios throughout science, the researchers say it is crucial to better understand what the citation measures actually represent in the context of scientists’ careers.

“Moreover, how does reputation affect a scientist’s access to key resources, the incentives to publish quality over quantity, and other key decisions along the career path?” they say. “In addition, what role does reputation play in the mentor-matching process within academic institutions, in the effectiveness of single/double blinding in peer review, and in the reward system of science?”

They note that it is also important to consider the role of reputation in light of the increasing orientation of science around team endeavours with “multiple levels of hierarchy and division of labour”. But, because it is difficult to evaluate and assign credit to individual contributors, they say there may be an increase in the role and strength of the reputation in overcoming the problem associated with asymmetric and incomplete information.

“In addition to the collaboration network, reputation also plays a key role in numerous other scientific inputs such as money, labour, knowledge, and so on, that inevitably affect the overall quantity and quality of scientific outputs.”

Young scientists lacking a reputation can be negatively affected by the social stratification in science, the researchers say, adding that the “appealing competitive advantage gained by working with a prestigious mentor may be countered by the possibility that it may not be the ideal mentor-advisee match”.

Nevertheless, they say that their results have broad implications across the scientific community, given the numerous careers that interact with top scientists via collaboration or mentorship. 

Malaysia cannot succeed unless equal opportunity given to non-Muslims, says Obama

The Malaysian Insider – 2 hours 33 minutes ago

Malaysia must ensure non-Muslims in the country also have equal opportunites as its Muslim majority if the Southeast Asian nation wanted to continue prospering, United States President Barack Obama said today of his landmark visit, 48 years after the last American president paid a visit.

"Malaysia won't succeed if the non-Muslims do not have the same opportunity,” Obama said in a townhall meeting for Asean youths at Dewan Tunku Cancelor in University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur today.

Obama said non-Muslims in Malaysia are currently facing hostility, and some have felt oppressed.

"There shouldn't be reason to discriminate, and you have to make sure that you are speaking out against this in daily life.

And as you emerge as leaders, you should be on the side of politics that brings people together rather than drive them apart," Obama said to cheers from the crowd.

Obama said this today when answering a question from a Myanmar youth on factors of cooperation that can bring Asean together given its diversity.

He pointed out that the biggest source of conflict and war and hardship throughout the world was due to people treating those who were not like them differently.

He said the situation in Myanmar right now was that the country was going through a transition after decades of oppressive government, and it was now trying to open things up, which he said is to be lauded.

"However, the danger now that they are democratising, is that there will be groups inside Myanmar that might organise themselves politically around religious or ethnic identities instead of principles of justice or rule of law and democracy.

And you can actually see conflict that would move Myanmar in a bad direction," he said, adding that one of the problems in Myanmar was that the rights of its minority Muslim community were not protected.

Obama then added that the situation was not unique to Myanmar, and that in Malaysia, which had a majority Muslim population, there were instances where those who were not Muslims found themselves experiencing hostility.

He also said that even in the US, historically, the biggest conflicts arose around race, but over the course of generations the situation had improved, to the point that he could be elected as a president.

"All of us have within us biasness and prejudices against people who are not like us or people who are not raised in the same faith or come from different backgrounds, but the world is shrinking and getting smaller.

"You could think that way when living separately in villages and tribes and did not have contact with each other.

“But with the internet and smartphones, cultures all colliding, no country is going to succeed if part of its population is sidelined and being discriminated against," he added.

He then went on to say that similarly, Malaysia would also not succeed if non-Muslims were not given the opportunity, while the same would happen in Myanmar if the Muslim population was oppressed.

"Malaysia won't succeed if non-muslims don't have equal opportunity, Myanmar won’t succeed if the muslim population is oppressed.

"No society is going to succeed if half your population made up of women are not getting the same education and employment opportunities as men too," he added.

As such, he called on youths to embrace culture and be proud of who they were, while also appreciating differences in languages, food and how differently one worshipped God, adding that these were things to be proud of and not a tool to look down on a person.

He also called on the new generation to stand in "other people's shoes and look at things through their eyes".

Obama said that almost every religion teaches the basic principle of "do unto others as you want others to do unto you" and to "treat people the way you want to be treated".

"And if you are not doing that, then we are going backwards instead of going forward and this is true for all over the world," he told the 700-strong crowd of youths and civil society representatives. – April 27, 2014.

Putin calls Internet 'CIA project'

AFP News – Fri, Apr 25, 2014

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the Internet a "CIA project" and warned Russians against making Google searches.

Putin assured a group of young journalists that the Internet was controlled from the start by the CIA and its surveillance continues today.

"That's life. That's how it's organised by Americans. You know all of this started during the dawn of the Internet as a special project of the CIA. And it keeps on developing," Putin said in televised comments.

Responding to questions from a young pro-Kremlin blogger, Putin warned that information entered on Google "all goes through servers that are in the States, everything is monitored there". 

He also made ominous comments on Russia's most popular search engine Yandex, suggesting it could become more tightly controlled.

Yandex is "partly registered abroad and not just for tax reasons, but for other reasons too", Putin said, mentioning it is partly owned by international investors and reiterating his fear of foreign control of the Internet. 

When Yandex was starting out, Putin said, they were "pressured" to have "that many Americans and this many Europeans among the executives".

"We must fight determinedly for our own interests. This process is happening. And we will support it from the government side, of course," he said without explaining what he means in detail.

Yandex handles some 60 percent of search queries in Russia and has a presence in several other countries. It allows users to search blogs and rates the most popular entries.

Yandex's shares fell over 4.3 percent on the NASDAQ after Putin's comments.

The company said in a statement quoted by news agencies that registration abroad is not done to dodge taxes but due to issues of corporate law, while foreign investment is a common feature of any Internet startup.

"Since our main business is in Russia, we pay almost all taxes in Russia," Yandex said.

While the Internet remains the main sphere for political discussion, Russia has recently cracked down on debate, with a new law allowing the government to block blacklisted sites without a court order.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny had his popular blog blocked and a widely read news site that covered opposition causes sacked its long-term editor and changed its stance after a warning on extremism from the state watchdog. 

Russia this week passed in its initial stage new legislation that would force popular bloggers to register their sites and comply with similar regulations as mass media.

The 61-year-old president has frequently been scathing about the Internet, which he once described as "half pornography", unlike Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who posts snaps on Twitter. 

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted this month that the president is a regular Internet user and even sometimes laughs at jokey Photoshopped images.

VIETNAM: Too many graduates for too few jobs

VietNamNet Bridge – The number of graduates produced by Vietnam universities every year is 10 times demand.

That is the word of the unemployment report released last month by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, which spotlighted the high unemployment rate of workers with higher education.

According to the report, over 1.2 million workers were reported as “lacking jobs” by the end of 2013, accounting for 2.63 percent of total laborers. Of this amount, 900,000 laborers had been reported as “unemployed”, which accounted for 1.9 percent of the labor force. 

The proportion of unemployed workers finishing junior colleges (3-year training) and universities (4-5 year training) was relatively high, at 20.75 percent. More than 72,000 holders of bachelors and masters degrees are unemployed.

However, the figures have not surprised analysts at all.

Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former Deputy Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, commented that the situation was foreseeable: the number of workers with higher education simply far exceeds demand.

In a report he released in 2004, Thuyet estimated Vietnam would only need 13,000-15,000 new bachelors every year. At that time, Vietnam had about 100 industrial zones (IZs) and export processing zones, which could utilize 500,000 workers at maximum. Of the workforce, 5-7 percent had junior college or university degrees, 60 percent were skilled workers, with the remaining cohort unskilled.

Supposing that Vietnam developed 10 new IZs every year, and 10 percent of workers with high education retire, Thuyet posited. Vietnam would then need to prepare 13,000-15,000 new workers [with college degrees] ever year.

At the time of Thuyet’s report, ten years ago, junior colleges and universities in Vietnam were already producing more than 200,000 bachelors every year, 10 times higher than demand. Today, the “capacity” of the universities is now double that, at 400,000.

Under the national human resource (HR) development program, Vietnam set a target of 3.5 million of workers with higher education by 2015. However, the country already had 3.7 million workers with higher education by the end of 2013.

Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Mau Diep said on Tuoi Tre that a large percentage of Vietnamese <intellectuals | degree holders> remain unemployed or have to take low-paying jobs because of the “oversupply of unqualified workers with higher education”.

However, ignoring warnings about the surfeit of workers finishing junior colleges and universities, schools continue to scale up, producing more and more baccalaureates every year. Vietnam is striving to have 460 universities and junior colleges by 2020.

Diep attributed the problem to an unrealistic education program. 

Dr Luong Hoai Nam, an analyst, has pointed out that 37 percent of university graduates cannot find jobs because they lack the necessary job skills. Moreover, 83 percent of them lack life skills, in the eyes of employers,

Nam, who as a senior executive of big corporations has interviewed thousands, noted that enterprises, or employers, usually have to re-train their employees before assigning duties to them, and prepare them with basic skills they should have learned at school.

Chi Mai

GLOBAL: Why scientists should stop publishing?

Brianne Kent25 April 2014 Issue No:317

 

Earlier this month a Japanese researcher was found guilty of scientific misconduct and two groundbreaking studies published in Nature were retracted. This is a symptom of a broken system.

Ask most scientists why they pursued a career in research and the majority will tell you that they had an innate passion for discovery. However, the current 'publish or perish' culture in academia is arguably impeding the discovery process.

Even Nobel laureates have spoken out about the negative impact of this culture, including Peter Higgs, who told the Guardian that even he would not be productive enough to compete in the current academic system.

To be a successful academic you must publish research in peer-reviewed academic journals, and preferably 'high impact' journals such as Science and Nature.

While the intention behind peer review – to maintain standards of quality – is critically important, the implementation of this process may actually be contributing to a systemic flaw.

Online archives

Using an open access archive system as the primary way of communicating and evaluating science instead of peer reviewed academic journals may be an answer. Fields such as mathematics and physics already use online archives in addition to journals.

For example arXiv.org, hosted by Cornell University library, is a not-for-profit online platform where scientists upload their papers to share their most recent findings without having to spend time and resources trying to publish their work in a traditional journal.

Once papers are submitted to the archive, moderators organise the research into categories, papers are critiqued by other scientists in the field, and authors can then revise and re-submit in a transparent process.

Employing an archive system may (1) make research more accessible to other scientists and the general public (2) help save time and resources when sharing research and (3) reduce the emphasis on impact factor as a proxy of an article's importance.

At its core, science is a collaborative global community, intended to benefit everyone.

Yet our traditional mode of publishing, peer reviewed journals, operate on the opposite principle: you only get access if you pay for expensive subscription fees. Keeping papers locked behind journal fees is a fundamental flaw in the traditional publishing system.

Over the past 10 years there has been a growing movement towards open access journals. Some publicly funded research councils, such as Research Councils UK already require that authors make their papers freely available to everyone.

Because of this, there has been an emergence of professional peer reviewed open access publishers such as PLoS, BioMedCentral, F1000 and eLife.

Open access journals are undoubtedly a step in the right direction, and are taking advantage of the digital age. However, the reliance on the pre-publication peer review system, and because they are marked with an impact factor, means there may still be room for improvement.

Impact factor

The second reason for moving towards an archive system is to keep time and resources focused on the discovery process.

An archive would remove some of the typical submission and subscription fees, would reduce time spent conducting (arguably unnecessary) experiments to appease reviewers, and reduce time spent resubmitting to different journals in hopes of trying to publish in the one with the highest impact factor.

The third reason we should adopt an archive system is to change our focus away from impact factor.

Because impact factor is calculated as the average number of citations for papers published in a particular journal during the previous two years, it is affected most by papers that make the biggest immediate splash and use methods that are deemed trendy, instead of reflecting long-term impact.

Additionally, a study showed that papers published in the highest impact journals were more likely to be retracted because their findings were no longer considered trustworthy.

This may be because the most novel, surprising and perspective-changing findings are often published in high impact journals or because they receive more attention and critique, but it is also possible that the intense pressure to publish in high impact journals may be indirectly encouraging poor or 'dodgy' science practice.

One study showed that the integrity of research is negatively affected by the pressures of the 'publish or perish' culture.

If we move away from journals with impact factors and pre-publication peer review, we could use post-publication reviews, commentaries, endorsements and number of citations to reflect the quality of the science.

We need a system that incentivises and rewards sound research methodology.

An archive could increase transparency and foster the collaborative nature of science, while also re-directing a higher proportion of time and resources towards conducting the best science, instead of trying to publish in the best journals.

* Brianne Kent is a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, doing a PhD in experimental psychology. She and fellow postgraduate students at the university have formed a discussion group to address the current science culture.

Japan: Riken affair boosts orders for anti-plagiarism software

Kyodo 

Apr 17, 2014

KOBE – A growing number of universities in Japan are introducing software systems to detect plagiarism in academic papers amid the evolving controversy over the “STAP cell” papers produced by Riken, the state-backed research institute.

Under an ordinance that took effect in April 2013, the education ministry has made it mandatory for all doctoral theses to be published on the Internet, replacing its decades-old rule requiring publication in print.

An official at a company selling plagiarism-checking systems said, “I believe more and more universities are introducing the system because if plagiarism comes to light after the theses are published, the credibility of the university’s oversight will be called into question.”

One popular product is iThenticate, which was developed by a U.S. company. It uses a database containing 130 million theses published on about 45 billion websites or in academic journals including the U.S. magazine Science and the British journal Nature, which published the papers at the center of the Riken incident.

The program reveals, for instance, the percentage of descriptions in papers tested that match those found in papers in the database.

Tokyo-based iGroup Japan, which markets the software, said nine universities including Waseda University, Nagoya University and Kanazawa University are already using the software, while Kobe University and the University of Fukui are considering it.

The company said it has seen a surge in inquiries since the Riken controversy erupted after Nature published findings by one of its researchers, Haruko Obokata, in January.

Obokata was hit by a number of allegations, including that she quoted a passage from another paper about a laboratory experiment method without identifying the source.

Riken, in its final investigation earlier this month, said Obokata had not engaged in willful misconduct concerning the passage, noting the quote was the only one of 41 where Obokata did not give attribution, and that the method in question is a common procedure used in many laboratories.

Obokata’s doctoral thesis for the degree she received in 2011, however, has been investigated by Waseda University after allegations she copied passages from at least one other paper.

The top private university also announced it has started checking all doctoral papers — around 280 of them — at its science and engineering school set up in 2007, citing possible retractions. Plagiarism has been alleged in at least one other paper so far.

A Nagoya University professor affiliated with a scientific research department said he checked papers to be submitted to academic journals by two of his students, using the plagiarism checker. He said he found minor similarities with other papers but determined there was no plagiarism.

“It’s convenient because academic instructors aren’t aware of all the writing in the world,” he said, adding that one defect with the software is that it cannot check plagiarism in images.

Seiichi Fujita, an executive director in charge of education at Kobe University, said, “Once the students know that we have introduced the system, we can also expect a deterrence effect.”

At least 30 universities across Japan have introduced a similar program called Turnitin, which uses almost the same database as iThenticate and allows registered students as well as instructors to check theses.

Another product named Copypelna launched in 2009 has been introduced at over 300 universities across Japan. It combs the Internet to see if there are any passages similar to those found in the paper in question.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has been reviewing guidelines on research misconduct and is planning to encourage universities and research institutions to hammer out their own programs to raise awareness of ethics among researchers.

Shigeaki Yamazaki, professor of scientific communication at Aichi Shukutoku University, said, “If universities introduce (a plagiarism checker) abruptly, it may create distrust between instructors and students.”

He suggested that schools try various approaches slowly to increase ethical awareness such as by asking students to consider how they would feel if others stole their theses.

MALAYSIA (USM): CROSSING BORDERS, BRIDGING MINDS

Sources:Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) at http://www.usm.my/index.php/en/admin/news-article-english/2151-crossing-borders-bridging-minds

PENANG, 14 April 2014 – Career success depends on graduates with an ability to understand and work effectively with others of different cultures and backgrounds, Professor Dr. David W. Chapman said in his talk Crossing Borders and Bridging Minds in Higher Education.

The public talk, the first in a series on higher education organised by the National Higher Education Research Institute (IPPTN), was delivered at the University Conference Hall by Chapman who is a Distinguished International Professor and Birkmaier Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. He is also a Fullbright visiting professor to IPPTN.  

He said that universities have to create opportunities within their curriculum that connect their students and faculty members to their peers in other countries and other cultures.

Such opportunities are in the form of partnerships and collaborations that Malaysian universities have created with universities in other parts of the world.

“Many countries want to strengthen their higher education system as a means to national economic development,” he said.

On the other hand, international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank, United States Agency for International Development, World Bank, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organisation need to disburse and seek strategies that can be used to strengthen the quality of instruction and research in universities.

Chapman pointed out that international university partnerships have grown in popularity with more than 1,000 cross-border university partnerships among universities with Asia alone.         

He added that it is often assumed that if weaker universities work with stronger universities, they will be able to raise the quality of their universities.

This subsequently led to surveys and modified focus group discussions with universities and government administrators across Asia to garner their views.

“It was found that they feared that the greatest benefits of university-to-university collaboration can also be the greatest risks because, while there are opportunities for quality improvement, there is also a risk of low quality instruction.

On the question of whether cross border partnerships can actually help universities, Chapman said that the prevalent view of those questioned is that the benefits outweigh the cost of collaboration but none of those questioned can agree on what models of collaboration work best.

It was found that research collaboration is mostly limited to top tier universities and that there is some scepticism about the motives of collaboration, mostly concerning about the profit orientation of partners and universities often sought partners of equal standing.

Earlier, the Organising Chairman Professor Dr. Wan Fauzy Wan Ismail highlighted that IPPTN aimed to promote knowledge dissemination, share issues, solutions involving higher education in local and international institutions of higher learning, and collaboration and specialisation in higher education policy.

Professor Dato’ Dr Susie See Ching Mey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry & Community Network) said on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Professor Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman that globalisation has opened up opportunities for countries to share their experiences and learn from one another.

She added that in keeping touch with globalisation and the borderless world, USM is committed to enhance and produce graduates who are not just intellectuals, knowledgeable in technical and professional skills but also meet the needs of the global society.

Also present at the talk were Professor Dr. Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain, USM IPPTN director; and Professor Dato’ Dr Norzaini Azman, an associate research Fellow from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 

- Text: Yong Check Yoon/Photo: Mohd Fairus Md Isa