Gang rape in Cambodia an increasing trend

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Mom Kunthear and Bridget Di Certo

 

 Prostitutes wait for customers at a karaoke parlour in a Phnom Penh red-light district in 2009. Photograph: Sovan Philong/Phnom Penh Post

 

"At the end, she was in so much pain, I was afraid she had died,” a Cambodian sex buyer recounted to the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre and US-based Prostitution Research & Education in reference to a gang rape in which he had participated.

Gang rape is an increasingly normalised human rights violation in Cambodia, research presented by the CWCC and PR&E yesterday highlighted as part of their campaign to discourage men’s demand for prostitution.

“Sex buyers have negative attitudes toward all women, not only women in prostitution,” PR&E’s Melissa Farley said at yesterday’s presentation.

“We are here to shine a light on these men who buy sex and cause such great harms to women,” Farley said, emphasising that too often the perpetrators of violence against women in prostitution were “invisible”.

Nearly 40 per cent of Cambodian sex buyers interviewed for the research blamed the prevalence of Western pornography in Cambodia for a fascination with gang rape.

“The sex buyers we interviewed described gang rape as an opportunity to relax with their friends,” the three-year research presented by the two groups reads.

For about 83 per cent of men, they were with friends when they first bought sex, and for about 80 per cent of men, sex with a prostitute was their first sexual encounter.

Pok Panhavichetr, executive director of CWCC, said that even though the government and relevant organisations work hard to prevent and reduce sex trafficking by creating laws, it remains a hot issue in Cambodia as a developing country.

“Generally, we always focus on protecting and reducing the number of girls and women embroiled in sex trafficking, but we seem to work less with the men who use the sex service,” Panhavichetr pointed out.

“I say this not to mean we should punish or put the mistake on the men, but this is a natural factor that we all have to do something to reduce sex trafficking,” she added.

Chou Bun Eng, secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, said that the government today does not want to criminalise the perpetrators or victims.

“They [criminalised perpetrators and victims] have to waste time in prison or run away while they could be working for their family or doing something for developing their country,” she said.

However, the research found that for Cambodian men, the most effective deterrents to buying sex included greater criminal penalties or having their names and/or photographs publicised.

Parties to form Cambodia Democratic Movement of National Rescue

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Vong Sokheng and Bridget Di Certo

 

Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha appear on screen during a press conference in Manila today. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

 

Cambodia's two largest opposition parties – the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party – yesterday announced plans to merge into a single entity: the Cambodia Democratic Movement of National Rescue.

“In the near future, there will be one new main opposition political party as the result of a merger between the SRP and HRP,” HRP leader Kem Sokha said in a video conference with SRP chief Sam Rainsy, who echoed those thoughts just moments later.

Speaking from Manila, where their parties had just concluded a two-day meeting at SRP headquarters there, the two politicos said they intended to run candidates under the National Rescue banner in the 2013 national elections, though they were hesitant to offer a precise launch date for the new party.

Rainsy will serve as president of the National Rescue party and Sokha will be vice president; however, finer details of the party’s structure and composition have yet to be finalised.

In a joint statement yesterday, Rainsy and Sokha “absolutely insisted” on a change in the composition of the National Election Committee and an “overhaul of the current complicated election procedures that make voting unnecessarily difficult”.

Rainsy said change would be swift and that if reform of the NEC was timely, he would return to Cambodia from his self-imposed exile in France in time for the 2013 elections.

“Our nation is drowning in disaster. The country is under the dictatorship of a leader who serves only the interests of foreign invaders,” Rainsy said during the press conference.

“We are proud that we have reached an agreement to serve the desire of Cambodian people who want to see one strong opposition party in order to rescue our nation from suffering,” Sokha added.

However, the National Rescue party is likely to face an uphill battle, commentators said yesterday.Election monitoring group Comfrel’s president, Koul Panha, said Rainsy and Sokha would have to be strategic about when and how they registered their new party so as not to lose seats already held by the SRP and HRP at the commune and national levels.

“If you merge as one party, it means the other party will lose all its seats,” Panha explained. “This is why they have to create three parties. Maybe they need to wait until 2017 [the next commune council election year] to dissolve the SRP and HRP, which have commune council seats now.”

In the recent June 3 elections, the SRP won 20.8 per cent of the popular vote and the HRP won 9.8. It was the first election in which the HRP candidates had run.

A merger between the two parties has been bandied about for years, but concrete moves toward a merger began after the success of HRP in the commune council elections – success the party would be eager to protect in the restrictive legal framework of party mergers.

Tep Nytha, secretary-general of the NEC, reiterated that the Law on Political Parties states that individual political parties can establish their alliances, or a new political party, but if the two political parties merge into one with a new name, they must register and coordinate with the Ministry of Interior.

The potential confusion of forming a third party while the two opposition parties still exist means the move would need to be clearly explained to the populace, Puthea Hang, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, said yesterday.

“If they want to build a unique party, they need to build the confidence of the people before the general election,” Puthea said. “And there is not enough time to campaign totally.

“They need more time and more discussion,” he added.

If the structure of the National Rescue party is settled between Rainsy and Sokha and an aggressive campaign is successfully implemented, the new party could perform quite well in the upcoming national elections, Comfrel’s Panha reasoned.

“There could be an increase in confidence among supporters, it could re-energise people who had lost hope of real change and encourage those frustrated people to the polls,” Panha said.

Voter turnout for the recent commune elections was the lowest in years, with only about 60 per cent of the population casting a ballot.

 

Vietnam in need of reform

Monday, 09 July 2012

Roger Mitton

 

 As the famous American financial strategist Warren Buffet likes to say: “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”

For some years now, Vietnam’s Communist Party leaders have frolicked in the surf, their brazen nudity hidden by bubbling waves of frothy, easy-credit growth.

But as is now frighteningly evident, there has been far too much froth and not enough substance.

Starting soon after Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung took office in June 2006, it was clear that the tide was drifting out and exposing some very unsavory figures.

Of course, the full extent of Dung’s naked incompetence was not immediately apparent.

Growth rates for the first two years of his administration chugged along at about 7 per cent; less than others in the region, but still not too bad.

Concurrently, a campaign against corruption, the nation’s endemic Achilles’ heel, was launched – with Dung himself becoming head of the new Anti-Corruption Steering Committee.

All fine and dandy and everyone cheered.

Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that the rosy economic figures were built on sand and about to be washed away by the retreating tide.

And that anti-corruption committee was a toothless quango designed by Dung to deflect attention from the staggering misappropriation of funds by the state-owned enterprises.

Yet for some reason, many journalists, diplomats and even alleged experts continued to report that everything was swell.

To hear them prattle on about “dynamic” Vietnam and its “booming” economy was totally baffling – as it still is today.

If only they would just Google “economic rot in Hanoi”, or “Vietnam’s financial woes” or anything similar and see the cascade of fiscal obituaries.

What is really shocking is that the malaise is far worse now than it was when Dung took over.

As Vietnam’s own General Statistics Office reported last month: “The economy is facing major challenges.” When the regime itself says that, you know things are pretty desperate.

And they are. According to the GSO, 70 per cent of the country’s businesses reported losses in the first half of this year and nearly 22,000 went bankrupt.

The inventory index of many products surged sharply, while consumption continued to decline – basically, people had less money, and the money they had was worth less, so they weren’t spending.

Vietnam’s currency, the dong, remains prone to regular devaluations – it lost 10 per cent of its value last year and is forecast to drop another 2 to 3 per cent this year.

All the country’s state-owned banks are effectively bankrupt due to the massive non-performing loans they are carrying.

Property prices, which fell 10 to 20 per cent last year, are expected to dip another 5 to 10 per cent this year.

And Vietnam’s trade imbalance not only remains huge, but it is growing – its state budget deficit alone was $2.87 billion to June 15, equal to 42.8 per cent of the full-year estimate and nearly double that of last year.

The stock market is among the world’s worst performers, and the much-heralded growth rate is down to 4.4 per cent and falling.

In short, Vietnam’s top-down command economy is dying. As the World Bank said last month, there is a drastic need for structural reforms in the state-owned companies, banks and public investments.

Thankfully, the party has finally got the message and Dung is under fire.

After it was officially conceded that “corruption is still taking place in a rampant, serious and complicated fashion in multiple areas”, he was sacked as head of the anti-corruption committee.

That was humiliating enough, but now there is open talk in many ministries, and even in the military, that Dung simply cannot cut the mustard.

Of course, we should not only blame him and his cronies, but also the people themselves for putting up with this dreadful performance.

Instead, they should heed the regime-changing message from Myanmar to Tunisia: If you want reform, it can happen.

វិភាគ៖ កម្ពុជា​អាចមាន​អតិផរណា​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ជាន់​ខ្ពស់​​នាពេល​អនាគត?

(អត្ថបទចុះ​ផ្សាយ​នៅ​ថ្ងៃ  11-07-2012, 10:07 am) |  ដោយ កញ្ញា បូរមី

ភ្នំពេញ៖ និស្សិត ​ខ្មែរ​កាន់តែច្រើន​កំពុង​រៀន​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​អនុបណ្ឌិត​និង​បណ្ឌិត។ នេះ​ជាស​ញ្ញា​ល្អ​មួយ​ក្នុង​វិស័យ​អប់រំ។ ប៉ុន្តែ គុណភាព​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​គឺជា​ក្តីបារម្ភ​ជាទូទៅ​មួយ។ សម្រាប់​ក្រុមអ្នកតាមដាន​ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​នេះ ប្រសិនបើ​គេ​មិន​ពង្រឹងគុណភាព​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ទេ កម្ពុជា​អាច​នឹង​ប្រឈម​នឹង​អតិផរណា​ថ្នាក់អនុបណ្ឌិត​ឬ​ថ្នាក់បណ្ឌិត​ដែល​ គ្មាន​គុណភាព​ជាមិនខាន។


សព្វថ្ងៃនេះ មាន​និស្សិត​ច្រើន​ម៉ឺន​នាក់​បាន​ចេញពី​សាកលវិទ្យាល័យ​ជា​រៀងរាល់ឆ្នាំ។ ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា​មិន​ខ្វះ​ទៀតឡើយ​ចំនួន​និស្សិត​ទទួលបាន​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​បរិ​ញ្ញា ​ប័ត្រ អនុបណ្ឌិត និង​បណ្ឌិត ប៉ុន្តែ ធនធានមនុស្ស​ដែល​មានតែ​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​តែ​មិនសូវមាន​គុណភាព និង​កង្វះ​ការងារ​សមរម្យ​សម្រាប់​អ្នក​ទាំងនោះ​គឺជា​ចំណោទបញ្ហា​សង្គម​មួយ។ បើ​យោងតាម​ការអង្កេត​ជាក់ស្តែង កង្វះ​ការងារ​សមរម្យ​សម្រាប់​អ្នកមាន​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ខ្ពស់​អាចជា​រឿង​មួយ ប៉ុន្តែ បញ្ហា​មួយទៀត​ដែល​អ្នកជំនាញ​មួយចំនួន​កំពុងតែ​បារម្ភ​ដែរនោះ​គឺ សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ហាក់​បានមក​ដោយ​ស្រួល​ពេក​ដែល​មិន​ឆ្លុះបញ្ចាំង​ពី​សមត្ថភាព​ ធនធានមនុស្ស។ មិនមែន​តែ​និស្សិត​ទេ​ដែល​កំពុង​ផ្អើល​រៀន​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ថ្នាក់ខ្ពស់ ប៉ុន្តែ មន្ត្រីរាជការ​មួយចំនួន​ក៏​កំពុង​ផ្អើល​នាំគ្នា​រៀន​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ខ្ពស់​ ផុត​លេខ​នេះដែរ។

តើ​មូល​ហេតុអ្វី​បាន​ជាមាន​និន្នាការ​រៀន​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​នេះ?

ហេតុផល​ទី១ វា​មិន​ពិបាក​ក្នុង​ការឆ្លើយ​ទេពី​ព្រោះ​ជា​ក្រិត​ក្រម​សត្យានុម័ត នៅពេលដែល​មនុស្ស​មាន​ឱកាស​កាន់តែច្រើន មាន​ជីវភាព​កាន់តែ​ធូរធារ ពួកគេ​ចង់​តោង​ចាប់យក​ការសិក្សា​កាន់តែ​ខ្ពស់។ ការសិក្សា​កាន់តែ​ខ្ពស់​ធ្វើអោយ​មនុស្ស​មានការ​ពិចារណា​កាន់តែ​ជ្រៅ។ ការពិចារណា​កាន់​ជ្រៅ​អាច​ជំ​រុញអោយ​មនុស្ស​មានលទ្ធភាព​ទទួលបាន​ជ័យជំនះ​ ក្នុង​ជីវិត​កាន់​ច្រើន។ ប្រទេសមួយ​ដែល​ស​ប្បូរ​អ្នកចេះដឹង​នឹង​ស្គាល់​ការអភិវឌ្ឍន៍​ប្រកបដោយ​ និរន្តរភាព។

ហេតុផល​ទី២ អ្នករៀន​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ថ្នាក់ខ្ពស់​មួយចំនួន​ហាក់​មាន​និ​ន្ន​ការចង់បាន​ កិត្តិយស​ច្រើនជាង​ចំណេះដឹង មានន័យថា ពួកគេ​រៀន​បន្ត​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​អនុបណ្ឌិត​ឬ​បណ្ឌិត​គឺ​ដោយសារតែ​ចង់អោយ​ មនុស្ស​នៅ​ជុំវិញខ្លួន​ឬ​សង្គម​អោយ​តម្លៃ​ទៅលើ​ពួកគេ។ អ្នក​ខ្លះទៀត សុខចិត្ត​បន្ត​ការសិក្សា​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​គឺ​ដោយសារតែ​ពួកគេ​មាន​ តួនាទី​តំណែង​ខ្ពង់ខ្ពស់​នៅក្នុង​ជួរ​រដ្ឋាភិបាល។ នៅពេលដែល​ពួកគេ​មាន​តំណែង​ខ្ពស់​ហើយ ដូច្នេះ ពួកគេ​ត្រូវការ​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ដើម្បី​ឲ្យ​ស័ក្តិសម​នឹង​តំណែង​របស់​ពួកគេ។ មាន​តំណែង​ខ្ពស់ មាន​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ខ្ពស់ ពួកគេ​អាច​ចៀស​ផុតពី​ការរិះគន់​របស់​មនុស្ស​នៅក្រោម​ប​ង្គ្រា​ប់។ នេះ​ជា​គំនិត​ត្រឹមត្រូវ ប៉ុន្តែ តើ​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​នោះ​ឆ្លុះបញ្ចាំង​ពី​ការខិតខំ​រៀនសូត្រ​រប​ស់​ពួកគេ​ដែរឬទេ? នេះ​ទើប​ជា​សំណួរ​សំខាន់។

 រីឯ​មូលហេតុ​ទី៣វិញ អ្នកសិក្សា​ដែល​ប្រាថ្នា​ចង់បាន​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​ពីព្រោះ​ពួកគេ​ រំពឹងថា រៀន​កាន់តែ​ខ្ពស់​ទទួលបាន​ប្រាក់ខែ​កាន់តែច្រើន។ ប៉ុន្តែ ដោយសារតែ​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ខ្វះ​គុណភាព អ្នក​រៀនសូត្រ​មួយចំនួន​បានទទួល​ការខកចិត្ត​ដ្បិត​គ្មាន​ការងារ​ធ្វើ​ទៅវិញ។

អ្នកជំនាញ​សង្គម​នៅក្នុង​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុ​ជាមួយ​ចំនួន​វិភាគ​ថា ជារួម រៀន​តែ​កាន់​ខ្ពស់​គឺជា​ប្រការ​ល្អ​សម្រាប់​ជីវិត​របស់​បុគ្គល​ខ្លួនឯង​និង​ សម្រាប់​សង្គមជាតិ​ទាំងមូល។ ប៉ុន្តែ នៅ​កម្ពុជា​បច្ចុប្បន្ន  និស្សិត​ដែលមាន​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ខ្ពស់​មួយចំនួន​កំពុង​ប្រឈម​នឹង​ការលំបាក​ក្នុង​ ការរក​ការងារ​ធ្វើ។ បញ្ហា​បណ្តាលមកពី​ទីផ្សារការងារ​ជាច្រើន​មិនទាន់​ហ៊ាន​អោយ​តម្លៃ​ប្រាក់ខែ​ ខ្ពស់​ទេ បញ្ហា​នេះ បានធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​ការងារ​សម្រាប់​អ្នកមាន​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ខ្ពស់​ហាក់​នៅមានកម្រិត។

និយាយ​បែបនេះ​មិនមែន​មានន័យថា ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា​មិនត្រូវ​ការ​អ្នកចេះដឹង​ច្រើន​នោះទេ តាមពិត​ប្រទេស​នេះ​នៅ​ខ្វះ​អ្នកចេះដឹង​ច្រើនណាស់​សម្រាប់​ជា​ធនធានមនុស្ស​ កសាង​ប្រទេស​ទៅ​ថ្ងៃ​ធនាគ​ត។ ប៉ុន្តែ គុណភាព​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ ការរៀនសូត្រ​ដែល​ខ្វះ​ការតម្រង់ទិស​ទៅរក​ទីផ្សារការងារ និង​ប្រព​ន្ធ័​គ្រប់គ្រង​សង្គម​ដែល​នៅ​ប្រកាន់​បក្សពួក​បានធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​ អ្នកចេះដឹង​ខ្ពស់​ខ្លះ​គ្មាន​ការងារ​ពិតប្រាកដ​ទៅវិញ។

សរុបសេចក្តី​មកវិញ ការសិក្សារ​យក​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​ជា​ប្រការ​ល្អ​ហើយ ប៉ុន្តែ និស្សិត​ទាំងឡាយ​គួរ​ពិចារណា​រៀន​យកមុខ​វិជ្ជា​ជំនាញ​ផង។ ម្យ៉ាងវិញទៀត អ្នកសិក្សា​គួរតែ​ក្រឡេកមើល​គុណភាព​សិក្សា​ជាជាង​សំឡឹងមើល​តែ​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ ពោលគឺ ពួកគេ​គួរអោយ​តម្លៃ​លើ​សមត្ថភាព​ផ្ទាល់ខ្លួន​ឲ្យ​បាន​ខ្លាំង​ជាជាង​ការ​ កាន់តែ​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ដើររក​ការងារ​ធ្វើ។ ម្យ៉ាងទៀត ប្រេ​សិន​បើ​គេ​មិន​ប្រញាប់​ពង្រឹងគុណភាព​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ទេនោះ កម្ពុជា​នឹង​ជួប​អតិផរណា​សញ្ញាប័ត្រ​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​ដែល​គ្មាន​គុណភាព​ជាមិនខាន៕ 

Publishers say new bill will strip incentive to supply textbooks in Canada

MJ Deschamps15 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

Canadian publishers say recently passed copyright reform is stripping away some of their financial incentive to provide books to the country’s universities and colleges.

In the new law, ‘education’ – the term is otherwise undefined – has been added as a purpose under ‘fair dealing’ which, according to Carolyn Wood, executive director of the Canadian Association of Publishers, means “copying need not be compensated if the purpose of the copying is education”.

Wood told University World News that this provision under the Copyright Modernization Act (Bill C-11) could be interpreted as permitting uncompensated access to copyrighted materials in schools and universities, without requiring them to pay levies to collecting societies for photocopying or scanning.

“It seems inevitable that such interpretations will be made, and that rights holders will be forced to challenge them through the courts,” she said.

“At the very least, we are facing a new dimension of market uncertainty, the likelihood of expensive litigation, and the possibility of substantial erosion of a crucial revenue stream.”

Greg Nordal, president and CEO of Nelson Education Ltd, Canada’s leading educational publisher, agreed that expanding provisions for ‘fair dealing’ within Bill C-11 to include educational purposes creates great uncertainty for publishers and authors.

“The expanded fair dealing provisions change the investment climate for new curriculum resources, in that the principles of reimbursement to rights holders appear to be undermined,” he said.

“Why would publishers and authors invest their time and money creating new, indigenous materials in support of Canadian educational requirements, unless there is confidence of getting viable financial returns?”

A letter sent to Canadian government senators in June 2012 on behalf of the Canadian Publishers’ Council, the Canadian Educational Resources Council, the Association of Canadian Publishers and the Literary Press Group of Canada, reflects the same sentiment.

It advocates that marketplace predictability is an essential requirement for any publisher assessing investment opportunities, and weighing risks. If publishers become uncertain about the stability and viability of the market, said the letter, “they will pull back on their investment and innovation”.

The fair dealing exception will not only have an impact on the segment of Canadian publishing and writing geared specifically towards education, the letter argued, but will also harm those “whose works are not primarily created for the education market, but are nevertheless frequently used for educational purposes”.

There is even concern from publishing groups in other countries.

In May, Thomas H Allen, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, sent a letter to the Canadian government: “If adopted in its current form, [the law will] be extremely detrimental to the educational publishing industry, both in Canada and the US,” he wrote.

Allen added that leaving the term ‘education’ undefined could lead to a dramatic change in the industry, and may also bring “destabilising disruptions to long-established licensing arrangements”.

While the publishing industry appears to be up in arms, Canadian universities are welcoming the passage of the bill.

“The bill will…help to balance the needs of researchers, students and professors with those of creators,” said Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), in a statement.

“Universities, as both users and creators of copyrighted works, have worked hard for more than a decade to push for a new copyright act, and see Bill C-11 as a very fair approach to competing interests.”

According to the AUCC, Bill C-11 will permit university researchers to obtain and keep research materials in digital format, which is expected to help facilitate online learning and distance education.

Dr Michael Geist, who holds the Canada research chair of internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said he believes that concerns from the industry are “unfounded” and that claims that the changes will allow for unlimited copying are false.

“Canadian fair dealing analysis involves a two-part test,” he said. “First, does the use – or dealing – qualify for one of the fair dealing exceptions? Second, if it does qualify, is the use itself fair?”

The extension of fair dealing to education, said Geist, only affects the first part of the test – which means that while legislation will extend the categories of what qualifies as fair dealing, it does not change the need for the use itself to be fair.

Diversify expansion to avoid a glut of ‘carbon copy’ graduates – Advisors in Singapore

Adele Yung12 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

Singapore’s university sector no longer needs to catch up with the rest of the world and should not slavishly follow Western models, simply expanding to produce more “carbon copy” graduates, according to a high-level international panel advising the government on its strategic higher education policies.

The eminent International Academic Advisory Panel that met in Singapore earlier this month cautioned the city-state against expanding the university sector without taking into account the needs of students and the economy.

This had happened in some countries where the value of the degree had become eroded and job prospects for graduates reduced, while university drop-out rates had risen, the panel said.

In particular, it warned against “the risk of gradual homogenisation of the university landscape as seen in other countries, where what started out as different models and institutions eventually drifted towards an increasingly similar, academically and research-oriented model of universities”.

The 12-member panel, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, includes: Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of Oxford University; Paul Romer, professor of economics at New York University; Yang Wei, president of Zhejiang University; Sanjay Dhande, director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; and other university leaders from the United States, Finland and The Netherlands.

They also held discussions with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Education Minister Heng Swee Keat this month.

“We are no longer in catch-up mode. We should keep taking lessons from the rest of the world but we should have the confidence to develop new pathways and models,” said Tharman during a 4 July press conference.

With an unclear economic climate and unknown future, a diverse education system was the best way to prepare young people. “Singapore must not put all its eggs into one basket,” Tharman said.

Expansion

The panel highlighted the risks of rapidly expanding traditional, academically oriented degrees in advanced and emerging economies. The consequences apparent in other countries have been “high attrition rates, reduced graduate employability and a dilution in the value of new university degrees.

“The expansion of the university sector should not simply be about producing more graduates, but should focus on ensuring quality in education and the development of skills of an applied nature, which would ensure good employment outcomes and careers,” the panel said in a statement released at the end of three days of deliberations.

While supporting an expansion of public higher education, the panel said new institutions should offer something different from existing universities.

“New models of applied education should seek to complement the existing universities and offer a ‘unique value proposition’. This distinctive model of education should nurture a different type of graduate, one who is practice-oriented and has a strong entrepreneurial and innovative bent.”

The Singaporean government has been examining whether to set up a fifth public university or invest public money in more vocationally oriented or applied higher education – for example, by expanding the number of places in polytechnics and other non-research institutions – as it moves towards admitting a third of the school-leaving cohort into tertiary education by 2015 compared to 25% now.

The panel’s message was echoed by the prime minister, who said on 7 July that Singapore had diversified the university sector and would continue to do so. Lee Hsien Loong was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Yale-National University of Singapore liberal arts college.

Singapore would enlarge its higher education sector “not by doing more of the same but by diversifying the tertiary landscape”, including looking at alternative pathways for ‘applied’ degrees, Lee said.

Social science and humanities research

The advisory panel also backed government proposals to expand social sciences and humanities research, “which would provide research on new ways to prepare people for a rapidly changing world”, according to Romer of NYU’s Stern School of Business.

There was also a need for a research council that focused funding on the social sciences and humanities while building linkages with other areas of research excellence in Singapore, the panel said.

“These linkages could advance knowledge in areas that are of local and global interest, such as in healthcare services and sustainable development.”

Other niches to develop research excellence in Singapore could include: Asian societies and markets; management of multi-ethnic social compacts; challenges and opportunities facing cities, especially global cities (for instance, sustainable urban living and social support systems); and comparative studies of governance models and practices.

The panel was established by the Ministry of Education in 1997 to advise the government on major trends and directions in university education and research, with a view to developing Singapore’s universities into world-class institutions.

It has since been broadened to provide strategic guidance on Singapore’s higher education system as a whole 

Controversial higher education bill clears parliament after delays in Indonesia

Ria Nurdiani14 July 2012 Issue No:230

Indonesia’s House of Representatives finally endorsed a controversial higher education bill on Friday, amid criticism of the way important issues such as foreign universities and student access have been handled in the legislation.

The bill had been postponed a number of times in the past year, most recently in April, over various contentious issues including financial autonomy for universities, which student groups feared would lead to tuition fee hikes.

However, all political parties agreed it was important to pass the bill into law.

“This is the right time to endorse the Higher Education Bill,” said Minister of Education and Culture Mohammad Nuh, adding that postponing the bill again could have “negative consequences”.

The bill allows some public universities to seek funding outside government sources while remaining under government regulation. Nuh insisted that increased autonomy would not mean increased fees and that tuition fee levels would be set for each region of the country.

“Universities cannot charge their students whatever they please, because we will set standards for tuition fees,” he said.

Student protesters outside the legislature said increased autonomy would pave the way for the commercialisation of higher education.

Nuh said that the bill ultimately sought to increase access to higher education, and would ensure social justice by setting a minimum seat allocation of 20% for poor students.

Regulation of foreign universities

Other articles that raised strong objections include the regulation of foreign universities.

Nuh said on Thursday: “This is a dilemma. We cannot remain closed [to foreign institutions], but we cannot open up [completely] either. That's why we will regulate them in the Higher Education Bill.”

Under the bill, only foreign universities of ‘good quality’ will be allowed accreditation. Foreign providers must be non-profit and can only set up campuses in cooperation with an Indonesian university.

Nuh said he would soon issue ministerial regulations on where foreign universities will be allowed to set up and the programmes they will be able to offer.

“They cannot open up everywhere; there are only certain areas and major subjects, for example, programmes that we ourselves cannot open because they need huge investment,” said Nuh.

But the government has given way to demands from private providers for more freedom to set their own curriculum, scrapping an article in previous drafts that gave the responsibility for regulating the curriculum to the Ministry of Education.

The National Commission for Education has criticised this, saying it is concerned that foreign institutions will not instil Indonesian cultural values, including religion and the nationalist political philosophy pancasila (five principles).

“These probably will not be included in their curriculum,” said Andreas Tambah, secretary-general of the commission.

The Indonesian Association of Private Universities said that some articles included in the bill did not need parliamentary legislation. Rather, they could have been “under government regulations or ministerial regulations”, according to Suyatno, the association’s secretary-general.

Andreas agreed, saying that some major issues such as student access had been left out of the bill while technical matters – such as the appointment of a board of trustees for universities – were included even though in his view this did not need to be regulated by a law.

“If it is regulated under the bill, it's a dead end,” Andreas told University World News.

Besides that, according to Andreas, some issues remain such as a gap between Indonesia's credit standard of 150 credit points on average compared to foreign degrees, which require only 130 to 140 credits. “That means the length for study is shorter [for foreign degrees].”

The qualifications of foreign universities, which will be legally allowed in the country, “will have more value than [those of] national universities. Students will choose foreign universities, and the national universities will be crushed,” said Andreas.

Critics also said the new bill has been rushed to fill a vacuum left after the 2008 legal entities bill had to be annulled, following a Supreme Court ruling in April 2010 that it promoted the aggressive privatisation of higher education.
 

The rise of for-profit universities and colleges in US

John Aubrey Douglass15 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

In the midst of the Great Recession, for-profit colleges and universities in the United States grew at a staggering pace in enrolment, profits and the corporate value of those traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

The 11 largest for-profit higher education companies, for instance, experienced an increase in enrolments of over 30% between 2008 and 2010. The downturn in the economy triggered ‘hypergrowth’ in for-profit institutions, including a rush of laid-off workers seeking job retraining.

Before the recent bubble, steady growth in American for-profits was already a well-worn pattern. From 2000-10, the sector grew by some 235% in enrolment, increasing its market share from 3% to 9.1% of all tertiary enrolled students.

At the same time, and not surprisingly, the number of new for-profit institutions grew. In the five-year period beginning in 2005, a total of 483 new colleges and universities gained regional or national accreditation in the US. Of those new institutions, some 77% were for-profits, compared to only 4% public and 19% independent non-profit institutions.

In total, and while still representing less than 10% of all enrolments, the for-profit sector currently accounts for 26.2% of all the post-secondary institutions.

There are specific characteristics of the for-profit sector that are peculiar to the US; others reflect global trends largely seen in developing economies. Simply put, in the US as in other parts of the world, the for-profit sector is a modern feature of changing market dynamics related to demand and supply – or the lack thereof.

The ‘Brazilian Effect’

The current US experience is a version of what I call the ‘Brazilian Effect’: when public higher education cannot keep pace with growing public demand for access and programmes, governments often allow for-profits to rush in and help fill the gap, becoming a much larger and sometimes dominant provider.

This is the pattern in many developing economies such as Brazil, where some 50% of student enrolment is in profit-driven private institutions, together with Korea, Poland and many other parts of the world.

The American case is a different twist in this common theme.

For example, Brazil began with an elite university sector and is trying to build a mass higher education system that includes for-profits and private non-profits. In the US, a once robust mass higher education system is in various stages of decline, exacerbated by the onset of the Great Recession.

Throughout the US, state governments – the primary funders and regulators of higher education – are making massive cuts in their public higher education systems and an array of social services. The decline in funding higher education is a trend long in the making, accelerating mightily over the past three years.

In the mega-state of California – the largest state in population and with an economy that would rank among the world’s top 10 in size if it were a country – budget cuts are greatly diminishing the ability of public colleges and universities to hire faculty and provide courses to meet enrolment demand. There are similar examples of retrenchment in public higher education in about half of the 50 states.

The future

The question is how this story will unfold over the next decade in the US.

Under the creed that a variety of providers creates more avenues for socio-economic mobility, the US needs a robust for-profit sector as part of any coherent effort to increase educational attainment rates, improve the nation’s labour pool, and help create a more competitive economy.

But there are indicators that an era of unquestioned and largely unregulated growth of the for-profit sector may be ending. There are new concerns at the national and state levels about the economic model of for-profits, their low degree completion rates, the quality of those degrees, their high tuition and fee levels, and the high levels of debt and poor employment record of graduates.

Despite these concerns that are spawning new federal regulations and a series of lawsuits, my prediction is that the for-profit sector will continue to grow over the long term, not so much because it meets societal demands for diverse forms of higher education, but because of the inability of the public sector to return to the levels of public subsidies it had in the past – the Brazilian Effect.

The result now, and in the future, is a kind of policy default: the future tertiary market will not be the result of a well-thought out policy at the national or state levels, but a quasi-free market consequence that will foster lower quality providers and fail to meet national goals to increase the educational attainment level of Americans.

Higher education policy is about broad issues of socio-economic mobility and economic competitiveness, but it is also about money, big business and political influence.

* John Aubrey Douglass is a senior research fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley. Email: douglass@berkeley.edu. This is an excerpt from Douglass' article, “The Rise of the For-profit Sector in US Higher Education and the Brazilian Effect”, which appears in the European Journal of Education, Volume 47, Number 2, 2012.
 

Uncapped student market to cost more than expected

12 July 2012

Canberra coffers hit by response to new 'demand-driven' enrolment policy. Susan Woodward reports

Enrolments in Australia's newly uncapped market for students are outstripping predictions and will force the federal government to fund tens of thousands more places than anticipated.
In January, Australia ushered in a "demand-driven" system, allowing its 37 publicly funded universities to accept as many undergraduates as they choose - or who choose them - while continuing to fund each place.

According to data recently released, the policy change has led to an average rise of 5.3 per cent on offers of undergraduate places compared with 2011. They have also increased 15.9 per cent since 2009, when the government announced plans for the policy and began to ease caps.
For students, the impact of the policy has meant an 87.2 per cent success rate in applications in 2012, compared with 83.7 per cent in 2009.

Daniel Edwards, who compiled the data as senior research fellow for the Australian Council for Educational Research, said growth of such magnitude had forced the government to adjust its forecast.

In 2009, federal budget estimates predicted that 458,000 government-supported places would need to be funded in 2012-13. By this May's budget, however, the figure had increased more than 50,000 places to 512,000.

A tertiary education department spokesman said the government had injected an additional A$759 million (£500 million) to meet the increased demand for 2012. It now estimates that supported places will top 560,000 by 2015, he added.

Dr Edwards said that he was in favour of the idea of a demand-driven system, but added that underestimating its impact had put the current Labor government, which is bent on cutting budget deficits, in a tight spot.

"When it grows this quickly and when it's a bit of an open cheque to the universities, it does have a bottom-line impact," he said. "There are political implications across the board when you've got something that's open and that universities are finding a market for."
The Australian Catholic University is one institution to have seized the chance to expand its offerings.

The university, which has had a 40 per cent spike in student numbers across its six campuses since 2009, now has 18,000 students. Deputy vice-chancellor Pauline Nugent said it aimed to have 25,000 students by 2017.

"ACU began a calculated growth plan several years ago in a bid to position itself for the introduction of the demand-driven system in 2012," Professor Nugent said.

Fears that the new system will mean Australia's regional universities losing students to metropolitan counterparts have not been supported by the data.

Caroline Perkins, the executive director of the Regional Universities Network, confirmed that early trends indicated that enrolments had risen by 10 per cent at some regional institutions.
"We're undergoing fairly healthy growth, but we know that it's early days...It will probably take a few years for the full impact to be felt, and we need to remain fairly vigilant about how we respond," Dr Perkins said.

"This is also a broader issue about the national need for regional universities and the training of professional people in the regions," she added.

Deputy positions mushroom at universities

Global Times | 2012-7-10 22:25:03
By Xuyang Jingjing

Two heads are better than one, as the saying goes. But when it comes to running a university, scholars and Web users in China are debating whether it's necessary for one president to have dozens of deputies.

The ever-expanding administrative departments of Chinese universities have long been a focal point of debate, with reformers clashing with entrenched interest groups. Not much has changed, and scholars say the bureaucracy is only getting worse.

Public information regarding school leadership shows that most Chinese universities have an administrative team including six or seven vice presidents and some have multiple assistants, on top of a separate Communist Party of China committee.

Peking University (Beida) has eight vice presidents, 11 assistant presidents (a role one rung down from a vice president) and about 18 Party committee leaders. The Renmin University of China has six vice presidents and six assistant presidents.

Most of the 11 assistant presidents at Peking University have other titles, such as directors of research institutes or school administrative departments, and most of the vice presidents are also on the Party committee.

Unclear roles

Web users joke that Beida, one of the most prestigious universities in China with over 100 years of history, has more deputies than some ministries. The university explained last week that most assistant positions are part-time and do not occupy any administrative resources or ranking.

"The main responsibilities of the assistant presidents are still teaching and researching, and they are helping the president handle relevant affairs part-time, which is standard practice at Beida," read the announcement.

It also said that the school is considering necessary changes and reforms to their administrative structure.

Experts and educators have pointed out that this explanation does not hold water, as the schools clearly list "assistant presidents" in the "school leadership" section.

The school didn't specify each assistant president's responsibilities, and it would seem that the vice presidents have already been assigned certain areas, such as undergraduate students or graduate students.

Gu Binglin, the president of Tsinghua University, said in 2010 that they are probably among the most exhausted presidents as they are swamped with specific affairs every day and don't have time for strategic planning. But Web users have been asking: If presidents are busy dealing with specifics, what are the roles of deputies?

These positions have been created as a consolation prize for those who didn't make vice presidents, or to give leading scholars an edge in academia, said Xiong Bingqi, an education scholar and deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Shanghai.

"It's about status symbols, recognition and resources," said Xiong.

Perks and status

Qiao Mu, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), said that the assistant presidents get lots of perks such as a budget, transportation, housing and research funding. The university has four vice presidents and four assistant presidents, some of whom are also school deans.

Things are getting worse, said Qiao, adding that they also have assistant deans or assistant directors. In contrast to teaching assistant positions in Western universities, these are all administrative titles with related benefits.

Scholars with an administrative title such as assistant president have a better chance of getting grants or having projects approved, compared to ordinary teachers.

At Beijing Foreign Studies University, a high-level professor title was given to the school's Party secretary, who hadn't been teaching for decades, according to Qiao.

Administrative positions provide a fast track for promotion, while teachers could struggle for years to move from lecturer to professor, said Qiao. Under the circumstances it's no wonder many scholars give up teaching and research to seek out power.

Assistant president positions can be a stepping stone to promotion. Five vice presidents in Peking University and two vice presidents in Renmin University used to be assistant presidents at one time or another, information on the school websites shows.

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Government run?

Internal reform is difficult, especially when Chinese universities also face the reality that they are not independent education and research institutions but a government agency.

Universities in China have different administrative rankings and enjoy different levels of status and government funding. Some top schools such as Beida or Tsinghua are ranked at the vice ministerial level, which means their presidents enjoy administrative power equal to that of a vice minister.

The government has considerable control over the school, ranging from the appointment of school leaders to the number of students it can enroll.

For instance, universities across China were asked to expand their enrollment intake from the year 2000.  University presidents are appointed by the government and sometimes became ministers or vice versa.

Educators and school administrators have realized the need for reform but admit it is very difficult.

The government has vowed to remove administrative rankings and transform the management styles of academic institutions, while giving them full autonomy by 2020.

Many universities have also tried to set up a teaching committee or academic council to take some of the power back from the administrators. But they lack resources or real decision-making powers.

In an attempt to build an ideal university that focuses purely on academic excellence, the South University of Science and Technology was founded in 2010 and is funded by the local government of Shenzhen and modeled after the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Zhu Qingshi, the president of the university, was not appointed by the government, but instead was chosen by a board of experts. The new school has no administrative ranking either, even though Zhu enjoyed vice ministerial level treatment at his former position as president of the University of Science and Technology of China.

Zhu envisions a university without bureaucratic influence and run by professors, which challenges the current exam-driven education system.

But the new institution was met with a string of obstacles, ranging from its location to the legitimacy of its diplomas. Half of the school board members were local officials.

"The administrators should give the power of school affairs back to educators in order to make it the academic institution it should be," said Xiong. "But ultimately, the government does not want to relinquish the power to run, oversee or evaluate schools."