THAILAND: Authorities investigate World Peace 'University'

Bangkok Post06 July 2013 Issue No:279

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has opened a probe of World Peace University, which seems to grant honorary degrees in exchange for money, a practice the "university" insists is ethical and legal.

World Peace University is under investigation by the DSI.

The DSI said it received a complaint that the operation of World Peace cheats the public, with awards of degrees without normal university merit.

DSI chief Tarit Pengdith said Wednesday that initial investigations indicate that the firm doing business as World Peace University has not received authorisation to operate as a university under Section 10 of the Private Higher Education Institute Act.

He said the organisation registered as World Peace Limited Partnership (LP) but has used the word "university" in its name, logo and other documents. Use of "university" has made the public believe it is in fact a private university, so this limited partnership may have violated Section 22 and Section 109 of the same act.

World Peace allegedly invites people who have done good deeds to society to receive its honorary bachelor, masters and doctorate degrees. The only requirement is minimum payment of between 15,000 and 350,000 baht, entitling the recipient to use the World Peace degree publicity.

Mr Tarit said World Peace operates a website which informs readers that World Peace University has the same status as other universities in the country. Therefore, it is also has violated the Computer Crime Act, the DSI chief said.

"Our information indicates that this university cannot grant degrees or honorary degrees, because it does not have any authority, and has not been permitted to be established" as a university, he said. "The DSI will look into this case and will place charges against its rector."

The World Peace website said it will hand out honorary doctorate degrees on July 21 to around 200 people at a ceremony at the Rajamankala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi, Nonthaburi campus.

Supanut Donchan, who identified himself as registrar and acting rector, said World Peace was established in order to grant honorary doctorate degrees to persons who contribute to society in fields related to world peace, such as media, marketing and creativity. 

The university has already given more than 200 such degrees to "famous people", he said, without requiring any actual university or other educational classes or examinations. Mr Supanut said the World Peace degrees could not be used as academic references for job applications.

Mr Supanut said the way World Peace operates means it is not required to get permission from the Office of the Higher Education Commission.

He insisted that the company is protected under Section 80, Clause 3 of the 2007 Constitution (B.E. 2550) which stipulated that the government has to develop education quality and standards to match economic change.

"I am willing to face the DSI investigation because I believe that the granting of honorary doctorate degrees does no harm to anyone," said Mr Supanut.

World Peace University was investigated once before, by the National Office of Buddhism, after a follower of the now infamous Luang Pu Nen Kham Chattiko claimed he got a doctorate from this company.

MYANMAR: Former political prisoners denied university access

The Irrawaddy06 July 2013 Issue No:279

 

The university studies of 23-year-old Ye Myat Hein were interrupted in 2007 when he was imprisoned in connection with the pro-democracy Saffron Revolution. Today, more than a year after his release by Myanmar’s government as part of a mass amnesty, he is among more than a dozen would-be students who have been denied re-enrolment at the University of Yangon, write Lawi Weng and May Sitt Paing for The Irrawaddy.

The reason? Because of the time they served as political prisoners, which the government says amounts to truancy. Kyaw Thu Maung, a personal assistant to the deputy education minister, told The Irrawaddy last Tuesday that the 15 students in question were being treated in line with university policy.

“We could not allow daily university attendance to anyone who has skipped school for a long period of time,” he said. “This [rule] is not only for political prisoners, but also for others, according to the system.”

Full report on The Irrawaddy site 

AUSTRALIA: A preferred destination for international students

Geoff Maslen06 July 2013 Issue No:279

 

"The most significant feature of the tertiary education landscape in Australia is the large proportion of international students,” says the OECD report Education at a Glance 2013. The land down under is a key destination for students from around the world, hosting more than 6% of its foreign students.

“This figure places Australia as the third most popular destination after the US (16%) and the UK (13%). One in five of the students enrolled in tertiary education in Australia in 2011 were international students, the highest proportion among all OECD countries, against an OECD average of 7%,” the report states.

“The country receives almost 20 times more international students than the number of Australian students who choose to study in tertiary programmes abroad.”

The report notes that Australia’s total expenditure for all levels of education relative to gross domestic product in 2010 was 6%, the same proportion as the OECD average of 6%. Significant increases in government investment between 2008 and 2010 saw Australia’s spending increase by 24% – or more than four times the OECD average increase of 5%.

“In 2010, Australia devoted about US$10,825 per student each year at all levels from primary to tertiary education, compared with the OECD average of US$ 9.313 per student,” the report says. “In 2010, 74% of Australia’s total expenditure on educational institutions came from public sources, lower than the OECD average of 84%.

“In fact, at 26%, Australia has the sixth largest proportion of private expenditure in the OECD for all levels of education compared with an OECD average of 16%. At the tertiary level, 54% of all spending came from private sources, again much higher than the OECD average of 32%.”

The report says educational attainment is high in Australia, where 74% of 25- to 64-year-olds have at least an upper secondary qualification, compared to the OECD average of 76%. The proportion of adults completing upper secondary education has increased significantly across generations, with 84% of 25- to 34-year-olds holding an upper secondary qualification compared to 61% among 55- to 64-year-olds.

Overall, tertiary attainment rates are well above the OECD average: 38% of the working age population holds a university degree, when the OECD average is 32%. This proportion rises to 45% among 25- to 34-year-olds compared to the OECD average of 39%.

But the OECD statisticians do not take account of the fact that a significant number of university graduates are from overseas and not Australian residents or immigrants. It is their presence that inflates the 45% figure, when the proportion of Australian citizens or migrants is about the OECD average.

But the report does mention that international students have a marked impact on estimated graduation rates and that because of the high proportion graduation rates are artificially inflated.

“For example, when international students are excluded from consideration, Australia’s graduation rates for first-time tertiary-type A (theoretical university-based programmes) courses drop by 17 percentage points, and first-time tertiary-type B (shorter , more vocationally oriented programmes) graduation rates drop by 3 percentage points.”
 

GLOBAL: Rankings and accountability in higher education

29 June 2013 Issue No:278

 

UNESCO has released a new publication, Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and misuses, which debates the pros and cons of classifying universities. A UNESCO release says the book brings together “the people behind university rankings and their critics to debate the uses and misuses of existing rankings”.

The book arose from the “Global Forum Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and misuses”, the first global consultation on the subject, organised by UNESCO, the OECD and the World Bank in May 2011. This brought together researchers, academics, policy analysts, students and institutional leaders.

The release says the book develops many of the issues addressed during that landmark consultation and is the first in a new UNESCO series, Education on the Move, aimed at bringing the latest thinking in education to specialists worldwide.

The book features comments from people on five continents to provide a comprehensive overview of current thinking on the subject and sets out alternative approaches and complementary tools for a new era of transparent and informed use of higher education ranking tables.

It presents two sides to the debate:

1: Rankings purport to measure higher education quality, but:

• There are more than 16,000 higher education institutions in the world, and global rankings focus attention on the performance of less than 100 – or less than 1%. The pervasiveness of focusing on the top institutions obscures the fact that the majority of students attend non-elite institutions.
  
• Rankings throw no light on how a nation’s higher education system educates all its students and citizens.
  
• Rankings encourage nations to focus disproportionately on a handful of elites, which could undermine national or regionally strategic priorities and capacity for the knowledge society.
  
• Focus should be on ensuring the system is world class rather than on the performance of the individual ‘world-class university’.
  
• Aligning national priorities to meet the criteria of rankings is an abdication of national sovereignty.
  
• Because national budgets are a zero-sum-game (spending in one area means taking from somewhere else), governments risk subverting other policy objectives in order to conform to indicators designed by others for other purposes.
  
• Disproportionate emphasis on research can undermine teaching and learning.
  

2: However, rankings can claim achievements in the following areas:

• They have acted as a wake-up call about the value and importance of higher education, especially for nations that may not have been investing sufficiently.
  
• They have placed consideration of higher education quality within a wider comparative and international framework, which has challenged self-perceptions of greatness so there is no more room for self-promotion.
  
• With the onslaught of global rankings, the higher education world has become more competitive but also multi-polar. Many more countries are making a contribution to knowledge creation and dissemination.
  
• While rankings do not measure what is meaningful about the quality of higher education, they have drawn our attention to the importance of good quality comparative information about performance and productivity, value for money and return on public investment.
  
• Good quality, international comparative information is essential for underpinning strategic leadership and decision-making at the national and institutional levels.
  
• Comparable information on institutions, teaching and research makes it easier for students and researchers to make informed choices on where and what to study and where to work.
  
• Improved data-based or evidence-based decision-making can prompt discussions about what constitutes success and encourage benchmarking to identify and share best practices.
  

 

EUROPE: Challenges facing doctoral education

Bianka Siwinska29 June 2013 Issue No:278

 

Some 200 university leaders, senior managers, researchers and policy-makers gathered at the University of Warsaw earlier in June for the sixth annual meeting of the European University Association’s (EUA) Council for Doctoral Education.

These meetings give all stakeholders working with doctoral education platforms to discuss current trends and future developments in European and global doctoral education. The theme of this year’s event was: “From student to researcher; are we on the right track?”

Discussions focused on the extent to which European doctoral education has been on the “right track” after a decade of structural changes. The past decade has seen major changes, with universities introducing doctoral schools and structured programmes.

The schools monitor the progress of doctoral candidates and the quality of supervision and research in doctoral programmes, said Lesley Wilson, EUA secretary general. At the same time, new legislation is being drafted or implemented in many countries, providing new requirements and challenges facing those responsible for doctoral education, while agencies for quality assurance and research assessment are showing more interest in the area.

The need to maintain the quality of doctoral education during a time of massification appears to be one of the most important challenges. In recent years, the number of doctoral students in Poland had almost doubled – to 40,000 – said Professor Marta Kiciska-Habior, vice-rector for student affairs and quality of teaching and learning at the University of Warsaw.

“We are still struggling with the outcomes of the process and are trying to improve the internal system of quality assurances. One of the problems is that there are no rules or guidelines on PhD supervision specified in the university regulations,” Kiciska-Habior said. “We do not have efficient tools to check or encourage the involvement of the supervisor.”

A newly completed Accountable Research Environments for Doctoral Education, or ARDE, project (led by the EUA) was demonstrated during the conference and confirmed that universities across the Europe were not yet fully satisfied with the procedures regarding supervision.

The meeting sought to take stock of the reforms and to determine if national legal frameworks as well as universities were ‘on the right track’ in transforming students into researchers. The participants generally agreed doctoral education was on the ‘right track’, said Thomas Jorgensten, EUA head of the unit responsible for the EUA Council for Doctoral Education.

Keynote speaker Francesc Xavier Grau, rector of Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain, highlighted how the establishment of doctoral schools had enabled universities to increase their capacity in terms of research output and outreach to other sectors. Doctoral candidates were particularly good at bridging the gap between basic research and innovation, Xavier said.

But several speakers warned that the large expansion in the number of doctoral candidates in many countries could potentially lead to overall lower quality. They called for safeguarding research excellence.

The conference discussions revealed that considerable differences existed across Europe in terms of approaches and challenges facing doctoral education. “There is a good common European dialogue on doctoral education, but there is also an opportunity to do more in terms of creating a shared vision on good practices in the future,” Jorgensten said.

* The EUA Council for Doctoral Education is an integral part of the EUA and was established in 2008. Its mission is to contribute to the development, advancement and improvement of doctoral education and research training in Europe.

FRANCE: High spending, low fees – And lower salaries

Jane Marshall06 July 2013 Issue No:279

 

France scores well in its expenditure on higher education students, in the proportion of its population who are graduates and in the number of international students who choose to study there, according to the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2013. But the financial advantages a degree confers on employees are lower for French graduates than for their peers across the OECD, especially women.

From 2005 to 2010, the amount France spent on each primary, secondary and non-tertiary post-secondary pupil increased by only 5% compared to an OECD average of 10%. Spending on each higher education student, however, rose by 15% to an average of US$15,067, says the OECD country note on France.

This was more than the overall OECD average of US$13,528, but less than Canada, Denmark, the US, Sweden and Switzerland, which all spent more than US$18,000 per student.

French higher education receives relatively little funding from the private sector, which contributes 18% of finance compared to 32% in the OECD as a whole. In spite of France’s relatively high spending on higher education, student fees remain low compared to many other OECD countries.

For the 2012-13 year, university fees in France are €181 (US$236) for a licence (bachelor degree equivalent) and €250 for a masters course. In a third of the other countries surveyed, annual student fees were more than US$1,500.

The proportion of the French population with degrees has risen significantly during the past 30 years, where they represent 43% of 25- to 34-year-olds, compared to 19% of 55- to 64-year-olds. OECD averages are 39% and 24% respectively, but France scores below Korea, Japan, Canada and the Russian Federation, where more than 55% of today’s young adults are graduates of higher education.

More than 75% of French students who start a first degree course finish it, on a par with Australia, Denmark, Finland, Japan and Spain; and better than Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the US, where fewer than 60% of students succeed, says the note.

And while the French drop-out rate overall is lower than the OECD average, 14% of French students who abandon their university studies successfully switch to more technical courses.

The proportion of young people with doctorates in France equals the OECD average: 1.6% in 2011. As in Chile and Israel, more than 35% of doctorate holders in France specialise in a ‘hard’ science, compared to 23% across OECD countries. Furthermore, says the note, about a third of doctorate holders in France are from abroad, “which can indicate both the attractiveness of its courses for foreign students and a fear among national students to commit themselves”.

It also means a low rate of young postgraduates studying after the age of 25. While on average in OECD countries the percentage of young postgraduates aged 25-29 and still in education is 18%, in France it is only 7%. This compares badly with Austria, Denmark, Italy and Sweden, where the proportion is more than 25%.

A higher education qualification means higher salaries in the job market, and French graduates earn on average 47% more than non-graduates. But this is less than their peers in other OECD countries, whose degrees give them a financial advantage averaging 57%.

The situation is worse for French women graduates, who can expect a net advantage during their career of only 8.9%, against an OECD average of 11.5%, while French men gain 10.1%, compared to 13% across the OECD.

One profession where French graduates fare financially poorly is teaching. Primary and secondary schoolteachers’ statutory salaries are lower than the OECD average whether they are beginners or have up to 15 years’ experience. Only those at the top of the salary scale earn more than the OECD average – and teachers need to have 34 years of service to reach this level, compared to 24 years on average in other OECD countries.

During the past 30 years the number of students studying in a country other than their own has risen from 800,000 in 1975 to 4.3 million in 2011, notes the report. France remains an attractive country for foreign students and they represent nearly 12% of all students in France.

Indeed, France is among the top five destinations for international students, equal third with Australia and Germany, each with 6%, after the US at 17% and Britain at 13%.

UNITED STATES: What’s driving the new professional doctorates?

Ami Zusman06 July 2013 Issue No:279

 

In the past 10 to 15 years, new kinds of doctorate degrees – in fields that had never had doctorates before – have burst onto the higher education scene in the United States. These new ‘professional practice doctorate’, or PPD, degrees have emerged in at least a dozen fields, ranging from physical therapy to bioethics.

Some of these newly created doctorate degrees are now required for a person to enter a professional practice. In other fields, although they are not (or not yet) required, these doctorates have become the normative degree.

Nor is this just a US phenomenon: new professional doctorate degrees have been created and programmes for them are growing rapidly in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere.

Professional practice doctorates differ from PhDs in several ways; most are shorter than PhDs – in some cases, only slightly longer than the masters programmes they replace. In the US, most do not require original research, but they do include a clinical component.

Beyond this, there is little agreement on what they are or should be. Yet, like PhDs, they use the title ‘doctorate’, require at least some study beyond the masters level and are intended to confirm the highest level of achievement.

Phenomenal growth

The growth of newly created professional practice doctorates in the US has been phenomenal.

Programmes for them skyrocketed from nearly zero a decade ago to more than 500 programmes in at least a dozen fields today, with over 10,000 degrees awarded just in 2012. For example, doctor of nursing practice programmes increased from just two in 2002 to 217 in 2012; nearly 100 more programmes are in the planning stage. What’s driving this growth?

Supporters of the new doctorates state that they are needed to respond to the growing complexity of professionals’ work environments, rapid expansion of knowledge underlying practice, and increases in technological interventions. While there are some indications of these factors, in most fields the evidence is limited.

For example, the difference between masters and doctoral programmes in physical therapy is on average just 12 weeks, and doctorate holders do not have higher licensure pass rates; if increased labour market complexity were the main reason to require doctorates, one would expect greater differentiation between masters and doctoral degrees and greater student success.

Overall, it is not evident that these doctorates have led to higher salaries or career advancement for professionals or significantly better outcomes for clients, although it may be too soon to determine outcomes. Rather, based on my research, I conclude that in most fields professional associations’ and practitioners’ pursuit of greater status, autonomy and control has been the main factor driving the creation of new doctorate credentials.

Once these doctorate degrees are established, institutions have felt pressured to offer doctoral programmes either because accreditation mandated it or because they felt they would be less competitive otherwise. For many formerly non-doctoral institutions, these new doctorates also provided an opportunity to take a long-desired step into doctoral work.

It is important to note that situations do differ among fields, programmes and institutions. Nevertheless, much of the adoption of these doctorate degrees seems driven by credential creep, followed in many cases by mission creep.

Why the growth of PPD degrees matters

The resource implications of the professional practice doctorates are substantial.

First, there seems to be a domino effect in health fields, with the PPD becoming the required or normative degree for entering practice in one field after another. Second, while most new growth in the US has been in health fields, new types of PPDs have been started in a variety of fields.

Third, many of the new programmes are expensive, so even limited expansion requires more resources. At a time when most institutions face shrinking resources, this means either redistribution of resources from other programmes or institutions, a higher workload burden on faculty, or higher tuition fees and higher foregone income burdens on students.

Indeed, partly because of public disinvestment in higher education, students are bearing the brunt of increased programme costs. For example, median total tuition and fee costs for doctor of physical therapy programmes in US public institutions were 63% higher than for masters programmes in 2010; in private institutions, they were 14% higher.

Higher tuition and longer periods of study will likely increase student debt and may reduce access into the profession, especially since financial support for these programmes is meagre in most cases.

PPDs also raise unresolved questions.

For example, what should a ‘doctorate’ mean? Should profession-specific accrediting bodies – which play important roles in setting standards for programme effectiveness – also determine which degrees institutions offer in these fields? Finally, the fundamental issue for public policy is the ultimate impact of new PPDs on clients, organisations and communities. New requirements could lead to fewer professionals, especially in already under-served communities.

On the other hand, if PPD training enables professionals to serve their clients more effectively, meet new and more complex needs and, in the words of advocates, transform the organisations and settings in which they work – and do so without reducing access to services – the added resource costs to individuals and the public may well be worthwhile.

Those outcomes are still unknown.

* Ami Zusman is a visiting scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California, Berkeley. She formerly directed graduate and professional education planning and student outcomes assessment for the University of California system. This commentary is based on her paper, “Degrees of Change: How new kinds of professional doctorates are changing higher education institutions”, published online as part of UC Berkeley CSHE’s Research and Occasional Paper Series.

CHINA: Media coverage of higher education – From propaganda to watchdog

Qiang Zha and Xiaoyang Wang06 July 2013 Issue No:279

 

In many senses, the media is still state controlled in China and does not enjoy genuine freedom of speech. Yet the relationship between the media and higher education is multi-faceted, highlighting changing roles, focuses and approaches.

Roughly, three stages can be discerned.

In the first stage, from the 1950s through to the early 1980s, media coverage of higher education basically served the state propaganda agenda, showcasing government directives and opinions and how success was achieved by following government policy.

When China adopted its reform policy in the early 1980s, a market economy emerged as well as divergent interests. The media was then gradually used for communicating ideas and opinions in order to build a normative base on which further reform initiatives could be carried out efficiently and effectively.

This function of media coverage of higher education could be observed, for example, when the Chinese government was set to charge tuition fees to university students, to dramatically expand higher education enrolment and to invest in a small number of selected universities with the aim of heightening their status around the world.

Since the dawn of the 21st century, with a market economy in place and an increasingly democratised Chinese society, the media has been playing the role of a watchdog of higher education. Notably, this last stage runs more or less parallel to the process of higher education expansion.

Different focuses and approaches

These three stages feature different focuses on higher education and different approaches to covering it.

Media coverage of higher education used to be always descriptive and positive, portraying how successfully universities and colleges served the human resource needs of the socialist government within the framework of a planned economy – perhaps with a few exceptions during such political movements as the Hundred Flowers Campaign and Cultural Revolution, when there were leadership tensions.

In the reform era, the media started to be analytical and critical when a divergence of interests became the norm. Thus, over time, the media has played a changing role, moving from a purely government propaganda vehicle to a social voice and a position as watchdog of the higher education sector.

In this process, the media has shifted its focus on higher education, from telling the stories of its achievements, to focusing on debates and controversies as well as mistakes that have been made and failures.

The media is now equipped to raise the hot issues concerning higher education – for instance, those relating to the national university entrance examination (gaokao) and university graduate unemployment, combining them with other problems linked to the recent expansion of higher education (for instance, a deterioration in quality and equity) and analysing them in an increasingly critical manner.

Most recently a Hunan television programme – literally titled “Questioning gaokao in God’s name”, available here, applied an extremely critical approach to the brutal reality of the gaokao, and even challenged the necessity of its existence.

In this programme, the gaokao was portrayed as inhuman – in a couple of cases entrants were not even informed of the death of their parents so that they could do the exam without distractions, because it is deemed to be so important and to make such a difference to their future – and as a vehicle for exacerbating social inequity – entrants in Beijing and Shanghai are 40 to 50 times more likely to have access to China’s top universities compared to their peers in Anhui and Hunan, with the former two places representing China’s developed regions and the latter two more underdeveloped regions.

The media’s critical coverage extends to many other issues and problems pertaining to higher education, including the mental health of university students (an increasing number are committing suicide), the commercialisation of higher education (financial pressure is more and more shifted onto students' families), widespread plagiarism and misconduct among faculty and students, and the ‘diploma mill’ scenario in an environment of increasing private and transnational institutions and programmes.

Academic fraud

The media can take credit for its coverage of the growing problem of academic misconduct among faculty and students. Only a decade or so ago, the Chinese public and even academic communities were not fully aware that such misconduct needed to be dealt with seriously.

Viewed as a bourgeois characteristic, intellectual property did not take root in China in the revolutionary period so it was not really respected.

Some scholars thought copying the ideas and work of someone else showed they agreed with and approved of his or her perspective, and growing numbers became opportunists, taking advantage of such ‘shortcuts’ to achieve better productivity.

A turning point came in the early 2000s, when a US-trained Chinese scholar Fang Shimin – better known by his pen name Fang Zhouzi – launched his fraud-busting website New Threads, established in 2001. The website detects and discloses cases of plagiarism and other academic misconduct by Chinese researchers, and it increased interest in academic integrity.

As of 2010, Fang’s website had listed over 900 instances of academic fraud, including fraud by presidents of universities and nationally known researchers. His crusade to expose fraud in China’s scientific and academic communities soon received widespread media coverage.

At that time, there was no official body or procedure for handling complaints or examining allegations of fraud in China, and Fang started the website as an unofficial platform to expose the problem.

In 2006, a series of accusations and counter-accusations on Fang’s website led to significant media attention, criticism of the investigations conducted by Chinese universities and greater involvement by such government authorities as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China in investigating allegations.

Thanks to intense media attention, in 2012 Fang was named one of the two inaugural winners of the John Maddox Prize, given by Nature and the Kohn Foundation, which said: “[H]e has opened a forum for criticism and debate in a community that is otherwise devoid of it”. Indeed, Fang fights his crusade with the full involvement of the media.

Critical coverage

Despite continuing state control, the Chinese media increasingly plays the role of watchdog and assists in holding the higher education sector accountable.

There are various reasons for this interest. One is the tremendous social attention and value attached to higher education. It is simply too important. The other is the fact that, although public universities and colleges in China always suffered from bureaucracy, they are not as authoritarian as government departments and are unlikely to block the media from exposing their problems, mistakes and failures.

Nevertheless, media coverage of higher education is still trammelled to some extent, for instance by a consumerist approach that uses criticism as a strategy to increase sales. Often such critical coverage appears to be shallow and superficial, even if the problems are real, and turns out to be a less constructive way of addressing issues. Most recently, some university leaders complained about the media’s tendency to demonise universities.

Another example is that media coverage of issues and problems is mostly limited to the higher education sector, as if the problems do not relate to the rest of society.

In contrast, when covering the issues and constraints facing Chinese higher education, international media – for instance The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, University World News and Inside Higher Education – often embed them in the socioeconomic and political contexts in which the universities and colleges operate, stressing that only when higher education genuinely plays a leading role in China’s social development will it break through its institutionalised constraints and transform itself.

* Qiang Zha is an associate professor in the faculty of education at York University. His research interests include Chinese and East Asian higher education, international academic relations, global brain circulation, internationalisation of higher education, globalisation and education, differentiation and diversity in higher education, knowledge transfer and commercialisation, and international migration and development. His most recent books include the co-authored Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities: In the move to mass higher education (with Ruth Hayhoe et al. 2011), and two edited volumes Education and Global Cultural Dialogue (with Karen Mundy 2012) and Education in China: Educational history, models, and initiatives (2013). In 2012-13, Qiang Zha is also a Wei Lun Scholar at Tsinghua University.

* Xiaoyang Wang is an associate professor and director of the Higher Educational Research Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was a visiting scholar to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004. From 2005-09, he was appointed as a second secretary in the education office at the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC.
 

AUSTRALIA: Political upheaval holds hope for universities

Geoff Maslen04 July 2013 Issue No:279

 

When Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister, was deposed as head of government last month by the man she had forced from office three years previously almost to the day, it not only gave Kevin Rudd a second shot as PM but also raised the hopes of the nation’s vice-chancellors.

One of Rudd’s first decisions, following the palace coup and the resignations of half of Gillard’s former cabinet, was to reappoint Senator Kim Carr as minister for innovation, industry, science and research – a role he had formerly held but resigned from when Rudd lost office.

Rudd also elevated him to minister for higher education, which gives Carr almost unlimited power over the sector.

The new minister gained some plaudits when he intimated to Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian newspaper that Gillard’s plan to slash A$3.8 billion (US$3.5 billion) from spending on universities and student support might be reviewed and that the student demand-based system she had introduced could be re-capped.

Under this system, any student applying for university is admitted if the institution believes she or he is capable. This has led to a sharp fall in the marks a school-leaver requires to gain admittance and allowed an additional 190,000 students to undertake higher education courses.

Carr expressed concern that many of the newcomers were probably unprepared for university study.

In an editorial last week, The Australian endorsed the idea of re-capping enrolments and claimed that the demand-based system had compromised “academic rigour” – this from a paper that had agitated continually against the Gillard government using its leader and news pages unashamedly to disparage her and almost every decision she made.

Murdoch’s News Corporation owns 70% of Australia’s metropolitan newspapers and he uses them constantly to further his own interests. With an election due sometime in the next few months, all of his papers had been backing the conservative Opposition and attacking Gillard.

They have mostly adopted a muted response to Rudd taking over, while Australia’s main higher education lobby groups have welcomed his and especially Carr’s return. Universities Australia Chief Executive Belinda Robinson applauded Carr’s track record on supporting science and research.

Referring to the A$3.8 billion “worth of higher education savings” announced by the Gillard government over the past eight months – and the failure of the Opposition to reject them – Robinson called for a review of the budget measures that have yet to be legislated.

“The eight out of 10 Australians who believe that budget cuts to higher education threaten Australia’s future will be looking to Mr Rudd and Senator Carr to reconsider these short-sighted decisions,” she said.

“We look forward to Senator Carr revisiting and renewing his visionary agenda.” And, in a reference to the influx of students from poorer families: “We also look forward to working with him to make sure that all children who aspire to a world-class university education will have the opportunity to do so, regardless of their background, post code, or socioeconomic circumstances.”

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) likewise warmly greeted Carr’s appointment, with its president, Jeannie Rea, noting he had “a demonstrated track record of deep knowledge and commitment to the key role of universities in education, research and innovation”.

Rea said the government had justified the planned cuts to university spending by claiming that the budget faced a A$480 million shortfall as a result of the unexpected rise in enrolments under the demand-driven system. She said it was unreasonable for already heavily overworked university staff to be asked to bear the costs because of inefficient budget forecasting.

“What NTEU members find even more unfair is that some of the most disadvantaged students have been targeted by the latest cuts. The government will save A$1.2 billion by abolishing the student start-up scholarships, which provided support for the most financially disadvantaged students in receipt of income support.”

The chair of the Group of Eight research-intensive universities, Professor Fred Hilmer, similarly praised Carr for his previous work in boosting indirect funding for research and for establishing the research quality assessment framework.

“The senator’s efforts in the past have also been largely credited with fostering investments in bigger and better state-of-the-art research facilities,” Hilmer said. “We are confident that he understands the imperative for Australia to keep pace with the world leaders...[and are] also encouraged by his indication to revisit the May cuts to higher education.”

Other vice-chancellors backed retention of the demand-driven system.

The chair of the Innovative Research Universities group, Professor Barney Glover, said the challenge of effective funding of Australia’s universities would not to be tackled by “retreating to a system of allocating universities a limited numbers of university places.

“Demand-driven funding works. Let’s not ruin it. The system was a major reform of the government and one of the few accepted by both sides of politics. There is no sense undermining it to address a funding pressure that is now almost past,” Glover said.

Most universities had already started drawing up plans to cope with the proposed funding cuts.

The Australian National University (ANU) caused dismay among its staff and students by announcing last week that it faced a A$51 million fall in income over the next two years and would have to slash the number of professional staff by at least 10%, with up to 250 jobs to go before the end of the year.

The education union said staff over the age of 55, “the longest-serving members of the university”, would be among the first to be targeted. “The loss of corporate knowledge will be devastating,” said Deborah Veness, the union’s branch president.

But ANU Vice-chancellor Professor Ian Young said the package of cuts had been “shaped by staff and student input” and would deal with the immediate financial challenge while also setting the university on a path to renewal and growth.

“This budget package will return the university to a balanced budget position by 2015,” Young said.

Veness said the cuts would mean a reduced workforce, staff members compelled to take accumulated leave, an increase in student numbers and the implementation of new systems that would put unreasonable pressure on remaining staff.

“The union deplores the cuts to funding for the higher education sector that have forced the ANU to make these drastic decisions,” she said.

“The consequences for students and staff are ominous. The ANU prepares graduates to be future custodians of disciplinary knowledge within the academy, where they go on to become researchers or university teachers, or to take their disciplinary knowledge into the workplace to solve the problems of industry, government, and society.”

បទ​វិភាគ៖ តើ​បក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​អាច​រក្សា​អាសនៈ​សភា​៩០​កៅអី​បាន​ឬ​ទេ?

 ដោយ វណ្ណ វិចារ

ចាប់​ពី​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩៣ មក គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា បាន​ចូល​រួម​ដឹក​នាំ​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​អស់ ៤​អាណត្តិ​ទៅ​ហើយ ​បើ​ទោះ​បី​បក្ស​នេះ​ចាញ់​ឆ្នោត​កាល​ពី​ការ​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​លើក​ដំបូង​ក្ដី។ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា កើន​​អាសនៈ​ជា​លំដាប់​ពី ៦៦ នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩៨ បន្ទាប់​មក ៧២ នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​២០០៣ និង​រហូត​ដល់ ៩០​អាសនៈ នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​២០០៨។

តើ​នៅ​ក្នុង​ការ​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ជ្រើស​តាំង​តំណាង​រាស្ត្រ​អាណត្តិ​ទី​៥ នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​២០១៣ នេះ​គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​អាច​បង្កើន​ចំនួន​អាសនៈ​ជា​បន្ត​ទៀត ឬ​យ៉ាង​ណា?

ធាតុ​ពិត​ការ​កើន​ឡើង​នៃ​ចំនួន​អាសនៈ​សភា​របស់​គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច មិន​មែន​បាន​មក​ដោយ​ការ​ប្រជែង​ផ្នែក​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​គោលនយោបាយ​ឡើយ ​តែ​ជា​លទ្ធផល​ដែល​បាន​មក​ពី​ការ​ប៉ែង​ជើង​គូប្រជែង ឬ​ដៃគូ​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​ចម្រុះ គឺ​គណបក្ស​ហ្វ៊ុនស៊ិនប៉ិច​ប៉ុណ្ណោះ។ គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច មិន​អាច​ទាញ​សំឡេង​ឆ្នោត​ពី​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​បាន​ទេ ដោយសារ​តែ​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​ក៏​កើន​សំឡេង​គាំទ្រ​ដែរ ពី​មួយ​អាណត្តិ​ទៅ​មួយ​អាណត្តិ។

គេ​នៅ​ចាំ​បាន​ថា ​កាល​ពី​ការ​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩៨ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា យក​ឈ្នះ​គណបក្ស​ហ្វ៊ុនស៊ិនប៉ិច​បាន ដោយសារ​ហ្វ៊ុនស៊ិនប៉ិច បែក​រង្គោះរង្គើ ​និង​ចាញ់​ការ​ប្រយុទ្ធ​បង្ហូរ​ឈាម​កណ្តាល​ទីក្រុង​ភ្នំពេញ​ ក្នុង​ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​ថ្ងៃ​ទី​៥ ទី​៦ ខែ​កក្កដា ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩៧។

មន្ត្រី​គណបក្ស​ហ្វ៊ុនស៊ិនប៉ិច មួយ​ចំនួន បាន​ស្លាប់ ហើយ​ខ្លះ​ទៀត​ក៏​ចុះ​ចូល​នឹង​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា អម​ទៅ​ដោយ​អ្នក​គាំទ្រ​ទៅ​ជា​មួយ​ផង។ មិន​តែ​ប៉ុណ្ណោះ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ក៏​បាន​ទទួល​ឥស្សរជន​មួយ​ចំនួន​ពី​គណបក្ស​សេរី​និយម​ព្រះពុទ្ធ​សាសនា​របស់​ លោក សឺន សាន ដែរ។

កាល​ឆ្នាំ​នោះ​ដែរ លោក ហ៊ុន សែន មាន​ប្រជាប្រិយភាព​ខ្លាំង ដោយសារ​បង្កើត​នយោបាយ ឈ្នះ ឈ្នះ នាំ​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម​ចូល​ស្រុក និង​បាន​មេដាយ​សន្តិភាព​ជា​លើក​ដំបូង ការ​សាងសង់​សាលារៀន​ស្ទើរ​គ្រប់​ទី​កន្លែង​ជា​ដើម។ រី​ឯ​គូ​ប្រកួត​របស់​លោក ហ៊ុន សែន កាល​នោះ គឺ​សម្ដេច​ក្រុមព្រះ នរោត្តម រណឫទ្ធិ ហាក់​មិន​សូវ​មាន​ប្រជាប្រិយភាព និង​ថ្វី​មាត់​ដូច​លោក ហ៊ុន សែន ឡើយ។

លុះ​ដល់​ឆ្នាំ​២០០៣ គូប្រជែង​របស់​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា នៅ​តែ​ជា​គណបក្ស​ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច ដដែល។ ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច កាល​នោះ​ចុះ​ខ្សោយ​ចាញ់​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ដោយសារ​តែ​វិបត្តិ​ជម្លោះ​ផ្ទៃ​ក្នុង។ មន្ត្រី​ធំៗ មាន​ឥទ្ធិពល​មួយ​ចំនួន​ បាន​ចុះ​ចូល​គណបក្ស​ប្រឆាំង សម រង្ស៉ី​ និង​អ្នក​ខ្លះ​បន្ត​ចូល​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ទាំង​ចំហ និង​សម្ងាត់។ អ្នក​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ក៏​បែក​សំឡេង អ្នក​ខ្លះ​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឲ្យ​គណបក្ស សម រង្ស៉ី ​អ្នក​ខ្លះ​បន្ត​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឲ្យ​ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច ​និង​អ្នក​ខ្លះ​ទៀត បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឲ្យ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន។

កាល​នោះ​បើ​គណបក្ស​ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច រួម​បញ្ចូល​គ្នា​នឹង​គណបក្ស សម រង្ស៉ី ក៏​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ​មិន​អាច​បាន​កៅអី​សភា​ដល់​ទៅ ៧២​អាសនៈ​ដែរ ​នេះ​បើ​ផ្អែក​តាម​រូបមន្ត​បែង​ចែក​អាសនៈ​សភា។ អ្នក​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​កាល​ពី​ឆ្នាំ​២០០៣ ក៏​មើល​មិន​សូវ​ឃើញ​ពី​ចំណុច​អវិជ្ជមាន​របស់​មន្ត្រី​រដ្ឋាភិបាល ដែល​ដឹក​នាំ​ដោយ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា​ទេ។

រហូត​ដល់​ឆ្នាំ​២០០៨ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ឈ្នះ​ឆ្នោត​គគ្រឹកគគ្រេង​សំបើម​ណាស់។ ការ​ឈ្នះ​ឆ្នោត​នេះ មិន​មែន​ជា​រឿង​ចៃដន្យ​ទេ តែ​ជា​សន្លឹក​ឆ្នោត​ដ៏​ច្រើន​សន្ធឹក​ដែល​បាន​មក​ពី​ការ​បែកបាក់​គណបក្ស​ ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច ​ជា​ពីរ។ ម្ខាង​ជា​គណបក្ស​ជាតិ​និយម​ដឹកនាំ​ដោយ​សម្រេច​ក្រុម​ព្រះ នរោត្តម រណឫទ្ធិ និង​ម្ខាង​ទៀត​ជា​គណបក្ស​ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច ដែល​ដឹក​នាំ​ដោយ​លោក ញឹក ប៊ុនឆៃ។

នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​២០០៨ នោះ លោក កឹម សុខា ដែល​ធ្លាប់​កាន់​ការ​ជា​អ្នក​តំណាងរាស្ត្រ​គណបក្ស​សេរី​និយម​ព្រះពុទ្ធ​ សាសនា​របស់​លោក សឺន សាន នោះ ក៏​ឆ្លៀត​ឱកាស​បង្កើត​គណបក្ស​សិទ្ធិ​មនុស្ស​បាន​ចំណេញ ៣​កៅអី​នឹង​គេ​ដែរ។ ឆ្នាំ​២០០៨ ក៏​ជា​ឆ្នាំ​ដែល​សេដ្ឋកិច្ច​ឡើង​ខ្ពស់ លោក ហ៊ុន សែន ក៏​ប្រើ​យុទ្ធសាស្ត្រ​រុញ​ទូក​បណ្ដោយ​ទឹក ថ្លែង​ថា លោក​គ្រប់​គ្រង​បាន​ល្អ បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឲ្យ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន ដី​នៅ​តែ​ឡើង​ថ្លៃ​ជាដើម។ ម្យ៉ាង ថៃ​លើក​ទ័ព​ចូល​ប្រាសាទ​ព្រះវិហារ ជា​មូល​ហេតុ​មួយ​នាំ​ពលរដ្ឋ​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​ឲ្យ​លោក ហ៊ុន សែន ដែរ។ ម្ចាស់​ឆ្នោត​ភាគ​ច្រើន​ជឿ​ថា ក្នុង​ចំណោម​បេក្ខជន​នាយក​រដ្ឋមន្ត្រី​ពី​គណបក្ស​ធំៗ មាន​តែ​លោក ហ៊ុន សែន ទេ ដែល​មាន​ជំនាញ​ប្រើ​ទ័ព និង​ថ្នឹក​ខាង​ចម្បាំង​ដែល​អាច​រំដោះ​ប្រាសាទ​ព្រះវិហារ ពី​ការ​ឈ្លាន​ពាន​របស់​កង​ទ័ព​ថៃ​បាន។

ចំណែក​នៅ​ឆ្នាំ​២០១៣ នេះ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ទំនង​ដូចជា​មិន​បាន​បញ្ចេញ​ឥទ្ធិពល​ណា​មួយ​លេច​ធ្លោ ដែល​អាច​ឲ្យ​ចំនួន​អ្នក​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​កើន​ឡើង​សោះ​ឡើយ។ មួយ​អាណត្តិ​ចុង​ក្រោយ​នេះ គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច បាន​ធ្វេសប្រហែស​លើ​បញ្ហា​មួយ​ចំនួន ដូចជា​ការ​ហុច​ដង​ដាវ​ឲ្យ​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​កាប់​ផ្ទួនៗ។ ប្រការ​ទាំង​នេះ មាន​ជាអាទិ៍ ការ​ផ្ដល់​ដី​សម្បទាន បង្កើត​ជា​ទំនាស់​ដីធ្លី​គ្រប់​ទី​កន្លែង​មិន​ទាន់​មាន​ដំណោះ​ស្រាយ​សមរម្យ អ្នក​តវ៉ា​ដីធ្លី​ត្រូវ​បាន​បង្ក្រាប​ដោយ​ហិង្សា​ពី​សំណាក់​សមត្ថកិច្ច។ មនុស្ស​ស្លាប់​ជាង ​៣០០​នាក់ នៅ​កោះ​ពេជ្រ ដោយ​មិន​មាន​អ្នក​ទទួល​ខុស​ត្រូវ។

អំពើ​អយុត្តិធម៌​សង្គម ឧទាហរណ៍​ករណី​អ្នកស្រី ​យ៉ោម បុប្ផា និង​ករណី​លោក ឈូក បណ្ឌិត ដែល​បាន​បាញ់​ប្រហារ​កម្មករ​នៅ​បាវិត។ ករណី​ចាប់​ខ្លួន​លោក​ ម៉ម សូណង់ដូ ដាក់​គុក​ជាដើម។ ក្នុង​នោះ​សង្គម​ស៊ីវិល​រក​ឃើញ​ថា ​ម្ចាស់​ដីធ្លី​និង​សកម្មជន​ការពារ​សិទ្ធិមនុស្ស​ជិត ៥០០​នាក់ ត្រូវ​បាន​តុលាការ​ចោទ​ប្រកាន់​ដោយ​អយុត្តិធម៌។

ម្យ៉ាង​វិញ​ទៀត ការ​រីក​ចំរើន​នៃ​បច្ចេកវិទ្យា​ក៏​ជា​មូលហេតុ​ដែល​នាំ​ឲ្យ​គណបក្ស​កាន់​ អំណាច​ធ្លាក់​ប្រជាប្រិយភាព​ដែរ។ អ្នក​ប្រើ​អ៊ីនធឺណិត ដែល​មាន​និន្នាការ​ប្រឆាំង​រដ្ឋាភិបាល ក៏​បាន​គាស់​កកាយ​រូបភាព​រឿងរ៉ាវ​សកម្ម​ផ្សេងៗ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​កាន់​តែ​ច្រើន​ ឡើង។

ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​ដែល​ឆក់​យក​បេះ​ដូង​យុវវ័យ​ឲ្យ​គិត​ថា រដ្ឋាភិបាល​ដែល​នាំ​ដោយ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​មិន​ល្អ​ច្រើន​នោះ រួម​មាន​អាជ្ញាធរ​បង្ក្រាប​អ្នក​តវ៉ា​យ៉ាង​ព្រៃផ្សៃ ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​បាញ់​ប្រហារ​គ្នា​ថ្ងៃ​ទី​៥-​៦ កក្កដា ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​វាយ​បង្ក្រាប​ហ្វូង​បាតុករ រួម​ទាំង​វាយ​សំពង​លើ​ព្រះ​សង្ឃ​កាល​ពី​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៩៨ ។ល។

ក្រៅ​ពី​នោះ អំពើ​ពុករលួយ​ក៏​ជា​មូលហេតុ​ចម្បង​ដែល​នាំ​ឲ្យ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា បាត់​បង់​ជំនឿ​ចិត្ត​ពី​សាធារណជន​ដែរ។ បើ​តាម​តួលេខ​ស្រាវជ្រាវ ​កម្ពុជា​នៅ​តែ​ជាប់​ជា​ប្រទេស​មាន​អំពើ​ពុករលួយ​លំដាប់​លេខ​រៀង​ទី​១៥៧ ក្នុង​ចំណោម​ប្រទេស​ជាង ១៧០ ទូទាំង​ពិភពលោក។ គ្រាន់​តែ​ភ្ញាក់​ពី​ដេក​ក្រឡេក​មើល​ផ្លូវ​ថ្នល់​ដែល​សង់​មិន​បាន​មួយ​ឆ្នាំ ​ឡើង​រលួយ​វល់​នោះ​ ក៏​គេ​គិត​ថា ពុក​រលួយ​បាត់​ហើយ គេ​មិន​ចាំ​បាច់​គិត​ដល់​ជីវភាព​ដ៏​ធូរធារ​របស់​មន្ត្រី​ធំៗ ដែល​ជិះ​ឡាន​ទំនើប ចាយ​វាយ​សុទ្ធតែ​ ដុល្លារ តែ​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ត្រឹម​មួយ​លាន​ពីរ​លាន​រៀល​នោះ​ទេ។

ទន្ទឹម​នឹង​នោះ​ការ​រឹង​មាំ​នៃ​កម្លាំង​ប្រមូល​ផ្តុំ​របស់​គណបក្ស​ ប្រឆាំង ក៏​ជា​មូលហេតុ​នាំ​ឲ្យ​បក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​ចុះ​អន់​ថយ​ដែរ។ បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​បាន​បង្ហាញ​គោលនយោបាយ ៧​ចំណុច គួរ​ឲ្យ​ទាក់​ទាញ​សម្រាប់​អ្នក​ក្រ និង​មន្ត្រី​រាជការ​ដែល​មាន​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ទាប និង​មិន​មាន​ឱកាស​ប្រព្រឹត្ត​ពុករលួយ។ ចង់​មិន​ចង់​កម្លាំង​ប៉ូលិស ទាហាន គ្រូ​បង្រៀន ដែល​មាន​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ចាយ សល់​ថ្ងៃ​ផង​នោះ ក៏​គង់​គិត​ថា តើ​គាត់​គួរ​យក​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ច្រើន ឬ​ធ្វើ​ការ​ក្រោម​ឥទ្ធិពល​អំពើ​ពុក​រលួយ​តទៅ​ទៀត?

កាល​ពី​ពេល​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​មុនៗ ឲ្យ​តែ​ជិត​ដល់​ពេល​ឃោសនា​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា តែង​ប្រារព្ធ​ពិធី​បញ្ចូល​សមាជិក​បក្ស​ថ្មី កន្លែង​ខ្លះ​បញ្ចូល​រហូត​ដល់​រាប់​ពាន់​នាក់ តែ​ឥឡូវ​ហាក់​ដូច​ជា​ស្ងាត់​ទៅ​វិញ។មួយ​វិញ​ទៀត គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា មិន​បាន​បង្ហាញ​គោលនយោបាយ ឬ​កម្មវិធី​កំណែ​ទម្រង់​ណា​ថ្មី​ប្លែក ​គួរ​ជា​ទី​ទាក់​ទាញ​ម្ចាស់​ឆ្នោត​ទេ។ ពលរដ្ឋ​ភាគ​ច្រើន​ចង់​បាន​តុលាការ​យុត្តិធម៌ ចង់​បាន​ការងារ​ធ្វើ​សម​រម្យ​អ្នក​ធ្វើ​ការងារ​រដ្ឋ​ចង់​បាន​ប្រាក់​ហូប​ ឆ្អែត​ជា​ដើម។

តែ​គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​ឃោសនា​តែ​រឿង​ដដែល ​ដូច​ជា​ការ​លើក​សរសើរ​សមិទ្ធផល​ដែល​ធ្វើ​រួច មាន​ស្ពាន ផ្លូវ សាលារៀន​ជាដើម។ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​ប្រហែល​ជា​ភ្លេច​គិត​ហើយ​មើល​ទៅ​ថា សមិទ្ធផល​ដែល​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​សាងសង់​មួយ​ចំនួន​មិន​សូវ​មាន​គុណភាព​នោះ​ឡើយ។

ទោះ​យ៉ាង​ណា​ក៏ដោយ បក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​បាន​លេង​ល្បិច​ជា​ច្រើន ដូច​ជា​ការ​ចាក់​បំបែក​មេ​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង សម រង្ស៉ី និង​លោក កឹម សុខា តាម​រយៈ​អាយ៉ៃ​ឆ្លើយឆ្លង។ ការ​បង្កើត​ច្បាប់​ប្រឆាំង​អ្នក​ដែល​មិន​ទទួល​ស្គាល់​របប​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម។ បាតុកម្ម​ប្រឆាំង​លោក កឹម សុខា ដែល​ដឹក​នាំ​ដោយ​អ្នក​គាំទ្រ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា លោក ជុំ ម៉ី ព្រម​ទាំង​បណ្ដឹង​ពីរ​ប្រឆាំង​លោក កឹម សុខា ដែល​មជ្ឈដ្ឋាន​មួយ​ចំនួន​ចាត់​ទុក​ថា ជា​រឿង​នយោបាយ។ ប៉ុន្តែ​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​នៅ​តែ​ដើរ​ឆ្ពោះ​ទៅ​មុខ​មិន​ថយ​ក្រោយ​ ទេ។

នៅ​ដំណាក់កាល​ឃោសនា​បោះ​ឆ្នោត​នេះ គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​បាន​បញ្ជា​ឲ្យ​រដ្ឋមន្ត្រី​ស្ដីទី​ក្រសួង​ព័ត៌មាន ចេញ​លិខិត​មួយ​ហាម​ឃាត់ ​មិន​ឲ្យ​វិទ្យុ FM ក្នុង​ស្រុក​ផ្សាយ​បន្ត​នូវ​កម្មវិធី​ផ្សាយ​របស់​វិទ្យុ​អន្តរជាតិ​ទេ។ បម្រាម​នេះ ​ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​មាន​ការ​ខឹងសម្បា​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំង​ពី​ស្រទាប់​មហាជន​ទូទៅ​អ្នក​កាន់​ ជើង​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង និង​អ្នក​កាន់​ជើង​បក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច​រហូត​ដល់​អ្នក​ខ្លះ​ចង់​ធ្វើ​បាតុកម្ម​ ថែម​ទៀត។ ស្រប​គ្នា​នោះ សង្គម​ស៊ីវិល​ជាតិ និង​អន្តរជាតិ ព្រម​ទាំង​សហរដ្ឋអាមេរិក​ផង​នោះ ក៏​ផ្ទុះ​ប្រតិកម្ម​ដៀល​ថា រាជរដ្ឋាភិបាល​ជាន់​ឈ្លី​រដ្ឋធម្មនុញ្ញ និង​រំលោភ​បំពាន​សិទ្ធិ​ពលរដ្ឋ​ដែរ។ ដោយ​ឃើញ​សភាពការណ៍​មិន​ស្រួល ក្រសួង​ព័ត៌មាន​ក៏​ចេញ​លិខិត​មួយ​លុប​ចោល​បម្រាម​នេះ​យ៉ាង​តក់ក្រហល់​ដែរ។ តាម​រយៈ ​បម្រាម​របស់​ក្រសួង​ព័ត៌មាន​នេះ ក៏​កាន់​តែ​ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​កើន​ប្រជាប្រិយភាព​ថែម​ទៀត។

មូលហេតុ​ចុង​ក្រោយ​មួយ​ទៀត​ គឺ​ការ​រួម​បញ្ចូល​គ្នា​របស់​គណបក្ស​រាជា​និយម​ហ៊្វុនស៊ិនប៉ិច និង​បក្ស​ជាតិ​និយម ការ​រួម​បញ្ចូល​គ្នា​រវាង​គណបក្ស សម រង្ស៉ី និង​គណបក្ស​សិទ្ធិ​មនុស្ស​នោះ ក៏​ត្រូវ​បាន​សង្គម​ស៊ីវិល​បញ្ជាក់​ថា ចំនួន​អាសនៈ​សភា​របស់​គណបក្ស​ទាំង​នោះ មាន​ការ​កើន​ឡើង ដោយ​ផ្អែក​តាម​រូបមន្ត​គណនា​រក​កៅអី​សភា​ដែរ។

ប្រការ​ទាំង​អស់​នេះ​ហើយ ​ដែល​ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​គេ​ពិបាក​ជឿ​ជាក់​ថា គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា នឹង​ឈ្នះ​ឆ្នោត​រហូត​ដល់ ៩០​កៅអី ដូច​អាណត្តិ​មុន​ណាស់។ តែ​គណបក្ស​កាន់​អំណាច ទំនង​ជា​នឹង​ឈ្នះ​ឆ្នោត​ដដែល ហើយ​មិន​ច្រើន​ទេ ​គឺ​អាច​ប្រដំប្រសងគ្នា​នឹង​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​ប៉ុណ្ណោះ។ ម្យ៉ាង​ទៀត បើ​សិន​ជា​មិន​មាន​ការ​កែ​ទម្រង់​នយោបាយ​ក្រសោប​ចិត្ត​រាស្ត្រ​ឲ្យ​បាន​ទេ​ នោះ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា អាច​នឹង​បាត់​បង់​អំណាច​នៅ​អាណត្តិ​បន្ទាប់​ក៏​អាច​ថា​បាន៕