ទស្សនាព័ត៌មានរូបភាព ស្តីពីការកែសម្រួល​កងទ័ព

Wednesday, 18 July 2012 14:12 Posted: ID:013

សម្តេច ហេង សំរិន នឹងទៅទស្សនកិច្ចជាផ្លូវការនៅវៀតណាម និងឡាវនៅចុង​ ខែកក្កដានេះ

Wednesday, 18 July 2012 15:32 ដោយៈ សេង ផល្លាភ-Posted : ID-014 

ភ្នំពេញ៖ គណៈប្រតិភូជាន់ខ្ពស់ រដ្ឋសភាកម្ពុជា ដឹកនាំដោយ សម្តេច ហេង សំរិន ប្រធានរដ្ឋសភា នឹងអញ្ជើញទៅទស្សនកិច្ចជាផ្លូវការ និងជាមិត្តភាពនៅ វៀតណាម ចាប់ពីថ្ងៃទី២០ ដល់ថ្ងៃទី២៥ ខែកក្កដា ឆ្នាំ២០១២ រួចនឹងបន្តដំណើរទៅ ឡាវ នៅថ្ងៃទី២៥ ដល់ថ្ងៃទី៣០ ខែកក្កដា ឆ្នាំ២០១២។
យោងតាម សេចក្តីប្រកាសព័ត៌មាន របស់អគ្គលេខាធិការដ្ឋានរដ្ឋសភា ដែលមជ្ឈមណ្ឌលព័ត៌មាន ដើមអម្ពិល ទទួលបាននៅថ្ងៃទី១៨ ខែកក្កដា ឆ្នាំ២០១២នេះ បានឲ្យដឹងថាការអញ្ជើញទៅទស្សន កិច្ចជាផ្លូវការ និងជាមិត្តភាពនៅប្រទេសទាំងពីរនេះ ក្នុងគោលបំណងពង្រឹងពង្រីក ចំណងមិត្តភាព សាមគ្គីភាព និងកិច្ច សហប្រតិបត្តិការ ជាប្រពៃណី ដែលមានជាយូរយារមកហើយ រវាងប្រទេស ទាំងពីរ កម្ពុជា-សាធារណរដ្ឋ សង្គមនិយមវៀតណាម និងកម្ពុជា -សាធារណរដ្ឋ ប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ ប្រជាមានិតឡាវ។

សេចក្តីប្រកាសបន្តថា នៅក្នុងដំណើរទស្សនកិច្ចនេះ គណៈប្រតិភូជាន់ខ្ពស់ នឹងអញ្ជើញចូលជួប សវនាការ និងសម្តែងការគួរសម ជាមួយថ្នាក់ដឹកនាំជាន់ខ្ពស់ របស់ រដ្ឋាភិបាល និងរដ្ឋសភានៃ ប្រទេសទាំងពីរ និងមានកម្មវិធីទស្សនា ទីកន្លែងប្រវត្តិសាស្រ្តមួយចំនួនទៀតនៃប្រទេសនីមួយៗ ទៀតផងដែរ៕

STATEMENT: Mam Sonando Must Be Released and the Rights of All Journalists and Human Rights Defenders Upheld

 http://adhoc-cambodia.org/?p=1818

Phnom Penh, 16 July 2012 — The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) is deeply concerned about the arrest of Beehive radio owner Mam Sonando yesterday at his Phnom Penh home. According to the information received, Mr. Mam faces charges of insurrection and incitement, offenses punishable by up to 20 years in prison (Penal Code, articles 28, 456, 457, 464, 504 and 609). His arrest follows a speech by Prime Minister Hun Sen in which he alleged that Mr. Mam was directly responsible for a secession attempt in Kratie province’s Chhlong district. ADHOC is afraid these charges may be an excuse for silencing a prominent journalist and advocate of democratic rights, and calls on the authorities to immediately release him.

On 15 July, at about 8:00am, the police surrounded Mr. Mam’s house and radio station and read out an arrest warrant issued by Kratie Provincial Court. At 8:56am, he was taken away to the Ministry of Interior. Conveniently, the arrest of Mam Sonando was carried out two days after the end of an ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh, and three days after his return to Cambodia. One can only be surprised at such timing, since secession is one of the most serious offenses in Cambodian criminal law. Nobody has been in contact with Mr. Mam since his arrest. He has been transferred to Phnom Penh Municipal Court today.

Mam Sonando has repeatedly denied any involvement with a land dispute in Chhlong district’s Broma village and with Bun Ratha, who claimed to act on behalf of Mr. Mam’s Democratic Association in the area. In May 2012, 14-year old Heng Chentha was killed by armed forces during a clash with villagers. No investigation has been conducted into the girl’s death. Bun Ratha has since been at large. The authorities allege he attempted to create a “self-governing” zone within Cambodia’s territory, but have failed to provide evidence of any parallel military or administrative structures being put in place in Chhlong district.

In any case, acts committed by Bun Ratha—whatever their legal qualification—are not attributable to the Democratic Association or Mam Sonando, who have always acted within Cambodia’s legal framework and denied involvement with Bun Ratha.

The Democratic Association, headed by Mr. Mam, is registered with the Ministry of Interior. It aims to defend fundamental rights and freedoms, raise awareness and encourage citizens to use their legally protected rights. Beehive radio station, which broadcasts Radio Free Asia and Voice of America programs, voices the concerns of the poor by tackling social issues such as land grabbing by the powerful. ADHOC fears legal proceedings against Mr. Mam’s may be used to close down Beehive, one of the last media outlets that are not in line with the government’s positions.

Yesterday’s arrest also represents a threat to Human Rights Defenders and to freedom of expression and freedom of the media. It is a clear message sent to those who stand up for democratic rights and criticize the government’s policies, in particular land policies. In a shrinking democratic space, it illustrates what United Nations Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi has referred to as “rule by law,” rather than rule of law—i.e., the use of courts to target individuals regarded as opponents.

ADHOC therefore calls on the authorities to immediately release Mam Sonando and to uphold his and other journalists’ and Human Rights Defenders’ right to free expression.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Ny Chakrya, Head of Monitoring Section at ADHOC: 011 274 959

Mr. Chan Soveth, Deputy Head: 016 667 373

Mr. Nicolas Agostini, Technical Assistant: 078 405 024

Cambodia will not export rice to Philippines

Wednesday, 18 July 2012
May Kunmakara

After the Philippines government issued their own policy regarding milled rice exports the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia has expressed its disinterest in exporting milled rice to its neighbour, Cambodia’s Commerce Minister said yesterday.

Local rice millers will not be encouraged to make any efforts to export milled rice to the Philippines, said Cham Prasidh, the Minister of Commerce for Cambodia.

“We have no interest in the Philippines market any more as their government has issued a new policy that by 2013 the country should be able meet its own supply requirements for milled rice and may even export some starting next year. We do not need to rely on the Philippines — there are other markets”, he said during a meeting at the National Assembly yesterday.

At the same time, Cham Prasidh urged members of the Federation of Cambodian Associations of Rice Exporters to look other markets in the region.

“Now, we will look at Indonesia even though they are producing a lot of milled rice. There could still be a shortage. I plan on signing a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian trade minister next month during the ASEAN Economic Ministers’ meeting.”

The deal will be for 100,000 tonnes of milled rice, according to Chairman of the Federation of Cambodian Associations of Rice Exporters Kim Savuth, who agreed with Cham Psaidh’s claims and said the Philippines market is a bit difficult for private rice milling companies to work in.

“Of course, I think it is good idea because we should not waste time and we won’t have to now that their government has announced that they can produce enough milled rice to meet their own demand by 2013,” he said.

He said he had conducted an export feasibility study on the market since 2000 and that Cambodia was close to exporting milled rice to the Philippines though for it to happen a bilateral agreement needed to be made between the two governments.

“We were very close to exporting to the Philippines over the last few years but after we saw the conditions for payment, which were quite late, we decided to look for other markets to enter,” he said.

Kim Savuth said that Indonesia, Malaysia and China, among others in the region, have a lot of potential with Cambodia’s white rice, while the European and Russian markets are still good places for fragrant rice exports.

Cambodia’s total exports of milled rice dropped about 35 per cent for the first half of 2012 to 78,000 tonnes compared to 120,000 tonnes for the same period in 2011– a decrease of 40,000 tonnes, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture supplied yesterday.

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.

---

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."

Oxford University record donation cuts fees for poorest

BBC15 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

Michael Moritz is giving £75m to remove any financial barriers to poorer students

Oxford University will use a record donation to abolish the tuition fee increase for its poorest students - keeping fees at £3,500 per year.

In a bid to remove financial barriers, eligible students will also receive funding for all their living costs. The £75m donation from Michael Moritz, originally from Cardiff, and his wife Harriet Heyman will rise to £300m with matched funding. The support package is being claimed as the biggest for a European university. At the launch of the scholarships, Oxford's vice-chancellor,Andrew Hamilton, spoke of the importance of "ensuring that all barriers - real or perceived - are removed from students' choices".
University self-supporting Mr Moritz, chairman of the US-based venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital, spoke of his own family's debt to benefactors, when they had been refugees from Nazi Germany.

 "I would not be here today were it not for the generosity of strangers," said Mr Moritz.
From his business experience in the US, he said many of the great innovators were from "the most unlikely and impossible circumstances".
But their progress had been made possible by university scholarships - and he wanted to support such opportunities.
The financial package will be worth about £11,000 per student per year - and will be available for students from families with an income below £16,000 per year.
This will continue in perpetuity - using the investment income from the donation - in a way similar to the endowments that underpin the finances of major US universities.
It also marks a UK university taking a greater step towards self-funding some students - and loosening its students' reliance on the state-funded student finance system.
Under the scholarship scheme, students will only have to borrow the £3,500 per year, rather than the £9,000 which will be charged from this autumn.
Professor Hamilton spoke of his concern about the deterrent effect of the debts facing students, when fees are £9,000 per year.

Charlotte Anderson, currently studying German at the university, said she was the first person in her family to go to university - and that debt had been a major cultural obstacle for her family.
"All they saw was a huge debt - and the stress attached to that... they couldn't see beyond it."
She said that attending a summer school made her change her mind about seeing Oxford as a credible option.

Reaching out Jo Dibb, head teacher of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in north London, said that poorer parents were often "desperate to support their children" - but couldn't support their children as easily as better-off families and were afraid of getting into debt.

 She said the scholarships could help "the brightest young people who slip away now".
Mr Moritz, who went to school in Cardiff and attended Oxford in the 1970s, said that for families with £16,000 per year, the level of student debt represented a "terrifying figure".

About one in 10 of Oxford's students are from families with an income below this threshold - and the first wave of scholarships will be awarded this autumn.

The intention is that within three years half of all eligible students will receive this support package - with the later aim of rolling it out to all students from such low-income families.

Earlier this week, the university admissions service, Ucas, published figures showing that applications had fallen by 8.9%, raising concerns that potential students were being deterred by the increase in fees.

Last week, the Office for Fair Access published a report showing that universities were switching more of their funding into outreach projects, such as summer schools.

The fair access watchdog also produced figures comparing the proportion of students eligible for full state support - with Oxford having among the lowest levels of such poorer students.
The university has been investing heavily to attract students from a wider range of social backgrounds, putting £2.5m into outreach and £6.6m on bursaries.

Oxford's latest announcement of such a large-scale scholarship programme will raise comparisons with leading US universities.

The income from endowments allows them to offer places to the most talented, regardless of income or nationality, with means-testing then determining any level of fee.
The biggest source of Harvard's operating income is its endowments, worth £24bn at present. Fees provide only about a fifth of its operating costs.

Oxford's biggest source of income is external research, accounting for two-fifths of income.
Professor Hamilton said the challenge for UK universities facing budget pressures was to diversify their incomes - including encouraging such philanthropy as the donation from Mr Moritz and Ms Heyman.

 

More Disadvantaged Students to be Enrolled in College

Some 570 Chinese universities and colleges have promised to enroll a total of 10,000 more students from the country's 14 least developed areas in central, southwest and northwest China this year. This is the first time for China's universities to offer privileged admission to students from poverty stricken areas. This gives disadvantaged students a better opportunity to realize their university dream.
Zhang Wan takes a closer look.

  These universities and colleges include 73 universities under the Ministry of Education, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, China's two most prestigious schools. Their plan is to enroll about 3,000 more students from the least developed areas of China.

Around 500 other universities under provincial departments of education have joined this project and have promised to enroll 7,000 additional admissions.

Xu Xiaoli, head of the Southwest University in Chongqing Municipality, says that they decided to admit around 200 more freshmen this year, the largest number of all the state key universities.
"Making the decision to get more rural students into universities is an inescapable duty for our university to make."

The majors included in the project are mainly favorable to the development of rural areas such as agriculture, water engineering and medical science.

In order to meet the demand for rural sustainable development as well as the wishes of students, there are also majors including computer engineering, electronic engineering and majors related to economics.

Cao Xiangming is a student from Huining County, a poverty stricken area in Gansu province. He was recently admitted to the Beijing Jiaotong University with a score of 570 points, and he will major in mechanical engineering and automation in September.

"I am so happy. Without these policies for students from the least developed areas, I would not be able to enroll in a key university. I'll study hard in university and do my best to make a contribution to the country."

Wang Huashen is the director of the admissions office at Beijing Jiaotong University. He says their admission score line this year in Gansu province is 591 points, but thanks to the new policy, students from poverty stricken areas who get slightly lower scores can now also be enrolled.

Under the current system, students are admitted to universities according to their College Entrance Examination scores. The poverty-stricken areas in China, with weaker elementary education, always have fewer opportunities when it comes to universities, especially to good ones.

For instance, the enrollment rate at the first class universities for four-year college students in China's 680 poverty-stricken counties in 2011 was 5.7 percent, much lower than the country's average of 8.5 percent.

However, according to the Ministry of Education, about 1.3 million students from poverty stricken areas attended this year's national college entrance exam, and with this new program, about 10 percent more students will be enrolled by key universities.

The project this year covers a total of 592 counties in 13 provinces, mostly in northwest and southwest areas of the country.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.

An end to higher education’s monopoly on credibility

Time15 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

The times they are a changin’, and I’d like to suggest they are changing in a way that has massive implications for education: sources of credibility – once the domain of expensive degrees – are becoming democratised, decentralised and diversified, writes Michael Ellsberg for Time.

In the past, there was pretty much one way to gain credibility: get some letters after your name, from as fancy an institution as possible. Now, in 2012, I’ve seen dozens of young people who don’t even have college degrees use the following tools as sources of credibility in the business world: a track record of having started one or two successful businesses, even if they were small; industry-related blogs with well-written, lively, detailed posts that receive many comments and tweets/likes/shares per post; an impressive About page on a well-designed personal website; and large, legitimate, real followings on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media networks.

Clearly, any discussion of higher education needs to distinguish between two basic and distinct concepts: learning, on the one hand, versus credibility about having learned. While learning has always been available around us, inexpensively, free (or even paid on the job), until recently sources of credibility have been highly centralised, and highly expensive. There was basically only one source: higher education.

Full report on the Time site 

A slow thaw for women reaching leadership positions

Curt Rice15 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

Admission to medical school in Norway is based on an elaborate points system. High-school grades, work experience, even age can give applicants more points and thereby increase their chances.

Lately I've heard informal discussions about adding a new criterion for points. Perhaps male applicants should get an extra point or two – just for being men! (For a related discussion, see “A sex point or two for male nurses”.)

Incoming classes in medical schools in Norway have recently had about 70% female students. For some, the over-representation of women at this level gives hope.

Their hope is what I call the THAW argument – Time Heals All Wounds. According to THAW, if we just wait, the large numbers of women entering medical school will lead to greater numbers of women professors and greater numbers of women in leadership positions. This thaw is inevitable as today's students advance in their careers.

Unfortunately, THAW is a flawed argument. Three recent research results highlight the problems with THAW.

1. In the article “Is there still a glass ceiling for women in academic surgery?” we learn that the number of women surgeons has been rising dramatically over many years, but that they continue to be under-represented in leadership positions; for instance, as deans of medical schools.

Women progress through their careers more slowly, have lower salaries and experience discrimination. The increased number of women surgeons has not led to an increase in the numbers of women at the top of that field.

2. Women Matter 2010 also demonstrates the fallacy of THAW. The report argues that time alone isn't enough; it is critical to change the promotion system if we want to increase the numbers of women in leadership positions.

Their evidence against THAW comes from identifying the percentage of university graduates who are women in a given year, and then seeing how many of them are in top leadership positions about 30 years later.

In Sweden, for example, 61% of university graduates in 1978 were women. Some 32 years later, they occupied 17% of top leadership positions. In 2008, 64% of university graduates were women; the report claims that an analysis of social trends predicts that women will constitute only 18% of Swedish top leaders by 2040.

Spain has rather different numbers. Some 32% of university graduates in 1976 were women. In 2010, the Spanish companies in the McKinsey database had 6% of their top leadership positions filled by women. In 2008, the percentage of university graduates who were women had nearly doubled, reaching 60%. An analysis of social trends suggests that in 2040, 11% of top leadership positions will be filled by women.

3. In The Netherlands, nearly 12% of professors are women. The European Union's Lisbon Agreement had a goal of 25% women professors throughout Europe by 2010. At the current rate, The Netherlands will not reach this goal until 2030.

The government of The Netherlands modified its goal several years ago, hoping to reach a meagre 15% by 2010. This goal also went unmet and at current rates of increase, it will take until 2014 to get even to that point.

If we just wait, we won't see the benefits of gender balance in top leadership teams in our lifetimes. The thaw is just too slow.

* Curt Rice is pro rector for research and development at the University of Tromsø. He blogs on issues related to university leadership here, where this column originally appeared.

First doctoral training centre to be set up in UAE

Wagdy Sawahel15 July 2012 Issue No:230

 

The University of Wollongong in Dubai has joined with the National Research Foundation (NRF) in the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, to set up the country’s first doctoral training centre.

The agreement between Wollongong in Dubai, an offshoot of Australia’s University of Wollongong, and the NRF, which is an initiative of the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, was outlined in a 1 July article published by Trade Arabia.

The new UAE Doctoral Training Centre will focus on building sustainable research partnerships with government, industry and other universities as well as providing high-quality postgraduate education and addressing the lack of doctoral training in the UAE.

The centre will strive to improve the retention of students in doctoral programmes and help to create uniform research standards, and will host conferences to facilitate interaction between postgraduate students and supervisors from various universities.

It will also set up doctoral student networks and provide an electronic platform to facilitate ongoing communication between students at different universities.

The UAE move will help to tackle challenges facing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, including limited supply of knowledge workers to support innovation plans, highlighted in a 3 July report, Global Innovation Index 2012: Stronger innovation linkages for global growth.

The report indicated that GCC states were among a host of resource-rich, high-income "innovation underperformers" when comparing innovation performance against gross domestic product per capita.

Its findings were echoed by a study prepared by the Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) and reported in a 1 July Gulf Times article.

The GOIC study pointed out that despite many Gulf countries heading towards a knowledge-based economy with significant results achieved – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – the contribution of GCC states to the global knowledge-based economy is 0.2% compared to 4% to 4.5% in developed countries.

Speaking to University World News, Ghassan Aouad, president of the University of Wollongong in Dubai, said doctoral programmes were relatively new in the region “but have quickly expanded in the past few years.

“This makes doctoral training crucial in creating a network of well-trained researchers and future research leaders whose expertise will help guide the UAE and other states in the Gulf and the Arab World.

“It is of critical importance to establish other similar centres in the region in order to support and promote knowledge-based economies,” Aouad argued.

“The formal research training which will be supported by the centre will enhance the human developments efforts undertaken by the UAE government, improve the research output of the nation and result in the production of research on issues related to the UAE and the Gulf region.

Mohammed Kuchari, an associate professor of microbiology at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, welcomed the new development, which he said could provide a “good model for excellence in pan-Arab doctoral training” and help to create the world-class research community and powerful science base essential for the knowledge economy.

According to a November 2011 Arab research strategy, there are about nine million students in 470 higher education institutions in the region, but only 10% are postgraduates.

To enhance the new centre’s role, Kuchari said, it should develop parameters for measuring quality assurance in doctoral training and encourage the setting up of university consortia and networks “to ensure that doctoral training is undertaken in a strong research environment”.

It could also promote “the vital role of doctoral training to business and industrial communities” and the value of doctoral training for careers beyond academia, Kuchari told University World News.

Richard Gold, an expert in innovation, patent law and policy, as well as being a law professor at Canada-based McGill University and the director of The Innovation Partnership, said regional training for doctoral students had been “one of the critical missing pieces in developing scientific capacity.

“Doctoral students who study abroad often remain where they learn as they develop links, both personal and professional, where they live. Thus, developing countries suffer from a brain drain as some of their best students move abroad,” Gold told University World News.

“Locating training at home will provide students with the option of remaining in their home countries while receiving a first-class education. Increasing links with top international universities to provide local training will build local capacity to participate in the innovation economy,” Gold added.

“While this is a long-term investment, it is critical if the UAE and neighbouring states wish to build the capacity to innovate, build local enterprises and develop entrepreneurial expertise.”

Gold said it was important to ensure that such centres offered first-class education, and so they should not compromise on the quality of instruction, equipment and laboratories.

“One of the best ways of ensuring this is to collaborate with an internationally recognised university,” Gold argued, including some training at the overseas university “to broaden students’ intellectual horizons” for periods that did not displace students for too long.

“What the UAE and its neighbours offers to these universities is well educated students who are eager to learn as well as the ability to fund research, which is of increasing importance to publicly-financed universities.

“Developing these relationships can therefore be win-win as research relies increasingly on international collaborations that require a significant number of highly qualified students, laboratories and research funding,” Gold concluded.