Sunday 7 October 2012

CHINA: Low quality, social Darwinism drive study-abroad fever

MALAYSIA: Easier for women to succeed internationally, says V-C


Women heads of universities are rare, especially in Islamic societies. Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, vice-chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia – the National University of Malaysia – is one of just two women leaders in a country with some 20 public and more than a dozen private universities.

She has presided over the expansion and internationalisation of the multi-faculty research university – one of five in the country.

The aim is for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, or UKM, in Bangi, Selangor, some 30 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur, to emerge as a world-class institution and compete internationally in university rankings while servicing Malaysia’s needs for quality graduates and research.

The institution, with 1,800 academics and almost 27,000 students, feels modern, dynamic and 'get-ahead', with several new research centres collaborating with other institutions in Asia and further afield.

But with Islamic studies one of the oldest faculties at the university, it was not an easy task for a woman vice-chancellor to turn it around. Though a Muslim, she chooses not to wear a headscarf.

When Sharifah Hapsah first arrived at the sprawling forest-edge campus as vice-chancellor in 2006, she had never worked with a faculty of Islamic studies. “But I knew they took some strong stands and previous vice-chancellors had some problems with them over certain issues. I thought, 'how do I make sure that I don’t have problems, of being a woman and Islam?'”

She knew from the beginning that she had ensure Islamic studies was onside if she was to push through changes. She points to the Mosque across from her office building: “If I look out of my window they are the faculty I can see every day.”

The university also has a reputation for being nationalistic, and her mandate from government was to internationalise swiftly.

Promoting the Islamic faculty

Concerned about opposition from the Islamic faculty to any hint of change, she says she made it a priority to bring them on board.

“I told them, ‘I will look upon this faculty to show the way – I am not going to show you what is Islamic, you have to show me.' I think it’s that kind of deference and respect that would enable them to say, ‘I think this woman is alright.'”

She says she did not have any problems. This was in sharp contrast to the strong opposition that greeted Rafiah Salim, vice-chancellor of the University of Malaya, who became the country’s first woman university leader when she was appointed three months ahead of Sharifah Hapsah in 2006, with a similar mandate to turn that hide-bound institution around. Salim had a rocky time.

But Sharifah Hapsah says she recognised the Islamic faculty deserved a “dignified place in the university”.

She appointed members of the faculty into important positions at UKM, such as head of research institutes and even deputy head of the university’s international division, “to make sure they understand that they are recognised within the academic community.

“I think they appreciate that because they say it is the first time they have been selected for important positions in the university. After that I felt more comfortable.

“I wanted to make sure I recognised talents anywhere. And they do well, and their students are doing well. Before, there was this perception that they are all ustads [religious teachers] when they graduate. But no, these students are very progressive.

“When I introduced my entrepreneurship module in the university, two groups came from that faculty to launch student-led businesses.”

Easier to rise internationally

Despite such successes in navigating a sensitive area, Sharifah Hapsah admits it is not easy to rise to the position of vice-chancellor. In Malaysia this is a political appointment. Much as she is a trailblazer, she still had to wait until political conditions were ripe.

“At the time [before she was appointed] political influence was rather strong. It’s not just about you, but are you acceptable at that point in time? Looking at the conditions in the country, whether it is good to have a woman.”

After qualifying in medicine from the University of Malaya, Sharifah Hapsah first joined UKM as a lecturer in 1975, and rose to head of the physiology department, then professor and head of the department of medical education in the medical faculty, where she worked extensively on medical curriculum development.

But there was little hope of further promotion within the university and she left to become deputy director of the department of higher education in the Ministry of Education. During this time she was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop quality assurance guidelines for medical education in the Western Pacific region.

“I gained my credentials internationally first. I was very involved with international organisations, UN bodies, with WHO, ILO [International Labour Organization], being invited as consultant and so on.”

She admits it was easier to rise internationally than in her own country. Both she and Salim made a name for themselves outside their country first, with United Nations bodies. “Internationally you don’t have a problem.”

The traditional route is to rise within a university, but she had not even been a dean. “University is a microcosm of larger society and then there were no women vice-chancellors, no deputy vice-chancellors. Even to appoint a deputy dean, they did not deliberately go out to look for women.

“Maybe the men felt they don’t like assertive women...that’s the kind of society we have – men don’t like women who are producing results or talking. Internationally we can do it, but I don’t do it here in my faculty. So they don’t submit your name or make sure you get the appointment.”

But with the new millennium, Malaysian women’s organisations had become more vocal about the number of women attending universities yet not running them. “It had become an issue, that there was no woman vice-chancellor,” Sharifah Hapsah said.

At the Education Ministry she had risen to become chief executive of the National Accreditation Board, where she had worked for many years setting up the qualifications agency and quality assurance system.

She was always ambitious. “Before I could become CEO, I was dreaming of becoming CEO.”

It helps, she says, to have worked for government. As vice-chancellor of a public university, if you want anything, you have to lobby officials and “know the channels to get what you want”.

At that point, at 4pm in the afternoon, Sharifah Hapsah excuses herself to take a prayer break. She may eschew the customary headscarf, but it is clear she is a practising Muslim. In the silence – even the telephone stops ringing – the call to prayer from the Mosque wafts into her offices.

Identifying women leaders

When she returns she seems refreshed, although those around her say she is far more hard working than any of the university’s previous male vice-chancellors.

So what does it take to be accepted as a woman vice-chancellor?

“You must have academic credibility. That’s number one. You must fulfil all the academic requirements because you are going to talk to fellow academicians. You cannot be anything less in your own field. You must rise to the highest, and that’s professor.”

She identifies communication and collaboration as the other essential qualities. “We should be more cooperative, more collaborative. That’s what I try to do. And maybe that’s 'a woman thing'. There is a little bit of competition, but collaboration should be bigger than that.”

Years of working with non-governmental organisations, particularly in the fields of family and health, have also given Sharifah Hapsah the ability to work with different social groups.

“Different groups have different needs. To listen to them and to be able to advocate on their behalf is very important. If you don’t work with NGOs, you don’t have that sensitivity to social issues. NGO work is a good training ground,” she says.

This is evident in the university, which has become a centre for community and social engagement in the Association of South East Asian Nation region, reaching out to all kinds of groups as it undertakes research that can have an impact on development and also on global issues of concern such as climate change, sustainable development, renewable energy, nanotechnology and biotechnology.

It is also reflected in Sharifah Hapsah’s invitation to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, social entrepreneur and founder of the village Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, to be a visiting professor at the university.

Things have come a long way

And what of the future? Although some entrenched attitudes are hard to shift, the government has a target of 30% women in decision-making posts in the public and private sectors.

Sharifah Hapsah believes she must prepare those who will come after her. “I do make a deliberate effort to identify women for posts – women deans, women deputy deans, women directors.” Among her three deputy vice-chancellors, one is a woman.

And she does not regret the intervening years even though, she reveals, she was once tipped for deputy vice-chancellor of UKM long, long before the vice-chancellorship came up. For one thing, she is proud of having laid the groundwork in the ministry.

“If I had been vice-chancellor early on I would not have developed the quality assurance system for the country. For me that was an essential and crucial element of higher education.

“If you have a world-class university in your country, so what. But if you have a world-class system, it’s going to benefit all the people in your country, from school right up to university level.”

Research networks, PhD training and international activity on the rise

In World Blog, Rahul Choudaha argues that universities should learn from BlackBerry's over-confidence not to overlook the significance of MOOCs. A study of PhD education in East Asia, Southern Africa and Latin America has shown that universities across the world are looking to build research capacity and are increasing the number of doctoral graduates they produce, Thomas Ekman Jørgensen reveals in Commentary.

Loveness Kaunda describes a special interest group focusing on curriculum internationalisation in an African context, launched recently by the International Education Association of South Africa, and Qiang Zha writes that more and younger Chinese students are studying abroad as a result of poor quality and uneven education in China.


Yojana Sharma interviews Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin, vice-chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who is one of just two women university leaders in Malaysia, and in Features she speaks to participants at a British Council conference on research networks in East Asia, who called for greater collaboration between Asian and international universities to boost research output in the region.


Helena Flusfeder investigates the controversial move by Israel’s Council for Higher Education to close the politics and government department at Ben-Gurion University, and its implications for academic freedom, and Patrick Boehler reports on an overseas campus being established in Laos by China’s Soochow University – which is Laos’ first foreign campus.

Karen MacGregor Global Editor

Saturday 6 October 2012

Ambassador remembers when the Wall came down

 121003_02 

Dr. Wolfgang Moser, German Ambassador in Cambodia, pictured above. Photograph: Phnom Penh Post

Porn: a long way from reality

Cambodian Activist Monk Receives Swiss Human Rights Award

By Lauren Crothers - October 4, 2012

The country’s foremost campaigning monk, Loun Sovath, received the Martin Ennals Award in Geneva on Tuesday for his efforts to document the plight of people fighting against eviction in Cambodia.
Loun Sovath attends a Boeng Kak Lake protest last November. On Tuesday, he received the Martin Ennals Award in Geneva. (Lauren Crothers/The Cambodia Daily)

The award, which honors one human rights defender each year, is valued at $21,300, a purse that Loun Sovath said he would put toward his work documenting evictions and protests. Winners of the award are chosen from a jury that includes members of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights.

“As a Buddhist monk, Venerable Sovath has managed to raise wider attention to the issue of forced evictions in Cambodia,” said former Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who chairs the Martin Ennals Foundation, according to a statement by Amnesty International.

The award is named for the first secretary-general of Amnesty International, Martin Ennals.
Loun Sovath said yesterday that he accepted the award on behalf of jailed radio station owner Mam Sonando, as well as other human rights activists in Cambodia.

“Human rights in Cambodia including citizenship rights, political rights, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to demonstrate and strike, the right to information, freedom of the press and the right to an impartial judiciary and so on are either lacking, narrowing, or getting worse, and it is becoming even more dangerous for human rights defenders in Cambodia,” Loun Sovath said in his acceptance speech after receiving the award from Kang Kyung-wha, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights.

Loun Sovath said that forced evictions and land disputes are core issues affecting the human rights of Cambodians, many of whom are left homeless, landless and confronted by violent government forces.

“Additionally, the government must stop using the judicial system to oppress and wrongly accuse human rights defenders, and must stop using violence in Cambodia,” he said.

The monk, who is often seen attending and documenting protests and disputes armed with an iPad or video camera, was himself arrested by police in May on the same day that 13 anti-eviction activists were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail. Charges of incitement have been leveled against him in court, while the Buddhist hierarchy, many of whom are close to the ruling CPP, have warned him to stop his activism—an order he has refused.

Monastic officials evicted Loun Sovath from Wat Ounalom in Phnom Penh last year, and pagodas around the country have been ordered not to welcome him in to their sanctuaries because of his social activism.

On World Teachers’ Day 2012, ‘Take a Stand for Teachers’

By Anne Lemaistre

Teaching is a challenging professional task. It requires knowledge, motivation and adaptability. Each day offers new difficulties, and each day we witness how individual teachers find creative ways to overcome the difficult conditions exacerbated by limited equipment and material resources with which to carry out their professional responsibilities.


Today, October 5, is celebrated worldwide as World Teachers’ Day. These celebrations recognize the important role of teachers and galvanize support for their task as educators but also role models, helping students to become good citizens and participate fully in the society.
On this special day, we would like to show our deep appreciation for the vital contribution that teachers have made in education and development of society.

A month ago, the U.N.  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his “Education First Initiative.” It identifies three concrete actions: first, putting every child in school; second improving the quality of learning; and third fostering global citizenship. For each of these priorities, teachers have a central role to play.

It is encouraging to note that Cambodian citizens recognize that teachers are one of the main pillars of a sound and progressive society. In a survey carried out by the NGO Education Partnership  among 1,100 people from throughout Cambodia, more than 90 percent of respondents believe that being a teacher is a good job, and two-thirds of them believe that teachers are respected or highly respected in Cambodian society.

In just over three decades, Cambodia has grown an impressive teaching force of 86,000 and growing. There are now 26 Teacher Training Centers throughout the country. This clearly indicates that teacher education and professional development is of significant concern to the Cambodian government, in particular to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Further efforts of other ministries, such as the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, also need to be acknowledged in preparing teachers to teach in technical and vocational schools and centers which are playing an important role in developing a skilled workforce.

Cambodia still faces significant challenges. It has a large student-teacher ratio, particularly at the primary level, driven by massive growth in student enrolments over the past decade. In addition, rural primary schools tend to have a higher concentration of students per classroom than urban primary schools.

Teacher deployment in remote areas remains a challenge, which has a direct consequence on the most disadvantaged students. Encouraging and supporting secondary students from remote areas to become teachers, providing them with a supporting environment and benefits to remain in their home districts as teachers is one important strategy that has been successfully pursued by many countries worldwide.

Upgrading teacher qualifications is another key challenge. It is estimated that significant efforts will be required to upgrade the qualifications of the one-third of the teaching force with only lower secondary education qualifications or less. Other issues such as the teachers’ presence in the classrooms, absenteeism, number of instructional hours, informal fees and supplementary tutoring etc. will require more comprehensive strategies and actions to address teacher recruitment, preparation, deployment and remuneration.

To further enhance the teacher recruitment, professional development, motivation and overall support, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is developing a national teacher policy. It provides an excellent opportunity to take into account the teacher’s voice, sending a clear signal to the teachers that their opinions matter and that they have a chance to contribute.

This is indeed aptly summed up by Minister of Education Im Sethy, who once during a conversation said: “Teachers know what’s working in schools before anyone else.”

While we strive to seek best possible support mechanisms, it is equally important in turn for teachers to be accountable to their students and communities. The teaching profession is encouraged to design and implement teacher codes of conduct, based on the highest ethical and professional standards, and to be oriented around the goal of teaching all students effectively and equally.

Education is not only the concern and responsibility of the government and the ministries of education. Everyone—governments and educational institutions at all levels, teachers’ associations, civil society organizations, development partners, the private sector, parents and teachers themselves have this responsibility. Hence, we all need to come together to support teachers professionally, boosting their determination and motivation through ensuring decent employment and working conditions and adequate remuneration.

On this special day, with the impetus of Ban’s Education First initiative, let us join forces to express our gratitude to the teachers for their exceptional contribution in building a modern and sustainable society and the enormous impact they have on our society and our future citizens.
As Irina Bokova, Unesco director general, states: “We expect a lot from teachers—they, in turn, are right to expect as much from us.”

Anne Lemaistre is the Unesco representative to Cambodia.

Cambodia, Nepal Can Learn From Their Shared Experiences

By The Cambodia Daily - October 5, 2012


By Surya Subedi

First of all, I have a great deal of respect for the prime minister of Cambodia both as a person and as the leader of the country and the government. I recognize that he has achieved a great deal for Cambodia. But there is room for improvement in the governance of Cambodia and my job is to identify the shortcomings that exist in the system and offer my recommendations to address them.
I do not wish to descend into the personal level and do not wish to have a dialogue with him or anybody in the government through the media. I have had a good level of cooperation from the government of Cambodia and my dialogue with the prime minister has been productive in the past. I look forward to working with him. Our approach may differ on some issues, but they can be addressed in a mutually respectful manner and through dialogue.

I am working in my professional capacity in Cambodia and I expect others to do the same. I am not representing Nepal in Cambodia. I am a professor of international law, a barrister in England and a human rights advocate. I am an independent expert working on behalf of the U.N. with a view to helping the people of Cambodia.

I also have been advising in my personal capacity the government of Nepal on legal and constitutional matters. Nepal has a liberal democracy where the judiciary is independent and people do not go to jail for criticizing the government. The civil society is vibrant and the government in Nepal respects and listens to the representatives of civil society. It has a democratic interim constitution at the moment and people have been trying to write a new constitution with a view to strengthening democracy, human rights and rule of law.

Both Cambodia and Nepal have gone through similar experiences in the past and have a great deal to learn from each other. I have and would welcome if the prime minister of Cambodia has any advice for the people and government of Nepal. Both of these ancient Asian nations have a rich cultural heritage and the people of Nepal respect the people of Cambodia for what they are and what they have been able to achieve.

Surya Subedi is the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia and professor of International Law at the University of Leeds, England.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

UNITED STATES: Public research universities in peril – Report

Coursera to offer courses in Chinese

UNITED STATES: Postdocs – A voice for the voiceless

Issue No:241

In universities around the world, postdoctoral students are the unsung heavy lifters.

Not only do they take on much of the academic load in running tutorials for undergraduates but they are also crucial in many science and engineering research programmes, carrying out the most technically demanding tasks and helping write up papers but not always acknowledged by the professors who benefit from their work.

In a report in the journal Nature, Karen Kaplan says that in its first 10 years, the US National Postdoctoral Association, or NPA, helped to raise the profile of postdocs but that “championing their cause still presents challenges”.

“Before Alyson Reed became head of the association, she had only the vaguest ideas about what a postdoctoral researcher does,” Kaplan says. “Reed was hardly alone. After she took the job as the NPA's inaugural executive director in 2003, she learned that few outside science and academia knew what postdocs are or do.”

As is the case in the US, on university campuses in Britain, Europe and Australia, Kaplan says many postdocs feel invisible and anonymous, crucial to research but suspended in limbo with no means of networking, creating a community or being heard.

“We are ghosts,” as one declared.

But Kaplan notes that almost a decade of efforts by the NPA have helped generate change. Based in Washington DC, the non-profit organisation has worked hard on behalf of its 2,700 members and the nation's more than 60,000 postdocs.

“It has helped stakeholders – including federal agencies, members of Congress and policy-makers – become eminently familiar with what postdocs are, what they do and the conditions they face. It has raised the issue of shoddy compensation and highlighted the difficulties of career development,” Kaplan says.

“Yet most US academic postdocs still work long hours for trifling pay and have no clear route into a permanent position. Observers say that the NPA has made progress, but should do more. The association would like to boost outreach and advocacy and offer more services but a meagre budget, a small staff and funding challenges present significant obstacles.”

Reed told Kaplan that before her association could advocate for postdocs – not to mention collect data about their roles at research institutions – it had to define what a postdoctoral researcher was. The association helped the US National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to adopt a formal definition in 2007.

That definition states, in part, that postdocs are “engaged in a temporary and defined period of mentored advanced training to enhance the professional skills and research independence”.

This helps institutions and principal investigators to see postdocs as trainees and protégés seeking to advance their careers, rather than as just a pair of hands at the bench, as is still the case in many universities around the world, Reed told Kaplan.

Kaplan says that perhaps the NPA's biggest accomplishment was encouraging US universities to set up their own on-campus postdoctoral offices and associations.

The national association now has about 130 member offices on US university and other research campuses, and has inspired the creation of postdoc organisations in other countries, with several fledgling groups asking for advice, including those in Australia, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Japan and Qatar. 

CAMBODIA: Concern over higher education quality as ASEAN community looms

GLOBAL: United Nations launches Education First initiative

Universities in Europe and Asia must collaborate, say rectors

Quality teaching is key to modernising universities – European Commission

The European Commission has launched a High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education. Androulla Vassiliou, European commissioner for education, culture, multilingualism and youth, and Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland and chair of the group, explain why.

Also in Commentary, Emily R Miller and Richard A Skinner argue that imposing North American models of higher education governance elsewhere would not necessarily work. Goolam Mohamedbhai finds a pilot study for the African Quality Rating Mechanism flawed and says there will be challenges in moving forward, and Lucian J Hudson writes that now is the time for huge progress in widening access to higher education – but opening up access to content is not enough.


In Features, Lee Adendorff reports on the 24th conference, held in Bologna, of the Magna Charta Universitatum – a declaration on fundamental university principles that has now been signed by some 750 universities worldwide – and Chrissie Long investigates why a high number of medical graduates who studied in Cuba have failed licensing exams in Costa Rica.


Andrew Green probes Not In My Country, a website in Uganda dedicated to exposing corruption in higher education and rating academics, and Kounila Keo finds that despite a rapidly growing number of higher education institutions in Cambodia, they are struggling to meet growing demand and quality is a real concern.

Karen MacGregor Global Editor

Can U.S. Universities Stay on Top?

At the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi—one of the best engineering academies in the country—we met Shriram, a 21-year-old man who ranked 19 out of 485,000 on the school's very demanding entrance exam. We call him Mr. Number 19.
Shriram can tell you the date and time when he found out his test results. The exam—and the preparation for it—dominated his teenage years. He was singled out as a "big talent" at an early age, with an aptitude for mathematics and science. To get ready for the IIT entrance exam, he enrolled at a private coaching institute that prepares students with aggressive drilling in the major testing areas—physics, chemistry and math. Over those two years, Shriram estimates that he studied 90 hours every week.

When Shriram arrived at the IIT, he found a class filled with academic superstars. The faculty has high expectations. On the first math exam, his freshman class received an average grade of 30%. Shriram did poorly too but soon bounced back, sacrificing sleep so that he could study. "All my life I wanted to be here," he says. "I knew that if I could go to IIT, major in engineering, work and study hard, my life would be perfect. I would marry a beautiful girl, start a company, help my country advance and deliver on my family's hopes and dreams."
Both India and China have intense national testing programs to find the brightest students for their elite universities. The competition, the preparation and the national anxiety about the outcomes make the SAT testing programs in the U.S. seem like the minor leagues. The stakes are higher in China and India. The "chosen ones"—those who rank in the top 1%—get their choice of university, putting them on a path to fast-track careers, higher incomes and all the benefits of an upper-middle-class life.

The system doesn't work so well for the other 99%. There are nearly 40 million university students in China and India. Most attend institutions that churn out students at low cost. Students complain that their education is "factory style" and "uninspired." Employers complain that many graduates need remedial training before they are fully employable.

For now, the U.S. university system is still far ahead. But over the next decade, there will be a global competition to educate the next generation, and China and India have the potential to change the balance of power. With large pools of qualified students coming of age, the two countries have made reforming their universities a top priority.

How far do they have to go? At the Boston Consulting Group, we have developed a new ranking to determine the educational competitiveness of countries: the BCG E4 Index. It is based on four Es: Expenditure (the level of investment in education by government and private households); enrollment (the number of students in the educational system); engineers (the number of qualified engineers entering the workforce), and elite institutions (the number of top global higher-education institutions).

The U.S. and the U.K. are ranked first and second, driven by raw spending, their dominance in globally ranked universities and engineering graduation rates. China ranks third and India fifth, largely on enrollment (Germany is fourth). The reasons for U.S. supremacy are clear: For one, it spends the most money on education, disbursing $980 billion annually, or twice as much as China and five times as much as India. It is also the most engineer-intensive country, with 981 engineering degrees per million citizens, compared with 553 for China and 197 for India.

American universities currently do a better job overall at preparing students for the workforce. The World Economic Forum estimates that 81% of U.S. engineering graduates are immediately "employable," while only 25% of Indian graduates and 10% of Chinese graduates are equally well prepared. "Chinese students can swarm a problem," a dean at a major Chinese university told us. "But when it comes to original thought and invention, we stumble. We are trying hard to make that up. We are trying to make technical education the grounding from which we solve problems."
In China, Peking University, founded in 1898, is generally ranked as the country's top school. One student there told us in a very serious tone: "Good luck finding a place in the library. You can't find a seat even at three in the morning."

Peking University is now part of an effort launched in 2009 to create a Chinese counterpart to the Ivies—called the C9 League. The objective is to attract the best graduates and faculty with an array of super-funded institutions. The schools recently received $270 million each in government funding, and they are also drawing back "sea turtles"—Chinese Ph.D.s from abroad—to lead the renaissance, with relocation bonuses as high as $150,000.

Though the C9 schools have the greatest potential to break into the global elite, Chinese officials also identified 100 key universities at the next level, where they have invested a total of $2.8 billion.
The difference in student quality between these tiers is often insignificant. The Gaokao is China's national educational test, given to 10 million secondary students to determine their rank and placement at university. The top scorers become national celebrities. But critics say that the test's emphasis on memorization, fact recall and processing speed can determine college admissions too arbitrarily. "I did not feel well the day of the test," one recent graduate told us. "As a result I placed in the top 10%, not good enough to get into the C9. I felt like my life was over."

Compared with China, India has farther to go. A senior dean at IIT Delhi said that he deals daily with shortages of equipment, poor pay for teachers and quotas that sometimes put students who can't read or speak English in the classroom. (The quotas are meant as a remedy for the caste system.) "We are underfunded, we have too few Ph.D.s on faculty, and we have a fifth of our enrollment taken by quota with no remedial programs," he lamented in his hot, open office.

One of the reasons for the underfunding is the relative weakness of India's central government, which accounts for only 15% of total expenditure on education. The 28 states that account for the balance vary greatly by wealth and infrastructure. But unlike China, India has significant private education, with nearly 200,000 private schools and 17,000 private colleges. The World Bank and private investors are pouring billions of dollars into education there, and the government plans to expand its best-known universities, as well as community colleges. The current five-year plan proposes higher-education investments of more than $18 billion.

Even with the current push, the combined higher-education resources of India and China will just begin to match the $32 billion endowment of Harvard alone. But success in these countries is based as much on attitude as on funds. The IIT's Mr. Number 19 represents a generation of driven, talented students who are intent on improving their lives. In one student's room at Peking University, the commitment to advancement is summed up with a phrase on a poster board: "If you work hard enough, you can grind an iron rod into a needle."

—Mr. Silverstein is a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Singhi is a partner and director of its India consumer practice. Adapted from "The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India," co-written with Carol Liao and David Michael, to be published on Oct. 2 by Harvard Business Review Press.

Education Strength

Which countries have the most competitive educational systems world-wide? The Boston Consulting Group's new E4 index assigns points in four categories, each equally weighted in the final score. Of the 20 countries ranked, here are the top 10.
Country Total points Enrollment points Expenditure points Engineering grads points Elite university points
U.S.23725734891
U.K.1254264648
China115861748
Germany1045253738
India 10490436
France874244118
Canada852253918
Japan727311916
Brazil38171623
Russia32910103
 
Source: Boston Consulting Group analysis
A version of this article appeared September 29, 2012, on page C3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Can U.S. Universities Stay on Top?.

An international hub for higher education?

By Professor Dr Francois Therin. Posted on August 28, 2012, Tuesday

RECENTLY, foreign universities such as the United Kingdom’s Heriot-Watt University and the University of Reading announced opening branch campuses in Malaysia. Several other universities also intend to expand their operations here, including Manipal University of India which plans to open a campus for up to 20,000 students. The news is hardly surprising as the Ministry of Higher Education has indicated that up to 25 foreign universities have applied to open branch campuses in the country.

Inevitably, it has triggered a strong reaction from the existing players, with some trying to convince the ministry that by allowing an overly large number of foreign branch campuses to operate, the competitive landscape would be adversely affected.

Such a reaction would be deemed quite normal in any industry, but it would be interesting to ponder whether it is reasonable or not. Firstly, let us look at some figures related to higher education in Malaysia. Currently, there are approximately 1.1 million tertiary students in Malaysia, including 500,000 pursuing bachelor’s degrees and 400,000 pursuing diplomas. Among the 1.1 million students, some 80,000 are international students with the majority representing five countries — China, Iran, Indonesia, Nigeria and Yemen.

Yearly, the higher education sector sees an enrolment of 400,000 new students while 250,000 graduate from different universities throughout the country.

These students are served by 21 public and 23 private universities, including five foreign branch campuses. They also come from 21 private higher education institutions with university college status. In fact, more than 20 other foreign universities are already actively operating in Malaysia through twinning programmes with the university colleges. So is it likely 25 new players would negatively affect the competitive landscape?

Clearly, Malaysia aims to become a higher education hub. Despite marketing higher education internationally much later than Singapore, it already has more international students, the number having doubled since 2006. The objective now is to reach 200,000 by 2020. Of course, many of the universities exist to diversify the sources as the current major ones could be subject to internal political changes, which could consequently affect the number of students sent to Malaysia. For example, Oman recently announced that it would send up to 4,000 students a year compared to only 400 in 2010.

Meanwhile, student intakes from India and Egypt, as well as neighbouring countries such as Thailand or Vietnam, are very low and have not met the forecasted numbers. For instance, there are only 1,400 students from India.

In Malaysia, a bachelor’s degree has become the minimum requirement for one to land a first-time skilled job. Malaysia’s economy is doing very well and employers’ increased need for qualified staff has created a demand for more graduates, particularly from critical fields such as engineering, business and medicine.

There is a natural growth in the local student population. We can expect the population to continue to grow, and subsequently, a greater demand for universities to offer higher degrees. There are currently only 63,000 students pursuing studies at the master’s level and 21,000 at PhD level.
Malaysia is making a clear stand on quality, though at the start of the internationalisation process, and as many other countries did, more importance was placed on quantity rather than quality. Take the recent issues in Vietnam, for example. Malaysia is now very carefully monitoring the quality of the existing institutions, both public and private, and is becoming more and more exacting when considering the applications of new players. The implementation of a very detailed and stringent rating system for the country’s universities, the Setara Rating System for Institutions of Higher Learning, is helping raise standards.

In the field of business, for example, public institutions have been asked to go for international accreditations such as Equis (European Quality Improvement System) and AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). Not compromising on quality will certainly convince local students to study within Malaysia rather than go overseas.

Currently, around 80,000 Malaysians are studying abroad — 30,000 of them under scholarships and 50,000 self-sponsored.

This indirectly raises the attractiveness factor for international students to pursue their tertiary education in Malaysia, particularly those from countries where the number of higher education institutions is still too low to meet internal demand and/or where the move towards quality has not been effectively implemented.

Therefore, I do not share the concerns of some of my colleagues on the competitive risk. On the contrary, I believe that more competition can help to strengthen the path towards better quality. It will also offer a wider choice for local and international students in Malaysia, and subsequently, reinforce the country’s vision of becoming an international education hub.

Professor Dr Francois Therin is the dean of the School of Business at Curtin Sarawak.

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