Symposium Towards Excellence in Higher Education

Symposium Towards Excellence in Higher Education

Time: 9:00 – 12:30, June 3, 2016

Venue: 408 Meng Wah Complex

Theme: Equity and Identity

Opening remarks, Prof. Kai-ming

·  Equity relates to access / Identity relates to unity

·  Higher education enrolment rate differs across country

Issues / Discussion topics, Dr. Jisun

·  Who goes higher education / vocational / community college?

·  Who controls the access? - State control china

·  Who does (should) pay for HE?

- Germany: government, now charge slight tuition fee

- South Korea: high tuition fee for private university

·  How do people get access for HE? - Entrance system

·  Who does stay/ leave in HE?

- Changing student profile

- Dropout rate / policy at different levels

Singapore example, Mr. Charles

·  Meritocracy - Certain number and place of public university/Selected by grades

·  First choice goes to public universities, then second tier universities

·  Second tier universities provide pathway to overseas universities

- Stay in Singapore and get overseas degree/however these certificates not widely recognized by pubic

·  Polytechnics - aims to prepare students for job market, however graduates rush into universities (public first, then private, private tuition usually 4 times than public)

·  Government offered new direction - focus on skills and contributions, not qualifications

·  Socio-economic background – for less privileged not an easy access

Wrap-ups

1st Group, Dr. Molly

Group member from Macau, Mongolia, Nigeria, Malaysia

·  What is access?

- Macau: no problem, people want to go for job/overseas study, subsidize private sectors

- Mongolia, Nigeria, Malaysia: Quota system, regional preference

Nigeria -> Rural areas; Malaysia -> Bumiputra

- Nigeria: expand the system, private system involved; partnerships, there can be more places afforded

- Malaysia: subsidize in terms of student loan

·  Admitting students is first step, for less prepared students

- Mongolia: less courses, take longer time

- Less competitive entrance exam in Malaysia and Nigeria

·  Role and function of private sectors

- High tuition, low quality private programs needs more attention

- Macau: admitting better students from China, public universities are getting better

- Nigeria: create competition with public universities

- Mongolia: generally not good, except some mining programs collaborated with Germany and Japan

- Malaysia: English-medium instruction in private universities, graduates have better job market

·  Internationalization

- In Case 3, Japan should see China, open policy, young academics better adapt to the English environment

- Mongolia: due to language issue, have to hire foreign professors

2nd Group, Group member

Group members from Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia

Case 1 Right vs. equity issues

·  Deficit model: Provide scholarship/return to provinces where they originally come from

Case 2 Equity

·  Eg. Students volunteer in Africa, house flashing? cover transportation and other fees, the poor cannot afford

·  Mongolia – think applicable

Case 3

·  Academic study vs. cultural exposure

·  Being Cultural-minded

Cambodia

·  Public - Science-oriented education

·  Private - internal

Laos

·  Pyramid model: vocational college at base, research university at top

·  Widen access to female student - gender equity

Internationalization

·  Good side: improve quality

·  Bad side: identity, tension in community

3rd Group, Dr. Jisun

Group members from Mongolia, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Cambodia

Case 1 Taboo problem – regional difference/gap in the above case countries

·  Ethiopia: similar policy as China; default position – less opportunity in rural areas

·  South Korea: initial stage HE expansion, 1 public 1 training in each region

·  Mongolia: not enough even students get access to HE in rural areas, they want to go to urban area to get a job

Who has access?

·  Higher socio-economic status get higher chances to education

·  Ethiopia: privilege stemmed from Secondary education

·  Cambodia: although scholarship provided, but not enough

How to widen access?

·  Rapid expansion in HE in the above case countries, provide associate degrees, vocational track to HE sector

·  Mongolia: too many small universities, merging strategy adopted

·  Taiwan: widen access at postgraduate level

Equity

·  Ethiopia: 80 ethnic groups, diversity is more important, plus gender issues

·  Cambodia: Buddhism, ASEAN countries would like to keep girls in family/countryside/hometown, cultural and social issues rather than academic issues

·  Mongolia: more female than male students in HE - easy for men to get a job, girls need a certificate to get a job

Public and private

·  Cambodia: quality is getter better, with quality control agency

·  Taiwan: some private universities are in poor quality

Comments: Contextualize based on different situations

4th Group, Mr. Charles

Case 1: regional

Case 2: knowledge and intellect focus, falsify, unrealistic in developing country

Case 3: brain drain, image, cultural bridge

Cambodia

·  40 public 70 private

·  50% public, 50% private; more students in public universities

5th Group, Dr. Nopraenue

Group members from Argentina, Cambodia, Mongolia

Who shoulder cost?

·  Argentina: free education for 1.3 million, private accounts for 20%; Historical terms, government paying

·  Cambodia: 16% access, privation and massification

·  Mongolia: 80% students are paying

Case 1

·  Mechanism of ensuring equity is almost as important as the issue of quality

·  Equity leads to quality in those western provinces?

·  Implication on mobilisation

Case 2

·  would work, especially for professions like medical doctors

Case 3

·  Rather negative, neo-imperialism

·  Regionalization rather than internationalization

Regional block – ASEAN countries

Jamil’s Comments

Equity - overlooked in tertiary education policy

·  Free education might not be the most equitable way

·  Euro central Asia – pursuing American certificates

·  Lack of intellectual stimulation - rich and poor family

·  We are prepared in the same way

·  Merit and equity, meritocracy is not always equitable

Access

·  You don’t want factors, external elements to affect your chances of learning

·  Gender, color, religion should not be obstacles

Equity – why is important?

·  Justice dimension - Human right/social right

·  Non-monetary dimension - Resources/losing talents/potential of the country

We care about money scholarship/student loan, non-monetary dimension need to be focused.

Examples

·  Ernest Rutherford, born in New Zealand, lucky to get scholarship to study in UK and got Nobel prize

·  Chris Langan, born in US, with 4 siblings in a poor family, world highest IQ 195,

·  Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell

Good academic preparation --> information asymmetry -- no motivation --> trying to motivate students

Example

Experiment in India - rigid and hierarchical system

The students who were kept being reminded their inferior status/labeled lack motivation

Role of private sector

·  Why private? Share the financial burden/social responsibilities

·  Many Good as well bad

·  Need to pay and bad quality – Cambodia, Latin America, Philippines and Indonesia

·  Good quality and equity

·  Need-blind policy, finds way to promote private sector

Equity initiatives

·  In Mexico, Syria quota system: Government requests 5% students from lowest income group

·  Bridge programs: US universities reach out to secondary school to help prepare lower income secondary students for HE

Gender bias – statistics of enrollment

·  Caribbean countries: more female students

·  South Africa?

·  Disciplines? - Gender enrollment, gap of professions, variety of profession opportunities

·  Gender imbalance of university leadership - China, Southern Euro, less female president

Regional universities - look at the resources

·  Do they get the same resources, professors?

·  High turnover, professors don’t stay long

·  Regional universities don’t mean you are second-rate universities

Prof. Kai-ming’s Comments

·  Inequality starts from primary education, even from kindergarten

·  In the poorest areas, students fail because we said they are idiots

·  What is wanted, needed, and affordable (who pays what)?

What is wanted?

·  Social aspiration/academic need: government focus

·  Economic need: qualifying exam, manpower - take for granted

Book: “Educated unemployment” - temporary phenomenon

1963 Robbins Report - ambitious trend of HE, no end to social aspiration

Should there be a ceiling of HE expansion?

·  Concept is changing

·  Rate of return to HE is dropping – no use for HE, why do we need HE as it is definitely going down

·  Opportunity to achieve social mobility - passively a social problem

Example:

Headline of newspaper: Cathay Pacific recruited 2 air attendants who were college graduates in 1980s?

Nowadays air attendants are all college graduates, offering high quality service

What’s wrong?

·  HE to cram more people in doesn’t fit the social structure

Runs/ladder of internationalization

·  One-way communication in some universities, creating English website - basic level

·  International campus, learning and working in English - last level

·  In-between - many levels

The turning point is usually the language, faculty members who were not good at teaching and writing in English don’t want to become “second-class citizen” in the university.