Iraqi Campus Is Under Gang’s Sway

Imagine working at an institution with the kinds of problems the staff at Mustansiriya University (Iraq) are coping with. A violent gang of students, with support from faculty and campus security:

Although Baghdad and most other areas of the country are now generally free of the armed militias that caused much of the violence during Iraq’s sectarian warfare, Mustansiriya seems a remnant of that chaos. It is under the sway of an armed group of violent Shiite students in engineering, literature, law and other disciplines; faculty members; and campus security guards.

[P]rofessors and administrators at the school solemnly give the names of colleagues and students who were threatened by the group before being found dead: Jasim al-Fahaidawi, a professor of Arabic literature, shot dead at the university’s entrance in 2005; Najeb al-Salihi, a psychology professor, kidnapped in 2006 near the campus and found in the morgue three weeks later, shot to death; and Jasim Fiadh al-Shammari, a psychology professor fatally shot near the university, also in 2006.

Parag Khanna: Embrace the Post-American Age

Parag Khanna opened our eyes to higher education in the "Second World" at SCUP–43 last summer. (Seems like so long ago!) Now he's one of the 15 smart people who Wired magazine believes the next American president needs to listen to. Note to the world: SCUPers listened to him first! If you didn't take good notes at his plenary session in Montreal, you now have the choice of his book or this briefer article in Wired.

Here's one view of America circa 2008: The US is a modern-day Roman Empire — overstretched, underperforming, slowly crumbling into history's dustbin. Here's Parag Khanna's view: Nonsense. The geopolitical wooziness Americans are feeling isn't decline. It's realignment.

In his book The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order, Khanna, 31, describes a planet dominated by a trio of superpowers: the US, China, and Europe. In this tripolar era, America's fate depends on tough national choices, not lame historical analogies. If the US wises up — by tightening trade and energy ties to the rest of the hemisphere, pursuing economic innovation at home, and establishing a "diplomatic-industrial complex" — it can grow stronger even as the globe becomes less red, white, and blue.

Worldmapper: A New Way of Looking at the World

This nifty online resource is a collaborative effort between the University of Sheffield (UK), the University of Michigan, and others. It is "a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest." This specific map illustrates spending on tertiary (higher) education. (Territory size shows the proportion of all spending on tertiary education worldwide that is spent there, when measured in purchasing power parity US$.)



© Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

Of all spending on tertiary education, when measured in US$ adjusted for local purchasing power, 61% occurs within North America and Western Europe. At the other extreme, the total tertiary education spending in all of Central Africa and Southeastern Africa was 1.5% of the total worldwide spend.

Tertiary education includes the training required for jobs such as being a doctor, an engineer or a scientist. Investing in tertiary education can therefore benefit society more widely. For pupils to reach tertiary education they must first attend primary and secondary schools.

Time to Get a Sense of Canadian Higher Education!

With higher education's premier planning conference beginning in just a couple of weeks, in Montreal, it's time to get conversant with Canadian higher education issues. That means it's time to browse through the website of University Affairs—also known as Affaires universitaires. Recent articles include "The University as an Economic Engine" (sounds familiar), "Won't You Stay Just a Little Bit Longer" (keeping commuting students on urban campuses longer than just for classes), and "Indebted to Higher Education" (mishmash of student aid programs)—sounds quite familiar, actually! 

Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses: 2008 Edition

This publication is available for purchase from the American Council on Education. A summary of its key findings is freely available here:

Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses: 2008 Edition the second in a series, following a 2001 study, on the policies and practices of colleges and universities in furthering internationalization. When possible, the report compares the 2001 data with the most recently collected 2006 data. The results, taken from a survey of more than 2,700 colleges and universities, present an overview of U.S. higher education institutions as well as information by institutional type.

While there has been some progress since 2001, ACE's 2006 data found that gains have been slow and uneven, few areas registered sharp increases, and some experienced declines.

How Do You Make Bologna?

Enjoy this audio stream of David Crosier, project Director at the European University Association and lead researcher on the Trends project, which tracks Bologna Process developments. He explains what some of the current activities and changes have been as the European countries work to align their higher education systems.

Big Plans for Higher Education in India

We really don't at the moment know how to better express this than by a relatively large quite from this article. Setting up 30 new central universities in 10 years? Changing student fees from covering 5% to covering 20 percent of operational costs during the same time frame? Just looking at the advertisements on the web page is illustrative of a culture gap:

These are exciting times for higher education in the country. The 11th five year Plan document proposes an almost 10-fold increase in outlay for higher and technical education. The planners have set ambitious targets — to attract 15% students passing out of class XII (from the current 10%) into higher education by 2012 and 22% by 2017. The way to do this, they say, is to expand and upgrade on an unprecedented scale.

In the new Plan, there’s more of everything — 30 new central universities are to be set up, seven IITs and IIMs, 10 National Institute of Technology, five research institutes to be called Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20 IIITs, two schools of architecture and 330 colleges in educationally backward districts. All this is in line with the PM’s announcement in his August 15 speech this year.

Infrastructure in existing universities and institutions is also in for major upgradation. Among the big beneficiaries of these special grants will be 17 yet-to-identified central universities which will get Rs 3,298 crore. Besides, 39 engineering institutes will receive a whopping Rs 6,749 crore, again for ramping up infrastructure. A good dose of funds has also been set aside for upgrading agriculture, management and medical institutions.

But this money comes with a plan. The document envisions wide-ranging reforms in the way higher education is imparted and much of the fund allocation has been tied up to the beneficiary institute carrying out structural changes. Some of these proposals are likely to trigger debate and attract controversy.

For instance, the document seeks to raise fees for higher education to up to 20% of operational costs, which is 5% at present. "Higher education is highly subsidized. The document seeks to reduce this subsidy to improve quality of education," said Bhalchandra Mungekar, member Planning Commission.

What Is a Globally Competent Student?

Read the transcript of this Chronicle Live Discussion: William Brustein, associate provost for international affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and president of the Association of International Education Administrators, addresses the question: "What Is a Globally Competent Student?"

Colleges trying to internationalize the college experience are struggling with some key questions: What is a globally competent student? How do you internationalize the curriculum? Is it better to create stand-alone courses or infuse internationalism across disciplines? How do you get faculty members to commit to the goal? How do you involve foreign students and scholars more deeply in campus life?

On the same Web page, there are "free" links to these related Chronicle articles: "'Flat World' Lessons for Real-World Students" and "To Connect With Foreign Students, Champlain College Taps Into Technology."