Wednesday 5 September 2012

Universities under-rated as mega-export industries

During the coffee break at an economics workshop last month in Brisbane, Australia, a senior official from the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade casually remarked to me that Australia’s top three exports are now coal, iron ore and educa­tion.
Academics are trained to be skeptical, so my immediate ques­tion to him was: “How did you calculate that?"
His reply was eminently reas­onable. Since they wanted to know how much the incomes of Australians had increased due to the purchases of foreigners, they added the living expenses and transportation expenditures of foreign students while they were in Australia to the increase in tuition revenues of Australian language institutes, colleges and universities.
We both agreed that although education may rank third in dollar terms, modern mining is a very capital intensive process.
Because the education services and consumption expenditures purchased by foreign students are quite labour intensive, “edu­cation exports" are, per dollar, much bigger job creators than mining.
Australians realized some years ago that their proximity to rapidly growing Asian countries and their English language edu­cational system gave them a market opportunity.
There are hundreds of millions of newly middle class families in China, India, Indonesia and Southeast Asia who want the very best for their children (now, very often, their only child) and economic growth means that they now have the income to pay for it.
Australia has been targeting that market for 20 years.
Today, the concern among Australian academics is that their early entry into the education market may have been at a price/ quality point that made sense in the 1990s, when family incomes in their target markets were considerably lower than now.
However, the parents of their students are extremely conscious of academic quality, and now they can afford to pay for more of it.
In the Age of the Internet, geographic proximity also now counts for less — and in any event, in addition to Asian coun­tries, the economic growth of Turkey, Brazil, Russia, etc. means that the potential market for high-quality post-secondary education in English is expand­ing globally.
The question is: who will supply that market?
Which is why this particular civil servant was spending his day at an academic research workshop — he wanted to under­stand better the research process which is such a dominant com­ponent of international rankings of universities, such as Shanghai University’s “Academic Ranking of World Universities."
And the reference points really are international. One example of the globalization of higher edu­cation comes from the job mar­ket.
Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/132885-universities-under-rated-as-mega-export-industries

Sunday 26 August 2012

Record numbers of international students

The number of international students around the world is continuing to rise sharply, with provisional figures from Unesco's Institute for Statistics revealing an annual increase of 12%.
The final figures for 2009, to be published in May, are expected to show the number of international students rising to 3.43 million from 2.96 million, according to the Unesco statistics.
There are many different measures of overseas students - but this global figure from Unesco shows a huge spike in numbers this decade, rising by more than 75% since 2000.
The United States is the biggest destination. According to the Institute of International Education, the latest figures show there are 691,000 students in the US, with an annual value to the economy estimated at around $20bn (£12.3bn).
But its dominance now depends on the ever-growing number of arrivals from China, overtaking India as the largest single group of overseas students. The number of Chinese students in the US rose by almost 30% in a single year. The third biggest contingent in the US comes from South Korea.
China has become the firecracker in this market. There are more than 440,000 Chinese students abroad - and there are plans to rapidly increase the number of overseas students coming to China's universities, with an ambitious target of 500,000 places.
To put this into a longer-term perspective, the entire overseas student population in China could once have travelled in a minibus. In the early 1950s it consisted of 20 east Europeans.
Chasing quality
Driving the demand among Chinese to study abroad is a shortage of places on high-quality degree courses at home and the pressure to have an overseas qualification when chasing jobs, says Rahul Choudaha, associate director of the New York-based World Education Services.
The Chinese university system has expanded in terms of quantity, says Dr Choudaha, but it is struggling to keep pace with the demand for quality.
The plan to bring more overseas students into China is part of the country's drive to internationalise its economy and become a "knowledge power", says Dr Choudaha.
It's also a reflection of how much the culture of the overseas student market has changed - with western universities no longer able to depend on their pivotal position.
It was once a trade as stately as steamships, vaguely colonial in how it managed to make a nice little earner seem rather philanthropic. Now it's more like international air travel, with the trade routes of this multi-billion business wrapping themselves around the globe in every direction.
The current intake of overseas students in China also shows a different kind of map of influence. The only European country in its top 10 is Russia - with the most overseas students in China coming from South Korea, the US, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Overseas without the travel
It's also no longer necessarily about overseas students travelling from overseas.
Figures released by the British Council this week show that there are now more "overseas students" taking UK degrees in their own countries than there are overseas students coming to study in the UK.
The UK is the second biggest destination for overseas students.But there are now 340,000 students taking UK university courses in their home countries, either through partnerships between UK and local universities or else through UK universities setting up branch campuses, such as Nottingham in Ningbo in China.
More than 160 branch campuses have been opened in more than 50 countries - mostly by US universities. There are also a multitude of partnerships and joint degrees as part of this academic cross-pollination.
According to the British Council, this type of "transnational" studying has increased by 70% in a decade.The council's chief executive, Martin Davidson, says this is going to appeal to "students across the world who may not be able to afford to spend several years thousands of miles away from home".Technology can only accelerate this process. Online degrees are making strides in the mainstream, with US firms such as Laureate teaming up with institutions such as Liverpool University to offer internet-based courses. Laureate has a network of university links in 24 countries.
Talent search
Another key to this growth in internationalisation is the competition for the most talented students and staff.
Major research institutions are like top football clubs, operating in in a kind of international zone, judged by international comparisons and competing to recruit the best individuals from around the world.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is widely-recognised as one of the best research universities in the world. It might be physically based in Boston, but its cutting-edge postgraduate courses depend on recruiting the best students - and this means a global rather than a national catchment area.
About 40% of the students on graduate courses are from outside the US, says Danielle Guichard-Ashbrook, director and associate dean of the International Students Office.
"We open up admissions to the whole world. We don't consider their nationality, we just want the best - and we get them," she says.
There are more than a hundred different nationalities represented in the graduate intake - with the biggest numbers coming from China, India and South Korea.
Cash cows
The scale of the increase in international student numbers in university is not without risks. In the UK, the current level of anxiety over proposed student visa restrictions reveals how much universities have come to depend on the income from overseas students.
Steven Schwartz is vice chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, having previously worked in universities in the UK and US. In Australia he has seen how quickly an expanding overseas student market can evaporate.
Indian public opinion was outraged after a series of attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2009. Applications from Indian students slumped by 50% - and threatened an industry which had grown to become Australia's third biggest export.
He says the lesson from this rise and fall is that university systems should always remember that students are individuals rather than walking fee cheques.
"Studying with students from diverse backgrounds, domestic students learn about other cultures, cuisines and languages. They also learn about fairness and tolerance and teamwork and fair play. These lessons are just as important as any learned in class," says Prof Schwartz.
"However these lessons will be negated when we treat international students as simply income sources. No student wants to be an export earner and the sooner we learn this the better."
Source: BBC News@ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12671198

UK university to open campus in Thailand

A UK university is to open a campus in Bangkok - in what is claimed as the first such UK branch university to be established in Thailand.
The University of Central Lancashire has signed a deal with a Thai-based entrepreneur to open a university campus in Bangkok in 2014.
Degrees will be taught in English and validated by the UK university.
This will be the latest example of universities "globalising" with overseas branches.
It follows a path set by the University of Nottingham which set up a branch university in China.
The greatest concentration of such branch universities, from UK and US universities, has been in Asia and the Gulf states.
Newcastle University is establishing a medical school in Malaysia, where Nottingham also has a campus. University College London has a campus in Qatar.
The announcement of the University of Central Lancashire's plans will give this "new" university an international identity and an opportunity to expand.
The University of Central Lancashire's vice-chancellor, Malcolm McVicar, said its market research showed "strong demand" for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Thailand.
Thailand has been identified as a hub for South East Asia, which it expects to be a "key area for future global growth".
The UK university will invest £7.5m and will work alongside the entrepreneur Sitichai Charoenkajonkul.
'Global brand'
There are other UK universities which have partnerships with universities in Thailand, but the University of Central Lancashire is claiming to be the first from the UK to set up a full university there.
It expects to have 5,000 students in 10 years and will offer courses in areas such as business, built and natural environment, engineering, creative and performing arts and languages.
Kevin Van-Cauter, higher education adviser at the British Council, says this is part of an increasing pattern of globalisation in higher education.
Setting up overseas branches allows universities to "establish a global brand", he says.
The physical presence of a campus can also be presented as a bigger commitment to a region than the more widespread partnership arrangements, he suggests.
Such branch campuses can be used to attract students from across the wider region, he says.
Overseas universities in South East Asia might recruit students from China, Vietnam and Malaysia and further afield, such as the Middle East and North Africa, he says.
There are US universities which have set up chains of overseas campuses in several different countries.
Source: BBC News @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16509673

Wednesday 22 August 2012

The 2nd Thai Business and Thai Studies conference in Melbourne

We have launched the call for papers for 2012 Thai Studies and business conference in Melbourne. The aim of this conference is to be the international forum for academics, research students and researchers who are interested in Thailand to gather and present new ideas from their research projects.
The conference will be held on 25-26 October 2012 in Melbourne.
As usual, RMIT University and the University of Melbourne will host this important event. Some papers from different themes will potentially be accepted and published in the The International Journal of Studies in Thai Business, Society & Culture.
This is the link to the conference website.
See you all in Melbourne!

Monday 9 July 2012

Vic's Swinburne Uni to close campus

Swinburne University of Technology will close its Lilydale campus in Melbourne's outer east, home to 3000 students, and up to 240 staff will lose their jobs. TAFE courses in areas such as hospitality, leisure, recreation and tourism will no longer be offered, and courses in low demand will also be dumped.
The decision comes after the Victorian government slashed $290 million from TAFE funding in the 2012/13 budget.
Swinburne had $35 million of its TAFE budget, about one quarter, cut for this financial year.
Vice-chancellor Linda Kristjanson said with fewer viable TAFE courses and a drop in demand for higher education at Lilydale, the campus would no longer offer courses from July 1 next year.
Students in the middle of higher education courses at Lilydale will have their programs rolled into courses at the Hawthorn campus from January, while those working towards a TAFE qualification may continue their courses at the nearby Croydon or Wantirna campuses.
"We expect that there will be no impact on the students themselves," Prof Kristjanson told reporters.
"Geography is important when students make the choice about their programs, but moreover they are making choices about quality programs."
The future of the Prahran campus will be decided after 2014, with TAFE courses there to be moved to other campuses and the Faculty of Design to go to Hawthorn.
There will be 120 voluntary redundancies offered to Swinburne TAFE teachers and the same number available to general staff across the university.
Prof Kristjanson said sackings would be a last resort, and in her experience voluntary redundancy programs were often over-subscribed.
Higher Education Minister Peter Hall acknowledged the TAFE funding cuts had helped drive the closures.
"There is no doubt that some of the changes for vocational training and funding have led them to some of those decisions in part," he told reporters.
"But essentially the main reason for these changes is a decision taken by the university council which reflects the priorities that they have towards program delivery into the future."
Opposition education spokesman James Merlino said the closure of the Lilydale campus would have wide-ranging implications across Melbourne's outer east.
"This is the reality of $290 million being ripped out of TAFE," he told reporters.
"Kids from regional Victoria travelling to Lilydale will no longer have the opportunity of a TAFE course."
No decision has been made about the future of the campus building at Lilydale.
Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/vics-swinburne-to-close-campus-cuts-jobs/story-e6frf7kf-1226418929897 BY, Melissa Jenkins From: AAP July 06, 2012 5:43PM

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Why not open-access journals?

Knowledge should be free and available to everyone. The free flow of knowledge in society underpins long-term development of all aspects of humanity. Having conducted research in higher education institutions in South East Asia and Australia, I have come to question the amount of money we continuously pay to subscribe to journals of big publishing companies and the value we get in return. It is us, taxpayers, who cover the costs of research (and researchers) in the public education system so why do we also need to pay for these companies to publish the outputs of 'our' research? There is a growing clamour against exclusive approaches to research and scholarship, especially when much of it is funded by taxpayers. Internet-based peer-reviewed journals, available to all readers with neither restriction nor charge, or "open-access journals", offer an alternative for academics of various disciplines to disseminate ideas and evidence to a wide audience. Open-access journals, with costs covered by publication fees, sponsorships, in-kind contributions, or other sources of support, challenge the traditional subscription model. More than 4,200 open access journals, in a variety of fields, are listed in the directory of open access journals (DOAJ: www.doaj.org).
Last week, The Australian reported that "Harvard University, The world's richest university - and second richest not-for-profit organisation in the world after the Catholic Church - has told staff it can no longer afford to pay for journal subscriptions and they should publish in open access alternatives." This is alarming that a preeminent academic institution could be looking to disseminate knowledge gained from research via non-mainstream media in which people (students, university, industry and fellow academics) can read your work freely. Open-access journals following vigorous academic process can be among the most potent sources of knowledge. Journal impact factors are an important consideration. Some open-access journals have received impact factors from Thomson Reuters Scientific (or ISI). The number of open access journals with listed impact factors has increased from 239 in 2004 to almost 400 in 2010. It is expected that the impact of open-access journal can be stronger than traditional journals because of the internet-based nature and, therefore, potential for high citation rates.
One specific condition is crucial. Most open-access journals charge publication fees to academics who submit their papers for potential publication. Some may argue articles can be published in open-access journals with ease by paying the required fee. The quality of journal articles and significance of research are, therefore, questionable. A thorough search of DOAJ shows an interesting trend among open access-journals in science and social sciences. Most are now operated by universities in non-English speaking countries. These journals are run by different groups of academics who, as a result of their intense interest in their respective disciplines, do not charge publication fees. This provides hope to researchers worldwide, no matter what their financial resources, for unimpeded dissemination of their research findings. The culture of knowledge dissemination was initially pioneered by the non-academic sector, in particularly during the boom of the dotcom industry. A good example is the site www.onlineopinion.com.au which long has been run for free, notwithstanding financial donations from readers. Or the new way to amalgamate resources among universities and create a forum such as www.conversation.edu.au is vigorous and achievable. Is this not a model which could be adopted by the editorial teams of open-access journals adopt?
One of the key missions among academics is to publish. We are familiar with the culture of academia articulated in the adage 'publish or perish'. Publications in the traditional international journals can (and will) lead you to where you want to be. In Australia, the Australian Research Council (ARC) asks grant applicants to rank their 10 best publications when applying for an ARC research grant. In an interview by The Australian, the ARC CEO, Margaret Sheil, confirmed she did not consider open access appropriate at this time. Critics of ARC's stance point to its "lack of understanding of core issues". All traditional academic journals have long been controlled by major publishing companies such as Wiley, Sage, Blackwell, Emerald, Elsevier, Kluwer etc. The power they hold is incredible and it does not seem to me that academics have done enough to challenge their power. We need to act in order to change the way we disseminate our academic outputs to the public. Copy right is a factor that contributes to the power of major publishing companies. In the traditional publication culture, authors transfer the copy right of their research papers to the publisher. Most open-access journals, on the other hand, will not ask the author to transfer copy right or intellectual property to the publisher. Australia needs a system and leadership which promotes equitable ways we can share more technical and financial resources among public institutions (including universities) nationally to create more open-access journals that are of high quality and become impactful in various academic disciplines. This approach will change the culture of research and publication not only in Australia but globally. * I published the original version of this essay at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13564

Thursday 23 February 2012

Views from Bartlett on Global Manager




When Transnational Management was first published in 1992, the world was a different place.

"The global economy was radically restructuring in the wake of an era of accelerating globalization in the 1980s," says Harvard Business School professor emeritus Christopher A. Bartlett, who coauthored the textbook and its updates with the late Sumantra Ghoshal (HBS DBA '86) and Paul W. Beamish of the University of Western Ontario. "The Japanese juggernaut had just come driving through the United States, challenging the international strategy of so many companies."

Nearly 20 years later and in its sixth edition, Bartlett's case-filled textbook (which he describes as a "continuing passion") offers the opportunity to reexamine the ever-changing nature of multinational corporations (MNCs) and cross-border management while confirming and further exploring some basic challenges that have, more or less, remained the same.

"There are three core strategies that any MNC has to pursue to build layers of competitive advantage," Bartlett says. "The first is to use worldwide operations to build global scale efficiency. If you're Ford or Toyota, for example, you have to compete in the world market to capture the minimum efficient scale."

The second requirement, often in conflict with the first, is a sensitivity and responsiveness to national differences. "It's a closeness to the market that enables you to adapt and modify, not just produce one single, standardized product. The simplest example might be the need for a right-hand drive Toyota Corolla in the UK," Bartlett says.

The third imperative is to leverage the world for information, knowledge, and expertise. "The latest consumer trend or technological development may be emerging in Germany or Japan, not your home market," Bartlett says. "Having eyes and ears around the world is critical, as is having the response capabilities to tap into the best and brightest, wherever they may be. Companies can no longer assume that all the smart people in the world are born within a 20-mile radius of their headquarters."

This last factor—of being able to develop and diffuse innovation rapidly around the world—has emerged to become much more important as companies constantly renew their product line or service business, Bartlett says. "That's a big change that's taken place."

The world's communication pipeline
Another seismic shift is the broader context in which companies now operate, forgotten all too easily in today's hyper-connected world. "Back in 1992, the Internet was a very narrowly used technology," Bartlett says. "It is now the communication pipeline of the world."

The organizational capability of a company to rapidly develop and diffuse innovation is incredibly important but difficult to cultivate, he continues.

"Back when the book was first published, it required a huge amount of travel, with communications mailed and faxed around the world. Things are obviously different now, with the Internet, satellite phone connections, and video conference calls on Skype."

Those communications channels are of critical importance, Bartlett adds, when it comes to resolving the inherent tensions between headquarters—where the focus might be on standardizing products to drive down cost—and subsidiaries lobbying to adapt products to meet the specific needs of a local market.

Making the global manager
What are the requisite characteristics of a "global manager," if there is such a thing anymore?

"Today, I would argue that you don't put that qualifying adjective in front of manager—we all simply operate in a global environment," Bartlett says. "It used to be that you would make a career choice to be in the 'international division.' "

And in the 1960s and '70s, a foreign assignment could be far from a promotion: "It was sometimes the failed domestic managers who were sent abroad."

In today's world, however, a shortage of human capital, not financial capital, is the bigger constraint. "Companies look for bright, capable managers all over the world; there's much more fluidity across the organization in that sense." (A case in point is Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian-Lebanese who serves as chairman and CEO of the Japanese and French automakers Nissan and Renault.)

Managers operating in a global environment obviously need a broad perspective and the ability to relate to other people and cultures in an open, engaged way. Beyond that, Bartlett points to the need for the mental flexibility that enables a manager to negotiate, adapt, and modify the layers of competitive advantage and various strategic imperatives that are part of any multinational company.

"We talk about building a matrix into the organization's structure that enables people to be responsible for the global product line, the geographic area, the functional expertise of R&D or marketing," says Bartlett. "That's still necessary, but much more important is to build a matrix in the manager's mind so that he or she sees the world in terms of the tensions, conflicts, and trade-offs that are part of operating in today's world."

Envisioning the future
Bartlett describes Transnational Management as being in a constant state of evolution. The most recently added chapter, "The Future of the Transnational," includes a case study on the pharmaceutical company Genzyme and its efforts to establish Humanitarian Assistance for Neglected Diseases (HAND), a corporate social responsibility program focused on treatments for diseases that typically affect too small a population to warrant the attention of drug development companies.

"As the organizational model of the transnational has evolved, it's become a critical player in the development of the global political and social economy," Bartlett says. "With that enormous power comes an increased responsibility; this most recent chapter highlights the role that the transnational company has in bringing about change to the world."

As the Genzyme case shows, that responsibility is accompanied by considerable complexities and trade-offs. The company's initial focus on developing a treatment for Gaucher disease extends to malaria, TB, and Chagas disease, with various global partnerships and constituencies cropping up along the way. The crux of the case becomes apparent soon enough: Can Genzyme's HAND program manage all of these initiatives successfully without stretching itself too thin? Given its priorities, what should its partnering strategy look like?

"This is really the next frontier for the transnational company," Bartlett says. "How does it move beyond its role as an economic entity and recognize itself as a key player in the sociopolitical environment in which it has responsibility as well as power?"

Given the scope and influence of today's global corporations, the answer to that question promises to shape the world as we know it for years to come.

source: Harvard business blog http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6761.html

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Noam Chomsky's Views on Modern Education



I am a big fan of Chomsky and has long been a supporter of his critiques over the global institutions and their alignment towards the Washington consensus. Recently, he shared his thoughts on modern education and questions the role of modern educators (like myself?). One of his thoughts is instead of teaching our students “how to learn on their own.” education has become “indoctrination, with people placed in a framework where they follow orders. I can't agree more with this point.

He also deplores the idea of education as an engine of economic growth as the antithesis of its real role, “to create better human beings.”


Why modern educators feel that our role is to pass the students? help them to obtain high(er) GPA? or gain high level of satisfaction from the evaluation? All of these are very superficial and nothing to do with 'the value' of education. Perhaps, the mechanism of education has driven educators to behave and act more in the direction of creating people who can conform and be obedient and less creative.

Institutional factors such as the way University was structure to educate younger generation, the quality of academic (teaching vs. research) and students' expectation must be changed to match this change.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Universities Charter for a 'green course' for graduates

I read this news with thrill because there has been a hype about 'sustainability' and 'green' education in Australia since I cam here in 1996. The Age recently reported that Victorian universities are increasingly preparing their graduates for careers that are relevant to the green economy. Of course, I am one of another fellow academics who have been working on our curriculum for the 'green education.' I have been working with the University and my students on sustainability education since 2009 and have realised the significant role of this concept in all branches of education.



In fact, more Australian high school graduates listed ''green'' courses such as environmental science as their first preference, a 164 per cent increase in the past three years, according to figures from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre. I personally think this is a positive sign for our country and the region.

The Age also reported that Victorian Minister for Higher Education Peter Hall said that it was pleasing to see the increase in environmentally themed courses. I will take some of the quotes from the media.

''VTAC applicants are making themselves more employable with this study option,'' Mr Hall said.

''It is encouraging to see that universities are responding to industry needs for environmentally themed degrees.''


Matilda Brown, 18, is eagerly waiting to see if she has been offered a place in RMIT's Bachelor of environmental engineering course.

''Clearly, society is experiencing a global paradigm shift towards a 'greener' lifestyle and there are more and more green jobs available to our generation in particular,'' Ms Brown said.

Another interesting story, Alesha Younghusband, an environmental careers office co-ordinator at the Environmental Jobs Network, said that in future there would be more employment opportunities with an emphasis on sustainability.

''I think they won't necessarily be called 'green jobs' but they will be called jobs with green or sustainability skills knowledge attached to them,'' she said.

''They'll have the additional understanding of sustainability principles and environmental responsibility incorporated into them.''

Ms Brown said: ''A lot of my peers have chosen to study 'green' degrees.
''This definitely reflects a greater shift in the perspective of young people.'

I really think, as an educator, it is time for us to properly integrate the concept of sustainability and gteen education in all fields.


Source: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/unis-chart-a-greener-course-for-graduates-20120108-1pq65.html#ixzz1mIxETHXh