Focus on learning, not earning

 

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Learning Curve: Perspective

New Sunday Times - 16-12-2012

 

 

DIFFERENT APPROACH: The writer explores the idea of a social business enterprise for education to counter dominant “for-profit” models

 

Millions do not have access to education which has become a money-making enterprise

WE live in a "money-centric world". Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus said recently that capitalists misinterpret human beings as money chasers and turn cash into an obsession.

 

Indeed, their credo is about human capital rather than human beings. They tend to motivate the selfish aspect of a person instead of nurturing the selfless part.

 

Today, the business of education faces the same predicament. The banking industry prohibits the poor's access (to financial services) because they are regarded as "unbankable"; in the education sector, they are "unteachable". Millions do not have access to education which has become a money-making enterprise and a purpose in itself.

 

It is not surprising then to read of initiatives to overturn this mindset, even in developed countries. The launch of a collaboration between Sutton Trust (a British charity dedicated to increasing the educational access for less privileged students) and United States educational body Fulbright Commission to help United Kingdom state school pupils into American universities is the latest example.

 

According to a BBC report, rising costs in the UK are pushing an increase in applications from the country to US tertiary institutions. After all, apart from exorbitant cost, it is well known that many prestigious UK higher learning institutions, Oxbridge for example, admit up to half of their students from private UK schools, whereas more than 90 per cent of British students come from state schools.

 

The joint project opens up avenues for students from families with annual incomes below US$60,000 (RM180,000) to be eligible for full scholarships in US universities.

 

Typically, this covers all costs (including tuition and board) and flights home in some cases.

 

The number of British undergraduates in the US has risen to 4,500 a year, what with UK university fees increasing to STG9,000 (RM45,000) per annum. Previously, these were limited only to a small group of fee-paying students.

 

While British universities offer government loans to pay for the high tuition, the joint UK-US programme provides for "zero-debt" graduates, claimed the organisers. Is this the equivalent of social business enterprises for education? Will it solve social problems such as inequity and access without a focus on profit as envisaged by Muhammad Yunus?

 

If so, it is little wonder that financially disadvantaged students in the UK are forming a beeline for access to educational opportunities across the Atlantic.

 

Statistically, UK students make up the second largest group from Europe -- after Germany -- studying in its former colony, the US.

 

Interestingly, Sutton Trust founder Peter Lampi said: "What we discovered is that there is actually a huge amount of money available for foreign students -- about half a billion dollars spread out over 250 colleges."

 

This must be case when there are more billionaires today than at any other time.

 

Lampi added: "The colleges don't know how to find these kids."

 

On the home front, the Higher Education Ministry is keen to look into strategic approaches to transform education financing in Malaysia. The idea of social business enterprises for education should be explored to offset dominant "for-profit" models that seem to be the choice for many institutions of higher learning.

 

In fact, "learning" itself has largely been skewed to "earning" -- as this column repeatedly argues -- and the "product" is commercialised.

 

No doubt, the waqf approach, which was highlighted last week, is another platform that offers interesting opportunities beyond the conventional idea of endowment for education.

 

The reality that must be recognised immediately is that education cost, like health, will continue to rise perpetually.

 

Sick people are in the streets due to prohibitive healthcare charges. A similar situation is happening in the education field. The young, able-minded generation of the future is deprived of an education.

 

- The writer is the vice-chancellor of Albukhary International University