Rethink internationalisation
Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Learning Curve: Perspective
New Sunday Times - 13-5-2012
Learning Curve: Perspective
New Sunday Times - 13-5-2012
REVIEW: Given the state of flux that tertiary education is in today, we need to reassess the recruitment of foreign students
THE issue of recruitment of international students was raised in the Parliament recently. The Higher Education Ministry was reported as "aggressively" promoting Malaysia as an education hub.
"This is part of its efforts to have a local university ranked among the world's top 50 universities by 2020" according to a news report. Some years ago, a local university was ranked among the top 100 in the world because the system used in the QS World University Rankings -- which the Ministry ironically described as the "preferred benchmark" -- mistook local Chinese and Indian students as foreigners. This explained the elevated ranking position, but not for long.
The strategy to boost ranking by recruiting international students is right if you play the ranking game as established by some. But are we enhancing education, ranking notwithstanding?
The answer to this question received a fairly good airing during the recent 2012 Global Forum organised by the Observatory, a United Kingdom-based organisation that specialises in borderless higher education.
We learn from the experiences of our neighbouring city state that such a strategy has a political cost. Indeed, due to the poor political showing in the last election -- the lowest since independence -- the ruling government is forced to rethink its position and recalibrate its strategy.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his speech during the National Day Rally last year, said: "One unhappiness is the feeling that maybe foreign students have taken the place of locals in the universities... "
There was also an indication that the number of foreign students will be capped to the present level (about 90,000 in 2012) and figures will come down.
The government had to rescind initiatives such as the Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate which was intended to attract more international students by allowing them to stay for one year after graduation to seek employment. At the same time, some 2,000 extra university places are created for its citizens over the next four years.
Internationalisation generally is not as benign anymore given the flux that tertiary education is experiencing today.
A movement to rethink internationalisation is gaining momentum globally. The International Association of Universities, which is affiliated to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, raised a question in a recent statement: "Is the current understanding of internationalisation of higher education shared by all?" It also pointed to the ways in which internationalisation has been interpreted and/or compared and contrasted with other processes, most frequently, globalisation.
The statement made specific mention of unintended consequences arising from internationalisation. "Large-scale international students recruitment, at times using questionable or even unethical practices, may cause a variety of problems."
In addition, "the presence of large numbers of international students may result in misconceptions about decreased opportunities for domestic students or inadvertently feed prejudices about foreigners."
Another outcome is the obsession with ranking in pursuit of institutional reputation.
The selection of international partners and recruitment of students may be driven more by the desire to derive prestige by association rather than by interest in cooperation.
This will lead to diminishing diversity of institutional models and world views of what constitutes quality higher education especially in developing countries.
While internationalisation and foreign students, in particular, are new factors in the expanding world of education, they may become a distraction if not a distortion of the meaning of higher education.
This is likely, given that the economic motive or market orientation is becoming even more prevalent and tends to overshadow the essence of tertiary education.
As one expert pointed out, within such a context, it is uncertain if internationalisation is enriching the dimensions of teaching, research and service (read: education hub).
Under the circumstances, it would be prudent to focus on rethinking internationalisation so that decisions will not cost the nation and its citizens an unbearable loss -- politically, economically and socioculturally -- regardless of how well-ranked we are by some ranking bodies with subtle vested interest.
- The writer is the vice-chancellor of Albukhary International University
THE issue of recruitment of international students was raised in the Parliament recently. The Higher Education Ministry was reported as "aggressively" promoting Malaysia as an education hub.
"This is part of its efforts to have a local university ranked among the world's top 50 universities by 2020" according to a news report. Some years ago, a local university was ranked among the top 100 in the world because the system used in the QS World University Rankings -- which the Ministry ironically described as the "preferred benchmark" -- mistook local Chinese and Indian students as foreigners. This explained the elevated ranking position, but not for long.
The strategy to boost ranking by recruiting international students is right if you play the ranking game as established by some. But are we enhancing education, ranking notwithstanding?
The answer to this question received a fairly good airing during the recent 2012 Global Forum organised by the Observatory, a United Kingdom-based organisation that specialises in borderless higher education.
We learn from the experiences of our neighbouring city state that such a strategy has a political cost. Indeed, due to the poor political showing in the last election -- the lowest since independence -- the ruling government is forced to rethink its position and recalibrate its strategy.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his speech during the National Day Rally last year, said: "One unhappiness is the feeling that maybe foreign students have taken the place of locals in the universities... "
There was also an indication that the number of foreign students will be capped to the present level (about 90,000 in 2012) and figures will come down.
The government had to rescind initiatives such as the Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate which was intended to attract more international students by allowing them to stay for one year after graduation to seek employment. At the same time, some 2,000 extra university places are created for its citizens over the next four years.
Internationalisation generally is not as benign anymore given the flux that tertiary education is experiencing today.
A movement to rethink internationalisation is gaining momentum globally. The International Association of Universities, which is affiliated to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, raised a question in a recent statement: "Is the current understanding of internationalisation of higher education shared by all?" It also pointed to the ways in which internationalisation has been interpreted and/or compared and contrasted with other processes, most frequently, globalisation.
The statement made specific mention of unintended consequences arising from internationalisation. "Large-scale international students recruitment, at times using questionable or even unethical practices, may cause a variety of problems."
In addition, "the presence of large numbers of international students may result in misconceptions about decreased opportunities for domestic students or inadvertently feed prejudices about foreigners."
Another outcome is the obsession with ranking in pursuit of institutional reputation.
The selection of international partners and recruitment of students may be driven more by the desire to derive prestige by association rather than by interest in cooperation.
This will lead to diminishing diversity of institutional models and world views of what constitutes quality higher education especially in developing countries.
While internationalisation and foreign students, in particular, are new factors in the expanding world of education, they may become a distraction if not a distortion of the meaning of higher education.
This is likely, given that the economic motive or market orientation is becoming even more prevalent and tends to overshadow the essence of tertiary education.
As one expert pointed out, within such a context, it is uncertain if internationalisation is enriching the dimensions of teaching, research and service (read: education hub).
Under the circumstances, it would be prudent to focus on rethinking internationalisation so that decisions will not cost the nation and its citizens an unbearable loss -- politically, economically and socioculturally -- regardless of how well-ranked we are by some ranking bodies with subtle vested interest.
- The writer is the vice-chancellor of Albukhary International University