People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
43
October 24, 2010
|
Vol. XXXIV
No.
43 October 24, 2010 |
Crisis of Higher Education in US and
Vijender Sharma
THE
UPA-2 government is out to change the entire framework of higher
education
system in the country with tremendous haste, without required
consultation and
debate, without any regard to opposition of academia and states. With
its ever
growing strategic relationship with the
SERIES
OF
TALKS
The
union minister for human resource development, Kapil Sibal, met the
In
November 2009, India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, saw enormous
opportunities
for the university systems of India and the US to work together and
launched an
Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative between the US and Indian
universities.
Kapil
Sibal met the
Hillary
Clinton, US secretary of state, wrote in The Times
of India on June 4, 2010 that a delegation from
The
Bureau of South and Central Asia Affairs, US State Department, hosted a
higher
education roundtable on September 16, 2010 to identify successful and
sustainable models for collaboration and partnerships in all types of
higher
educational institutions in
In
July 2010,
Through
the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) collaboration,
the two
nations will join hands to set up new institutes, increase skills
development
programmes, hold leadership programmes and work on quality assurance of
courses
offered to students. The
SEVERE
CRISIS IN
HIGHER
EDUCATION
These
high level talks are taking place in the backdrop of an unprecedented
crisis in
higher education that these two countries are facing. Huge budget cuts,
skyrocketing fees and other charges, closure of departments and
courses, and
large scale retrenchment of teachers and workers have led to students,
teachers, workers, parents and people at large to organise massive
protest
actions across the two countries and mobilise support for their
forthcoming
actions.
After
the March 4, 2010 protest demonstrations across the
EDUCATION
BUDGET
CUTS
IN THE
In
the
Due
to budget cuts by the American states, tuition fee hikes for 2010-11
range from
8 per cent to 23 per cent in
Like
many other prestigious American institutions, MIT was hard hit by the
recession. Its endowment, which funds about 20 per cent of the
university's
annual operating budget, decreased by about 25 per cent during the
crisis,
falling from a pre-recession high of 10.1 billion
dollars to just 7.6 billion dollars.
In Harvard and Yale, the endowments which reached the top values of 37
billion
and 23 billion dollars prior to the recession, fell by 23 and 30 per
cent
respectively.
PROTEST
IN
THE
Therefore,
these institutions have been forced to take measures such as academic
reorganisation,
layoffs, furloughs (leave without pay), position eliminations, hiring
fewer
tenure-eligible faculty, and higher teaching workloads, larger number
of
students in a class, higher employee contributions to health and
retirement
benefits, elimination of scholarships, cut in need-based aid,
administrative
cuts, salary cuts and other cuts. The students have been worst hit;
they faced
decreased number of seats and large scale rise in fees.
These
measures angered the students, teachers and parents, and resulted in
widespread
unrest among them. Protests have been going on across the colleges and
universities in the
The
protests in California against the budget cuts of one billion dollars
to the
state's university system grew into a nationwide movement. Students and
teachers in many states organised demonstrations against the budget
cuts and
tuition fee hikes on March 4, 2010. Thousands of students, parents and
faculty
members protested at colleges and universities across California. In
Oakland,
California, police arrested 160 protesters who blocked a major
interstate
highway. Protesters in Davis, outside Sacramento, also tried to block
an
interstate highway but were prevented by the authorities using pepper
spray.
Protests were held in other states, too, with at least 16 people
arrested at
the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, when protesters tried to force their
way into
administration offices and threw ice chunks at campus officers.
Called
a “strike and national
day of action to
defend public education” by organisers, campus and building
entrances were blocked at several places. One of the largest
demonstrations in
California took place on the north steps of the Capital, where more
than 1,000
people used drums and bullhorns to try to get their message across.
A
call was given to observe October 7, 2010 as the “National Day of
Action to Defend
Public Education.” At Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge,
several
hundred people gathered on the campus's parade grounds for a
jazz-inspired
"funeral" for higher education. Some participants, dressed in black
carried a coffin labelled "education," while others carried flags
representing language programs that the university has cut to cope with
shrinking state appropriations. More programme cuts and job cuts are
likely, as
the state’s higher education funds could be cut by as much as 35 per
cent next
year.
On
several campuses of the University of California, which lost 637
million dollars
in state appropriations last year, groups also held events to mark
October 7 as
the National Day of Action. At the University of California at
Berkeley,
demonstrators at a variety of events protested the cuts and their
effects on
public colleges and universities. One event, a sit-in in a library
reading
room, drew some 500 participants before the campus police blocked
access. The
demonstrators banged on desks and chanted "Whose university? Our
university!" and several hundred remained in the room till late
afternoon.
The
militant protests that emanated from the University of California,
Berkeley,
have become a national affair across the United States. On this day,
thousands
of people, particularly college students and faculty members, marched,
rallied
and held panel discussions. They charged the federal government of
spending
trillions of dollars on the military abroad, while it was cutting
public
education and privatising it.
Massive
protest actions were reported from the Portland State and Western
Washington
universities, Southern Illinois, Wayne state universities, University
of Iowa,
LSU, New England, Massachusetts and at the University of Albany and
Brooklyn
College in New York. In San Diego, students, parents, teachers and
workers
organised a funeral procession to the downtown to mourn the
assassination of
public education. Members of the American Association of University
Professors
(AAUP) also participated as part of its “Higher Education is a Public
Good”
week, which, according to AAUP, was “a week of action to demonstrate
the
importance of not-for-profit higher education.”
The
press release of the organising committee on its website, defendeducation.org
stated, “As public funds that once made the US the best education
system in the
world disappear, private investors seek to deform public education for
their
purposes, adjusting education to meet the market,” The students,
teachers
and all the stakeholders are now preparing for further actions in
January 2011.
EDUCATION
BUDGET
CUTS
IN THE UK
In
the United Kingdom, a similar situation is obtaining with large scale
cuts,
tuition fee hikes and rising protests by students and teachers.
Struggling to
reduce a large budget deficit, the government in recent months has
announced cuts
amounting to some 1.1 billion pounds sterling (1.59 billion dollars) to
the UK
universities. Some university leaders fear future cuts could be even
more
severe and undermine one of the UK's most important industries — higher
education. Anger sparked protests at many places, including Middlesex.
Proposals to cut more than 100 jobs at the University of Sussex in
southern
England led students to occupy university buildings in March 2010, and
break
into the vice chancellor's office. The police were called in.
Teachers
at several universities, including King's College, London and
Westminster
University, have organised strikes in recent months to protest job
cuts.
According to an estimate, a few thousand job cuts have been announced
so far.
The University of Leeds in northern England has said it may need to
eliminate
as many as 400 jobs if further funding cuts are announced --- a warning
that
has provoked several student protests. Russell Group universities are
lobbying
for tuition fees to be gradually raised and then freed from state
control, to
allow the best universities to charge more.
The
government announced cut in university funding in England by a total of
398 million
pounds for 2010-11. In all, the budgets of around half of universities
were
cut, including 10 members of the elite Russell Group – Birmingham,
Bristol,
Imperial College London, King’s College, Leeds, the London School of
Economics
(LSE), Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Southampton.
Biggest
cuts were made to the London Business School, where budgets were
slashed by
almost 12 per cent to 5.8 million pounds, and Reading, which saw
spending cut
by almost eight per cent to 50.7 million pounds. The LSE saw cuts of
more than
six per cent. Oxford and Cambridge universities are also hit by budget
cuts.
Record
numbers of students are expected to graduate with debts of more than
20,000
pounds, according to a study. The study found that almost a third of
students
had considered dropping out of university at some point. Almost half of
them
cited “financial difficulties.” There is clearly a large financial
strain on
students who had to reduce spend on food and are eating less healthily.
Some
universities were preparing to increase the number of international
students,
who can be charged as much as 10 times that of British undergraduates,
to bring
in more money. According to Policy Exchange, an organisation interested
in free
market and localist solutions to public policy questions, fees should
rise to a
minimum of 5,000 pounds but long-term consideration should be given to
removing
the existing fees limit altogether. It said some vice chancellors were
pushing
for a rise of 20,000 pounds. A many-fold increase!
Three
quarters of UK university heads who took part in a survey think public
spending
cuts will lead to the disappearance of some institutions. Some
two-thirds of
the 43 university bosses who responded, said they planned to develop an
international presence. Universities charge foreign students much
higher tuition
fees than domestic students. Therefore, developing campuses abroad
could
lead to more students coming to study at their UK bases.
Leaders
of the UK's most prestigious universities have warned that the
government plans
to cut funding will lead to a higher education "meltdown." There will
be a loss of 22,584 university jobs in England alone, if the Government
pushes
ahead with plans for 25 per cent funding cuts.
PROTEST
IN
THE UK
On
May 5, 2010, the day of action and strike, hundreds of UCU members and
students
gathered at the King's College, London, before marching to the
Westminster to
rally at the Church House. University College, London, Westminster and
Sussex
universities and London colleges also witnessed protest actions, with
the
strike at the King’s College, London, continuing until next day.
Actions
such as sit-ins, demonstrations and strikes took place in
Richmond-upon-Thames
College, Croydon College, Sussex University, Bradford College,
Doncaster
college, Loughborough College, Birmingham Metropolitan College,
Bournville
College, City College Birmingham and South Birmingham College.
Universities
have been told to make savings of one billion pounds, while further
education
must cut its budget by 340 million pounds in the next academic year.
After May 5
action, the UCU prepared for further actions and mobilized opinion
across
colleges and universities. On June 21, 2010, students and staff at 100
UK
colleges and universities protested against funding cuts in higher
education.
The protests included a demonstration at Parliament.
The
protests were organised by a coalition of seven unions --- the UCU,
NUS, Unite,
the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the GMB (workers’ trade
union), the
Education Institute of Scotland and Unison.
While
the students, teachers and workers were preparing for the future course
of
action, they got further devastating news with the former CEO of
British
Petroleum, Lord Browne, releasing his report on October 12 on the
review of
university funding. He recommended a massive cut in direct state
funding for
university degrees and passed the burden onto students. He called for
abolition
of the existing cap of 3,290 pounds a year on tuition fees, allowing
universities to charge as much as 14,000 pounds, and removal of public
funding
from all but "priority" subjects like medicine, science and
engineering. The interest rate on student loans also will be increased.
This
will lead to 80 per cent cut in teaching budgets of universities in the
UK. They
are likely to face a cut of 3.2 billion pounds in teaching and a
reduction of
one billion pounds in research budgets. In anticipation of further
cuts, many
institutions are beginning to lay off instructors, reduce the number of
classes
and shut down departments.
The
UCU said that cuts on this scale would leave cities and towns without a
local
university and our students would pay the highest public fees in the
world. It
has described this as the most challenging time for its students,
members and
for the movement, and called upon them to act together.
On
a joint call by the NUS and UCU, several tens of thousands of students,
teachers, parents, workers and others will take part in a national
demonstration in London on November 10 to protest against funding cuts
to
higher education. The march will also raise concerns about higher
tuition fees
and the increasing privatisation of the education sector. About
2,00,000
students could not get admission in universities this year. With
manifold rise
in tuition fees, many more students will be left out in future.
PRESSURE
ON
INDIA
The
introduction of four bills in parliament on May 3, 2010, regarding
entry and
operation of foreign educational providers, mandatory assessment and
accreditation, prevention and prohibition of malpractices, and
establishment of
a tribunal to fast-track adjudication; and circulation of draft bills
on
national commission for higher education and research and universities
for
innovation should also be seen in the light of the above scenario and
pressures
coming on the Indian government. The prime minister and HRD minister
are
already having talks with their counterparts, as mentioned above.
Through
these bills, the UPA-2 government is creating a framework that would
enable the
implementation of its agenda of neo-liberal ‘reforms’ in higher
education
system and for meeting the requirements of private local and foreign
educational institutions.
The
new framework, with no social control over higher education
institutions, with
the denial of constitutional right to teachers and other employees to
take
recourse to high courts, with no remedial mechanism for the solution of
problems of students and with mandatory accreditation, will facilitate
trade in
higher education in the country.
The
all-powerful national commission will provide single-window clearance
to
foreign institutions to start their shops. The Universities for
Innovation Bill
will provide them an alternative route for establishing their campuses
with
greater power, freedom and prestige, with the removal of most of the
restrictions proposed in the foreign educational institutions bill.
We
have to force the government of India to protect education from these
predators. For that purpose, let all stakeholders, viz students,
teachers,
non-teaching employees and officers of schools, colleges and
universities,
youth, parents, people’s science movement, etc converge to Delhi on
December 2,
2010 to make the rally called by the national forum in defence of
education a
grand success.
