Worldwide, we have seen a trend towards increasing investment in traditional higher education, including and especially liberal arts programs like philosophy, economics, mathematics, biology and chemistry. But in the U.S., we’re questioning not just the dollars-and-cents value of a four-year degree but the developmental, intellectual and societal value.
The tax bill passed in December placed a 1.4% excise tax burden on the investment income of select private colleges, which will reduce funds available for scholarships, academics and facilities. And the overhaul of the Higher Education Act (PROSPER Act) currently making its way through Congress notably increases funding and access to short-term, vocational programs and at the same time cuts $15 billion in federal student aid for college students over the next decade.
While students should have the option to gain the immediate skills they need through vocational programs, the long-term benefits of higher education cannot be pushed aside. Since the end of the Great Recession,college graduates have captured most of the new jobs and pay gains. But the benefits of a college education are not just economic: they’re also neurological.
As a college president and professor of psychology, I am attuned to educational outcomes. I have seen how a college education exposes students to new modes of thinking, pushes them to challenge received ideas, teaches them to make evidence-based arguments and asks them to integrate different kinds and levels of information to solve complex problems (popularly known as systems thinking). I have watched students grow exponentially and become fundamentally different thinkers and learners.
Recent work on adolescent brain development, especially that of neurologist Frances Jensen and psychologist Laurence Steinberg, supports what I have seen myself – that a college education not only imparts information and skills to students, but may change the very structure of their brains.
Using various forms of imaging to study brain function, researchers find that in adolescence (the period between ages 10 and 25) the brain has an increased capacity to build new neurons and new and stronger connections among neurons, contributing to the development of higher-level thinking capabilities such as planning and abstract thinking. In this period, learning is faster and the capacity for new ways of thinking is enhanced. Neuroscientists call this potential for change “plasticity.”
In other words, plasticity creates a heightened ability to benefit from increased intellectual engagement, problem solving, and exposure to novel concepts and skills – exactly like those taught and experienced in college. Failing to maintain exposure to new challenges will ultimately fail to build or expand brain matter in the same way.
Resumen: Decenas de miles de profesores universitarios en disputa por los cambios en sus pensiones se han declarado en huelga en el primero de los 14 días de acción industrial que amenaza con provocar una interrupción generalizada en los campus de todo el Reino Unido. La Universidad y Unión Universitaria (UC), que representa a los conferenciantes en huelga, estima que más de un millón de estudiantes en 64 universidades se verán afectados por las huelgas, que se extienden durante un mes, con la pérdida de más de medio millón de enseñanza horas. Los primeros informes de las sucursales de UCU afirmaron que hubo una buena participación en los piquetes a pesar del clima helado. Para muchos fue su primera vez en una línea de piquete, incluyendo estudiantes solidarios con sus maestros. Una encuesta de YouGov realizada en vísperas de la huelga sugirió que la mayoría de los estudiantes apoyan la acción industrial -a pesar del inevitable impacto en sus estudios- y creen que las universidades son las principales culpables. En general, tres quintas partes de los estudiantes (61%) dijeron que apoyaban las huelgas; la mitad (50%) culpó a los empleadores de la universidad por la disputa que condujo a la acción industrial del jueves; uno de cada cinco (20%) pensaba que el personal y las universidades tenían la misma culpa; y 2% culparon a sus profesores. La huelga parece ser una de las mayores disputas sindicales desde que el gobierno endureció la acción industrial con nueva legislación. La presión ha estado aumentando en Universities UK, que representa a los empleadores universitarios, para volver a la mesa de negociaciones.
Tens of thousands of university lecturers in dispute over changes to their pensions have walked out on strike in the first of 14 days of industrial action that threatens to bring widespread disruption to campuses across the UK.
The University and College Union (UC), which represents the striking lecturers, estimates that more than a million students in 64 universities will be affected by the walkouts, which are spread over a month, with the loss of of more than half a million teaching hours.
Early reports from UCU branches claimed there was a good turnout on picket lines despite the freezing weather. For many it was their first time on a picket line, including students standing in solidarity with their teachers.
A YouGov poll conducted on the eve of the strike suggested that a majority of students support the industrial action – despite the inevitable impact on their studies – and that they think universities are most to blame.
Overall, three-fifths of students (61%) said they supported the strikes; half (50%) blamed the university employers for the dispute that led to Thursday’s industrial action; one in five (20%) thought staff and universities were equally to blame; and 2% blamed their lecturers.
The strike looks set to be one of the biggest union disputes since the government made industrial action harder with new legislation. Pressure has been mounting on Universities UK, which represents university employers, to return to the negotiating table.
The universities minister, Sam Gyimah, tweeted: “For the sake of students and the reputation of our Universities, @ucu and @UniversitiesUK need to find a way through this damaging and avoidable impasse ASAP.”
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, released a YouTube message of support to striking lecturers.
UCU members are striking because they claim that proposed changes to the vast Universities Superannuation Scheme will leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement, with younger academics facing the potential loss of almost half of their total retirement income.
UUK say the pension scheme is in deficit and the only way to make it sustainable is to change it from a defined benefit scheme, giving members a guaranteed income in retirement, to a defined contribution scheme, where pensions are subject to changes in the stock market.
The UCU insists the existing scheme is performing well and UUK’s determination to push through the changes, and refusal to compromise, has left them no alternative but to strike.
The UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, who was due to address a rally at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: “This poll shows it is quite clear who students think is to blame for the strikes at universities. We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from students and want to assure them we are doing all we can to get this dispute resolved.
“The universities’ refusal to negotiate with us has caused this mess and they owe it to students to start negotiating properly.”
A UUK spokesman said: “Negotiations between UCU and UUK have been ongoing for the past year. The deadline accepted by both parties for making a decision was extended twice.
“During this period, UCU has unfortunately been unable – or unwilling – to alter its position. Unfortunately, the union refuses to accept the seriousness of the financial challenges facing the scheme and the possible consequences for universities and jobs if costs aren’t controlled.”
Donald Trump was elected president of the United States a year ago this week.
His ascendancy in American politics has made visible a culture of cruelty, a contempt for civic literacy, a corrupt mode of governance and a disdain for informed judgment that has been decades in the making.
It also points to the withering of civic attachments, the undoing of civic culture, the decline of public life, the erosion of any sense of shared citizenship and the death of commanding visions.
As he visits Asia this week in a trip that those in the White House, as usual, feared could careen spectacularly off the rails, the world will once again witness how Trump’s history of unabashed racism and politics of hate is transformed into a spectacle of fear, divisions and disinformation.
Under Trump, the plague of mid-20th century authoritarianism and apocalyptic populism have returned in a unique American form. A year later, people in Asia and the rest of the world are watching, pondering how such a dreadful event and retreat from democracy could have taken place.
How could a liberal society give up its ideals so quickly? What forces have undermined education to the extent that a relatively informed electorate allowed such a catastrophe to happen in an alleged democracy?
George Orwell’s “ignorance is strength” motto in 1984 has materialized in the Trump administration’s attempts not only to rewrite history, but also to obliterate it. What we are witnessing is not simply politics but also a reworking of the very meaning of education both as an institution and as a broader cultural force.
Trump, along with Fox News, Breitbart and other right-wing cultural institutions, echoes one of totalitarianism’s most revered notions: That truth is a liability and ignorance a virtue.
As the distinction between fact and fiction is maligned, so are the institutions that work to create informed citizens. In Trump’s post-truth and alternative-facts world view, nothing is true, making it difficult for citizens to criticize and hold power accountable.
Education viewed with disdain
Education and critical thinking are regarded with disdain and science is confused with pseudo-science. All traces of critical thought appear only at the margins of the culture as ignorance becomes the primary organizing principle of American society.
For instance, two thirds of the American public believe that creationism should be taught in schools and more than half of Republicans in Congress do not believe that climate change is caused by human activity. Shockingly, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, only 26 per cent of Americans can name all three branches of government.
In addition, a majority of Republicans believe that former President Barack Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim, a belief blessedly skewered upon Trump’s arrival a few days ago in Hawaii, Obama’s birthplace.
Such ignorance on behalf of many Americans, Republicans and Trump supporters operates with a vengeance when it comes to higher education.
Higher education is being defunded, corporatized and transformed to mimic Wal-Mart-esque labour relations by the Trump administration under the preposterous ill-leadership of a religious fundamentalist, Betsy DeVos. It’s also, according to a recent poll, viewed by most Republicans as being “bad for America.” Higher education is at odds with Trump’s notion of making America great again.
This assault on higher education is accompanied by a systemic culture of lies that has descended upon America. The notion that democracy can only function with an informed public is viewed with disdain. Trump apparently rejoices in his role as a serial liar, knowing that the public is easily seduced by exhortation, emotional outbursts and sensationalism.
Americans over-stimulated
The corruption of the truth, education and politics is abetted by the fact that Americans have become habituated to overstimulation, a culture of immediacy and live in an ever-accelerating overflow of information and images. Experience no longer has the time to crystallize into mature and informed thought.
Popular culture as an educational force delights in spectacles of shock and violence. Defunded and stripped of their role as a public good, many institutions extending from higher education to the mainstream media are now harnessed to the demands and needs of corporations and the financial elite.
In doing so, they are snubbing reason, thoughtfulness and informed arguments.
Governance, meantime, is now replaced by the irrational Twitter bursts of an impetuous four-year-old trapped in the body of an adult.
The high priest of caustic rants, Trump’s insults and bullying behaviour have become a principal force shaping his language, politics and policies. He has used language as a weapon to humiliate just about anyone who opposes him. He has publicly humiliated and insulted a disabled reporter along with members of his own cabinet, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, undermining their respective ability to do their jobs.
More recently, he has mocked Sen. Bob Corker’s height, referring to him on Twitter as “Liddle Bob Corker” because the senator criticized him in announcing his resignation.
Ignorance is a terrible wound when it is self-inflicted. Trump’s lies, lack of credibility, lack of knowledge and unbridled narcissism have suggested for some time that he lacks the intelligence, judgment and capacity for critical thought necessary to occupy the presidency of the United States.
But when accompanied by his childish temperament, his volatile impetuousness, his disdain for higher education and a world view that reduces everyone else to friends or enemies, loyalists or traitors, his ignorance puts lives at risk.
Governing via wilful ignorance?
Trump’s presidency is forcing us to deal with a kind of nihilistic politics in which the search for truth and justice, moral responsibility, civic courage and an informed and thoughtful citizenry are rapidly disappearing.
Government in the United States now apparently runs on wilful ignorance as the planet heats up, pollution increases and people die.
South Korean protesters stage a rally against a planned visit by U.S. President Donald Trump near U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea last week.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Evidence is detached from argument. Science is a subspecies of fake news, and alternative facts are as important as the truth. As language is emptied of meaning, standards of proof disappear, verification becomes the enemy of power, and evidence is relegated to just another opinion.
Trump has sucked all of the oxygen out of democracy and has put in play a culture and mode of politics that kills empathy, wallows in cruelty and fear and mutilates democratic ideals.
Anyone who communicates intelligently is now part of the fake news world that Trump has invented, a world in which all truth is mobile and every form of communication starts to look like a lie.
Impetuousness and erratic judgment have become central to Trump’s leadership, one that is as ill-informed as it is unstable. As he marks the anniversary of his election while in Asia this week, he’ll no doubt reinforce how governance can collapse into a theatre of self-promotion, absurdity and a dark and frightening view of the world.
Resumen: El sector de educación terciaria tiene velocidades de banda ancha mucho más rápidas ahora – hasta 100Gbps – bajo el recién renombrado Red de Educación e Investigación de Malasia (MYREN-X), que vincula a más de 150 instituciones a nivel nacional. El primer ministro Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak dijo que la anterior infraestructura cibernética enfrentaba desafíos en términos de velocidad y gran capacidad de procesamiento de datos, lo cual sofocaba la capacidad de los científicos para lanzar proyectos de alto impacto. Él dijo que la nueva iniciativa es parte del proyecto anterior de MYREN que proporcionó una red de alta velocidad dedicada para los suscriptores a través del país.
The tertiary education sector has much faster broadband speeds now – up to 100Gbps – under the newly rebranded Malaysian Research and Education Network (MYREN-X) which links more than 150 institutions nationwide.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the previous cyber infrastructure faced challenges in terms of speed and big-data processing capabilities, which stifled scientists’ ability to launch high-impact projects.
He said the new initiative is part of the previous MYREN project which provided a dedicated high-speed network for subscribers across the country.
“With MYREN-X, we hope to further boost capacity to 3,200Gbps, which will really improve big-data processing and high-performance computing,” he said at Universiti Malaya yesterday.
The Prime Minister said the new initiative would also give the country a boost in education excellence by helping to widen knowledge frontiers and collaborations with scientists worldwide.
“We will continue to share our knowledge in areas that we are good at for the betterment of communities around the world,” he said.
He said that as the country embraces the fourth industrial revolution in the era of digital economy, it needed a cyber infrastructure that could provide easy access and information that is fast and effective, especially for research and education.
“In medical research into cancer, it is required to have high-performance computing systems that can process up to 26 billion character codes per second, with the aim of reducing the fatality rate among patients,” he said.
He said the Government would continue to gather feedback and input, especially from youths, via its TN50 dialogue series.
“One of the clearest aspirations in the series is to have high-quality education that is easily accessible to the people,” he said.
He said the Government was working hard to provide the necessary infrastructure to push our universities to top 50 positions in the world.
Also, Najib welcomed the Higher Education Ministry’s efforts to establish its own consortium – MYREN Network Sdn Bhd – which comprises 20 higher public universities.
Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/10/05/faster-internet-for-universities-najib-tertiary-education-sector-will-get-boost-from-speedier-broadb/#SRbwzIiusCOrMhfs.99
Resumen: En 2015, Sir James Dyson, inventor y empresario, atacó a Theresa May, entonces secretaria de familia, sobre sus planes de hacer más difícil que los estudiantes extranjeros permanezcan en Gran Bretaña después de terminar sus estudios. Después de todo, las «últimas encuestas» mostraban que decenas de miles estudiantes llegaban más en comparación de los que salían cada año. La implicación: Gran Bretaña tenía ya bastantes graduados extranjeros que se mantienen alrededor. Ahora está claro que el argumento de la Sra. May era absurdo. Sus números provienen de la encuesta internacional de pasajeros, una encuesta realizada hace medio siglo para medir el turismo. El 24 de agosto surgió que el número de estudiantes que excedían ilegalmente sus visas era una pequeña fracción de las estimaciones anteriores. Las cifras de la Oficina de Estadísticas Nacionales han sugerido que podría haber habido más de 90.000 excedentes por año. Los nuevos datos mostraron que había un máximo de 4.617 en 2016-17.
That error led to a needless, costly crackdown on universities
IN 2015 Sir James Dyson, an inventor and businessman, attacked Theresa May, then home secretary, over her plans to make it harder for foreign students to stay in Britain after finishing their studies. “Train ’em up. Kick ’em out. It’s a bit shortsighted, isn’t it?” he wrote. Not so, replied Mrs May. After all, the “latest surveys” showed that tens of thousands more students arrived than left each year. The implication: Britain already had more than enough foreign graduates hanging around.
It is now clear that Mrs May’s argument was nonsense. Her numbers came from the International Passenger Survey, a poll introduced half a century ago to measure tourism. On August 24th it emerged that the number of students illegally overstaying their visas was a small fraction of previous estimates. Figures from the Office for National Statistics had suggested there could have been more than 90,000 overstayers per year. New data showed that there were at most 4,617 in 2016-17.
Some have questioned why it took so long for the information to come out. One former Downing Street official admits to having been briefed on an earlier version of the data in autumn 2015. Universities have nevertheless welcomed the release, grateful for a new way to make the case for international students. They have not had much luck in recent years. During Mrs May’s time at the Home Office she introduced a range of policies to deter foreign students, often justified by the number overstaying their visas.
Perhaps most damagingly, in 2012 the government scrapped a visa that allowed graduates to remain in the country for two years without a job offer. Other changes include stricter limits on bringing over family members, making it harder to move from one type of study to another, tougher language requirements and uncompromising “credibility interviews”.
While Britain was making life harder for foreign students, other countries wooed them. As a result, British institutions now have a smaller share of a larger market. International student numbers have continued to rise at Britain’s top universities, but the rest have found recruitment difficult. The number coming from India and Pakistan has more than halved since 2011, and although a big rise in Chinese students has made up the difference, growth has been slower than in America.
The economy has suffered as a result. The Department for Education found that higher-education exports were worth £12.4bn ($20.6bn) in 2014. In 2000-10 the number of foreign students at British universities almost doubled, helping to finance a big expansion in education for home students. Whereas students from Britain and other EU countries have their fees limited to £9,250 a year, no such cap exists for the rest.
Other benefits are harder to measure. According to the Higher Education Policy Institute, more heads of state and government have been educated in Britain than anywhere else. Benazir Bhutto, a future prime minister of Pakistan, introduced Mrs May to her husband at Oxford.
Liberals in the cabinet may now be gaining the upper hand. The government has dropped plans to link visa conditions to the quality of education provided by universities. Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has commissioned the official Migration Advisory Committee to analyse the economic impact of foreign students and is expected to push for softer rules.
One change would be to remove students from the government’s target to limit net migration to under 100,000 a year. Another would be to extend the time graduates are allowed to spend hunting for a job in Britain. Either would be welcome. But a more sensible government would look at how to recruit more foreign students, not just refrain from turning them away.
NAAC: National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is the recognized accreditation agency in the Country for all Higher Educational (Non-technical) Institutions. As per procedure for accreditation, the Institutions/Universities submit the data and information in the prescribed format to NAAC.
The data are validated by a peer team constituted by NAAC before submission of its report to NAAC for accreditation of the Institutions. At times, NAAC, thorough its visiting team and complaints / RTIs from the stakeholders, has noticed that various Institutions have submitted fraudulent data for acquiring higher grade. These complaints are considered by visiting team of NAAC before assigning the final scores under the respective components of assessment.
To avoid submission of fraudulent data by the Institutions for accreditation, NAAC has taken following steps:
It is mandatory for the Institutions to upload the information provided to NAAC on their website and retain the information on their website until completion of the validity period of accreditation and provide access to all the stakeholders.
Institutions are instructed to videograph the whole assessment exercise and submit the same to NAAC and also upload on its website.
iii. A Complainants Management Committee has been established which looks into the complaints especially those received after accreditation for initiating necessary action.
The new procedure of Assessment and Accreditation (A&A) implemented by NAAC w.e.f. July 2017, has introduced an additional step, wherein the data submitted by Institution are subjected to a Data Verification and Validation (DVV) process. The new process has also provision for imposing severe penalties on Institutions submitting fraudulent data.
There is no such proposal under consideration of the Government to set up a Regulatory Commission for monitoring the performance of Private Universities. All existing private universities are established by the Act of their respective State Legislatures. These universities are governed and regulated by their respective State Acts and University Grants Commission (UGC) (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003. As far as Private Deemed to be Universities are concerned, they are regulated by UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2016. As per the Regulations, UGC conducts periodic inspection of these Universities and deficiencies, if any, observed during inspection are communicated to respective University for rectification. In addition, various Professional Regulatory Councils viz. Bar Council of India (BCI), Dental Council of India (DCI), Indian Nursing Council (INC), Medical Council of India (MCI), National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), etc. also review these Universities in their respective areas. Further, ranking of Higher Educational Institutions done by the Government under National Institutional Ranking Framework acts as performance indicator.
This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.
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