GLOBAL: Why scientists should stop publishing?

Brianne Kent25 April 2014 Issue No:317

 

Earlier this month a Japanese researcher was found guilty of scientific misconduct and two groundbreaking studies published in Nature were retracted. This is a symptom of a broken system.

Ask most scientists why they pursued a career in research and the majority will tell you that they had an innate passion for discovery. However, the current 'publish or perish' culture in academia is arguably impeding the discovery process.

Even Nobel laureates have spoken out about the negative impact of this culture, including Peter Higgs, who told the Guardian that even he would not be productive enough to compete in the current academic system.

To be a successful academic you must publish research in peer-reviewed academic journals, and preferably 'high impact' journals such as Science and Nature.

While the intention behind peer review – to maintain standards of quality – is critically important, the implementation of this process may actually be contributing to a systemic flaw.

Online archives

Using an open access archive system as the primary way of communicating and evaluating science instead of peer reviewed academic journals may be an answer. Fields such as mathematics and physics already use online archives in addition to journals.

For example arXiv.org, hosted by Cornell University library, is a not-for-profit online platform where scientists upload their papers to share their most recent findings without having to spend time and resources trying to publish their work in a traditional journal.

Once papers are submitted to the archive, moderators organise the research into categories, papers are critiqued by other scientists in the field, and authors can then revise and re-submit in a transparent process.

Employing an archive system may (1) make research more accessible to other scientists and the general public (2) help save time and resources when sharing research and (3) reduce the emphasis on impact factor as a proxy of an article's importance.

At its core, science is a collaborative global community, intended to benefit everyone.

Yet our traditional mode of publishing, peer reviewed journals, operate on the opposite principle: you only get access if you pay for expensive subscription fees. Keeping papers locked behind journal fees is a fundamental flaw in the traditional publishing system.

Over the past 10 years there has been a growing movement towards open access journals. Some publicly funded research councils, such as Research Councils UK already require that authors make their papers freely available to everyone.

Because of this, there has been an emergence of professional peer reviewed open access publishers such as PLoS, BioMedCentral, F1000 and eLife.

Open access journals are undoubtedly a step in the right direction, and are taking advantage of the digital age. However, the reliance on the pre-publication peer review system, and because they are marked with an impact factor, means there may still be room for improvement.

Impact factor

The second reason for moving towards an archive system is to keep time and resources focused on the discovery process.

An archive would remove some of the typical submission and subscription fees, would reduce time spent conducting (arguably unnecessary) experiments to appease reviewers, and reduce time spent resubmitting to different journals in hopes of trying to publish in the one with the highest impact factor.

The third reason we should adopt an archive system is to change our focus away from impact factor.

Because impact factor is calculated as the average number of citations for papers published in a particular journal during the previous two years, it is affected most by papers that make the biggest immediate splash and use methods that are deemed trendy, instead of reflecting long-term impact.

Additionally, a study showed that papers published in the highest impact journals were more likely to be retracted because their findings were no longer considered trustworthy.

This may be because the most novel, surprising and perspective-changing findings are often published in high impact journals or because they receive more attention and critique, but it is also possible that the intense pressure to publish in high impact journals may be indirectly encouraging poor or 'dodgy' science practice.

One study showed that the integrity of research is negatively affected by the pressures of the 'publish or perish' culture.

If we move away from journals with impact factors and pre-publication peer review, we could use post-publication reviews, commentaries, endorsements and number of citations to reflect the quality of the science.

We need a system that incentivises and rewards sound research methodology.

An archive could increase transparency and foster the collaborative nature of science, while also re-directing a higher proportion of time and resources towards conducting the best science, instead of trying to publish in the best journals.

* Brianne Kent is a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, doing a PhD in experimental psychology. She and fellow postgraduate students at the university have formed a discussion group to address the current science culture.

Japan: Riken affair boosts orders for anti-plagiarism software

Kyodo 

Apr 17, 2014

KOBE – A growing number of universities in Japan are introducing software systems to detect plagiarism in academic papers amid the evolving controversy over the “STAP cell” papers produced by Riken, the state-backed research institute.

Under an ordinance that took effect in April 2013, the education ministry has made it mandatory for all doctoral theses to be published on the Internet, replacing its decades-old rule requiring publication in print.

An official at a company selling plagiarism-checking systems said, “I believe more and more universities are introducing the system because if plagiarism comes to light after the theses are published, the credibility of the university’s oversight will be called into question.”

One popular product is iThenticate, which was developed by a U.S. company. It uses a database containing 130 million theses published on about 45 billion websites or in academic journals including the U.S. magazine Science and the British journal Nature, which published the papers at the center of the Riken incident.

The program reveals, for instance, the percentage of descriptions in papers tested that match those found in papers in the database.

Tokyo-based iGroup Japan, which markets the software, said nine universities including Waseda University, Nagoya University and Kanazawa University are already using the software, while Kobe University and the University of Fukui are considering it.

The company said it has seen a surge in inquiries since the Riken controversy erupted after Nature published findings by one of its researchers, Haruko Obokata, in January.

Obokata was hit by a number of allegations, including that she quoted a passage from another paper about a laboratory experiment method without identifying the source.

Riken, in its final investigation earlier this month, said Obokata had not engaged in willful misconduct concerning the passage, noting the quote was the only one of 41 where Obokata did not give attribution, and that the method in question is a common procedure used in many laboratories.

Obokata’s doctoral thesis for the degree she received in 2011, however, has been investigated by Waseda University after allegations she copied passages from at least one other paper.

The top private university also announced it has started checking all doctoral papers — around 280 of them — at its science and engineering school set up in 2007, citing possible retractions. Plagiarism has been alleged in at least one other paper so far.

A Nagoya University professor affiliated with a scientific research department said he checked papers to be submitted to academic journals by two of his students, using the plagiarism checker. He said he found minor similarities with other papers but determined there was no plagiarism.

“It’s convenient because academic instructors aren’t aware of all the writing in the world,” he said, adding that one defect with the software is that it cannot check plagiarism in images.

Seiichi Fujita, an executive director in charge of education at Kobe University, said, “Once the students know that we have introduced the system, we can also expect a deterrence effect.”

At least 30 universities across Japan have introduced a similar program called Turnitin, which uses almost the same database as iThenticate and allows registered students as well as instructors to check theses.

Another product named Copypelna launched in 2009 has been introduced at over 300 universities across Japan. It combs the Internet to see if there are any passages similar to those found in the paper in question.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has been reviewing guidelines on research misconduct and is planning to encourage universities and research institutions to hammer out their own programs to raise awareness of ethics among researchers.

Shigeaki Yamazaki, professor of scientific communication at Aichi Shukutoku University, said, “If universities introduce (a plagiarism checker) abruptly, it may create distrust between instructors and students.”

He suggested that schools try various approaches slowly to increase ethical awareness such as by asking students to consider how they would feel if others stole their theses.

MALAYSIA (USM): CROSSING BORDERS, BRIDGING MINDS

Sources:Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) at http://www.usm.my/index.php/en/admin/news-article-english/2151-crossing-borders-bridging-minds

PENANG, 14 April 2014 – Career success depends on graduates with an ability to understand and work effectively with others of different cultures and backgrounds, Professor Dr. David W. Chapman said in his talk Crossing Borders and Bridging Minds in Higher Education.

The public talk, the first in a series on higher education organised by the National Higher Education Research Institute (IPPTN), was delivered at the University Conference Hall by Chapman who is a Distinguished International Professor and Birkmaier Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. He is also a Fullbright visiting professor to IPPTN.  

He said that universities have to create opportunities within their curriculum that connect their students and faculty members to their peers in other countries and other cultures.

Such opportunities are in the form of partnerships and collaborations that Malaysian universities have created with universities in other parts of the world.

“Many countries want to strengthen their higher education system as a means to national economic development,” he said.

On the other hand, international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank, United States Agency for International Development, World Bank, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organisation need to disburse and seek strategies that can be used to strengthen the quality of instruction and research in universities.

Chapman pointed out that international university partnerships have grown in popularity with more than 1,000 cross-border university partnerships among universities with Asia alone.         

He added that it is often assumed that if weaker universities work with stronger universities, they will be able to raise the quality of their universities.

This subsequently led to surveys and modified focus group discussions with universities and government administrators across Asia to garner their views.

“It was found that they feared that the greatest benefits of university-to-university collaboration can also be the greatest risks because, while there are opportunities for quality improvement, there is also a risk of low quality instruction.

On the question of whether cross border partnerships can actually help universities, Chapman said that the prevalent view of those questioned is that the benefits outweigh the cost of collaboration but none of those questioned can agree on what models of collaboration work best.

It was found that research collaboration is mostly limited to top tier universities and that there is some scepticism about the motives of collaboration, mostly concerning about the profit orientation of partners and universities often sought partners of equal standing.

Earlier, the Organising Chairman Professor Dr. Wan Fauzy Wan Ismail highlighted that IPPTN aimed to promote knowledge dissemination, share issues, solutions involving higher education in local and international institutions of higher learning, and collaboration and specialisation in higher education policy.

Professor Dato’ Dr Susie See Ching Mey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry & Community Network) said on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Professor Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman that globalisation has opened up opportunities for countries to share their experiences and learn from one another.

She added that in keeping touch with globalisation and the borderless world, USM is committed to enhance and produce graduates who are not just intellectuals, knowledgeable in technical and professional skills but also meet the needs of the global society.

Also present at the talk were Professor Dr. Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain, USM IPPTN director; and Professor Dato’ Dr Norzaini Azman, an associate research Fellow from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 

- Text: Yong Check Yoon/Photo: Mohd Fairus Md Isa

GLOBAL: Rethinking private higher education

Wachira Kigotho11 April 2014 Issue No:315

 

Economic stagnation and high youth unemployment in developed countries have contributed to emerging concerns over whether traditional models of higher education are capable of producing employable graduates, the International Finance Corporation's 6th International Private Education Conference heard in San Francisco this month.

The high-level conference had the theme “Rethinking Education, Shaping the Future”, and brought together education experts, and investors and employers in private education.

The conference highlighted how technologies, scientific applications and innovations in education could improve the prospects of many graduates who are currently worried that their degrees might not lead to good jobs.

Conference sessions covered a wide range of topics “from access and affordability, quality, employability and skills of the 21st century, impact of globalisation, the role of education entrepreneurs and results measurement,” said the International Finance Corporation, or IFC.

HE and labour market disconnect

High on the agenda was how universities could help students to master skills.

Leuny Morell, provost and chief academic officer at the NEU – a new, practical engineering university being developed in partnership with the University of New Haven in the United States – said the main issue was how to eradicate the unintentional disconnect between traditional higher education and the labour market.

“For instance, universities must bridge the gap between education and the world of today by teaching competencies and professional skills that are needed to solve societal problems,” Morell told University World News.

The former president of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies pointed out that universities should also try to identify talented students, especially in science and engineering.

She explained that there was a direct relationship between science, engineering, technology and innovation and economic development and sustainability.

“Countries that will invest in talented graduates in innovation, science, technology and engineering will undoubtedly achieve economic and social progress in comparison to their counterparts that will be unwilling to grow their human talent pool,” said Morell.

Unfortunately, the level of such investments and the number of science and engineering graduates do not alone necessarily mean quality or obtaining desired outcomes, because a well qualified talent pool is becoming increasingly hard to find in some parts of the world.

Quality is all-important

According to the new thinking emerging in higher education, if students acquire degrees or obsolete knowledge that cannot be applied in the modern world, then it is a high-level waste of time and money.

University degrees are still highly associated with employment prospects and even providing perfect pathways for career opportunities.

Stressing the importance of the acquisition of skills in higher education, Dr Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow in education at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a key speaker at the IFC conference, said the future of every country would depend on the skills of its people.

In his recent study, Economic Growth in Developing Countries: The role of human capital, Hanushek noted that the focus on a high quality talent pool as a driver of economic growth had put a spotlight on school attainment and the importance of cognitive skills.

Hanushek noted that whereas developed countries might adapt their higher education to the needs of the 21st century quickly, this would be difficult for countries in the developing world.

The case of Africa

Such is the case in Sub-Saharan African countries, where it had been generally easier to expand access to education rather than to improve quality.

According to Hanushek, the critical talent pool in Sub-Saharan Africa had been shrinking because simple approaches to improving the quality of education had not proved very effective.

He noted that the inability of higher education in the region to produce human capital required for development was embedded within the entire education system. If students did not have basic cognitive skills when they got to higher education, they could not learn at a level that would make them competitive internationally.

“Consequently, without improving school quality, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will find it difficult to improve their long run economic performance,” Hanushek told University World News in an interview.

The IFC conference was a global event, but its agenda was perhaps most significant for Africa when it reflected on graduate unemployment.

This is a major problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Simon Gicharu, founder and president of Mount Kenya University, East Africa's largest private university.

“Beyond the unemployment crisis, in the absence of adequate labour laws and social safety nets, graduates from African universities are often under-employed, too often compelled to take low-paying jobs for their survival,” said Gicharu in an interview with University World News in Nairobi.

Gicharu agreed with speakers who noted that African countries were at a crossroads in matters related to improving the quality of higher education. “So much pressure is on learning facilities in both public and private universities due to unmet demand for higher education.”

All about the skills

The IFC conference rooted for advanced innovations in learning platforms in tablet technology, mobile applications, virtual and cyberspace learning networks, and advanced science, technology and engineering laboratories and other cutting edge facilities.

Governments and private investors in higher education everywhere will have to undertake self-appraisal if they are to prepare young people for the jobs market of the 21st century, conference participants agreed.

According to Hanushek, it is all about the skills and much of the IFC conference focused on how to provide labour market opportunities to the more than 200 million unemployed youth globally by bridging the gap between learning outcomes and job requirements.
 

UNITED KINGDOM: Women in academia – Different views of success

Shima Barakat18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

The last 12 years has seen a plethora of writings on the experiences of women academics, describing how the challenges and barriers they face differ from their male counterparts. However, even earlier Nadya Aisenberg and Mona Harrington wrote in the 1988 study Women of Academe: Outsiders in the sacred grove about the difficulties women were overcoming to access the 'sacred grove' (academia) in the United States.

Three decades later, the subject is still being written about because structural and cultural issues across the globe have not been fully addressed, frustrations continue to exist and both men and women are speaking up. The issues are complex and fraught with myths, gross generalisations and mixed emotions.

The University of Cambridge commissioned research challenging the notions of success, aiming to address the stereotypes and, most importantly, giving women a heterogeneous voice. Some 196 women were nominated by their peers as 'successful', 126 responded to surveys and 26 were interviewed.

The results from this research were published in the book The Meaning of Success: Insights from women at Cambridge by Jo Bostock, launched last month.

The book offers rich evidence that women are not all the same – their experiences are not the same, the value they bring to the university is not the same and their paths to success are very different.

Four main themes

The book elaborates on the stories of the women of Cambridge around four main themes:

• The challenges of working at a top academic institution irrespective of gender: what constitutes excellence, funding, job security and conflicting demands. The gender dynamics were often an additional dimension of complexity in this demanding environment, like challenges outside work and a sense of 'falling short' (imposter syndrome).
  
  
• What is valued and what matters: awards, promotion and recognition, but not only those. The women valued and thrived on much more, for example: challenging and interesting work that was of excellent quality and had an impact, maintaining happy and healthy work and family lives, managing challenges and change, exercising leadership, and authority and influence as well as being pioneers. Being at the forefront of change, at the intellectual, organisational and institutional levels, was a very significant element.
  
  
• Framing the gender influences: different women had different perceptions of whether and to what extent gender was relevant to their work lives. Issues like education and upbringing, gender assumptions and stereotypes as well as bias and discrimination were all honestly discussed, busting the myth that these issues no longer exist but also nuancing the debate by showing that these are not only challenges but sometimes opportunities too. These were stories of leveraging expectations, not conforming and reaping the rewards.
  
  
• Admired qualities and role models: The spectrum was wide around who women perceived as role models: men and women, famous and modest, work and life, in general and for specific tasks. However, some themes emerged as being admired: integrity, relationship focus, inspirational leadership, political savviness, being pioneers, accessible, fallible, an inclusiveness advocate, doing high quality work and being rounded, confident, authentic and resilient.
  

For the women of Cambridge demonstrating authenticity, integrity and roundedness were key. As you read the book you are struck by the diversity of talent at Cambridge University which is not dissimilar to other academic institutions in the United Kingdom, the Western world and most probably internationally too.

This book provides evidence that today the issues surrounding gender are potentially more varied and more complex than they have ever been and raises the question: How much talent is being wasted around the world in academic institutions and other organisations?

As one senior academic in the book commented: “I am well aware that serious talent is being wasted in Cambridge and elsewhere by systems that have allowed 50% of the talent pool to occupy fewer than 15% of the senior positions.”

Broader notions of success need to be embraced within academia to redress this imbalance as well as allow all men and women to contribute to the fullest.

Ripple effect

Is the Cambridge project the start of a ripple effect? Anecdotal evidence says it may well be as other universities start to react and other groups within other universities start to question and highlight issues and women within their own organisation.

I heard one woman say: “I am going to raise funds to carry out a similar project in my university.” If that happens, it would be another several hundred-year-old organisation that is shook up – even if just a little.

At Cambridge, the buzz is still there weeks after the book launch. There is a raised awareness at all levels, resources are allocated for change, new programmes and further development and senior academics are recognising the richness of talent in the university.

Personally, I am surprised by how often I am stopped on campus to be told how some issue has resonated with someone. I am awed by how many people have read the book and can recognise one person, me, from among the cases.

Being involved in the book has certainly raised my visibility and allowed me to seek advice and support at levels that were obscure to me before. It has also given me a chance to reflect on what I actually think about issues of gender, myself, my work and what I want.

I fundamentally believe in a broader notion of success and this work reinforced my commitment to recognising the strengths of my team and making sure these are nurtured and developed in line with their ambitions and dreams.

Will a book make all the difference? Of course not. To truly change and offer a place where diversity flourishes universities need to do two things primarily: the first would improve the existing system and the second would revolutionise it:

• Review espoused values and criteria of what constitutes quality and success. It is common wisdom among younger academics that research is valued above all else and universities are littered with people who play by the rules, but get overlooked for promotions. Yet most universities have more sophisticated promotion criteria.
  
  'Service' is one key culprit for this apparent mismatch. Service and good citizenship are explicitly written into the criteria for promotion, but service takes time, time away from writing. Rewarding what is espoused as valued is important to avoid the apparent mismatch between criteria and practice.
  
  
• New pathways through the academic institutions need to be defined, supported and equally valued. The rise of the academic manager is one such new 'route'.
  
  Yet there could be many more like the practical researcher whose work is excellent with respect to practice rather than theory, the implementer who translates research for practice through consulting and-or commercialisation, the motivational leader who may be less excellent at the research itself but is superb at motivating the team and leading them to exceptional results, and the creative resource investigator who has visions of research and can leverage resources to deliver it, but may not write as prolifically as other colleagues.
  

In a world where complexity dominates, it seems ludicrous that everyone is judged and promoted based on the same criteria.

It brings to mind a cartoon that has gone viral on social media depicting a set of animals waiting to be tested with a caption that says something like: “We have a fair system. You will all undergo the same test of climbing that tree.” What chance do the elephant and fish have? I hope now, more than they did before.

Initiatives like Athena Swan and EnterpriseWISE help to change individuals and some practices, but system level changes will be needed to truly transform culture and embedded practices.

* Shima Barakat is a research and teaching fellow and director of the EnterpriseWISE and ETECH projects at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK.

GLOBAL: Diversification of tertiary education growing – Study

Wachira Kigotho18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

Non-university technical programmes are the fastest growing forms of post-secondary education, according to UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning, or IIEP.

Tracer studies coordinated by the IIEP in five countries – Azerbaijan, Chile, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Korea – indicated that increasing job market demand for varied skills is the primary driver of the emerging trend.

The abridged studies published this month by the IIEP in the volume The Diversification of Post-secondary Education, edited by NV Varghese, highlight how non-degree programmes are challenging traditional university systems.

IIEP Director Khalil Mahshi observed in a statement: “The non-university segment of post-secondary education is becoming a credible alternative to degree courses, especially in developing countries, when it comes to expanding access to employment-related study programmes.”

The research for the five country studies was initiated by the IIEP in 2010. According to the book: “These countries are at varied levels of higher education development, as reflected in their gross enrolment ratios for higher education in 2008. The expansion of post-secondary education is common to all of them and is in line with global trends.”

It continues: “The growing demand for varied skills in the job market necessitates various different modes of delivery, a multiplicity of providers and proliferation of study programmes. Diversification of post-secondary education can be seen as a drift towards vocational or employment-relevant courses, allowing for flexibility of study programmes.”

Faring in the job market

According to Professor NV Varghese, coordinator of the five-country tracer studies and director of the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration in New Delhi, non-university post-secondary education can offer robust job market opportunities.

For instance, in South Korea the overall employment rate of post-secondary education graduates was 76.7% – but it was 64.5% among junior college graduates and 48.5% among university graduates.

In Malaysia, according to a 2008 government tracer study, 53% of non-university graduates found employment within one year of graduating, against 50% of university graduates. Researchers also found better employment rates among non-university graduates in Nigeria and Azerbaijan.

It was only in Chile that university graduates fared better in the job market: it was estimated that the probability of being unemployed one year following graduation was 0.17 among university graduates and 0.33 among technical graduates.

Enrolment dynamics

Despite the upswing in non-university post-secondary education students in most countries, the researchers noted that in many countries the university sector still accounts for the major share of enrolments.

Available statistics from the IIEP indicate that currently, enrolments in the non-university sector represent between 20% and 40% of all students in tertiary education in many countries.

But enrolment dynamics are changing quickly in most developing countries, for example in Azerbaijan and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of insufficient university places.

“Azerbaijan has experienced tremendous growth in demand for post-secondary education. This was more visible in terms of applicants than intake since the government regulates and fixes enrolment targets,” according to the study. “Nearly 40% of all students enrolled in higher education in Azerbaijan attend non-university institutions.”

Korea has reached universal levels of enrolment in higher education, and so possibilities of further expanding the system are limited. In Malaysia and Nigeria, enrolments in post-secondary education increased in different categories of institutions.

Potential in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa there is tremendous potential for growth of non-university post-secondary education.

While university enrolment in the region has been growing faster than anywhere else, still only about 7% of the tertiary education age cohort is currently enrolled in universities, according to UNESCO.

Secondary school graduates unable to be absorbed in universities are increasingly seeking alternatives in non-university institutions.

The over-expansion of universities – which have been growing at the rate of about 8.6% a year since 1970 in order to satisfy social demands – has resulted in a lack of adequately qualified staff and over-crowded and over-stretched learning facilities.

Also, graduates from polytechnics are deemed to have hands-on practice and experience, and they are often absorbed into the labour market more quickly than university counterparts with degrees in conventional subjects.

According to Ebele Okoka Amali, professor of economics at the University of Jos in Nigeria and one of the IIEP's tracer study researchers, over 50% of university graduates in Nigeria are still unemployed three years after graduating while the proportion is much lower for polytechnic graduates.

“This trend is noticeable in many industrial sectors that prefer to recruit polytechnic graduates rather than university graduates, because of their hands-on skills,” said Amali.

Contrary to expectations, challenges are expected to emerge in Nigeria's non-university post-secondary education programmes in polytechnics as enrolment has become highly skewed in favour of business education courses.

In his study, Amali noted that 70% of students in polytechnics were studying business courses such as accounting, banking and finance and business management while only 22% were enrolled in core technology courses.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, many households are ready to invest in the expectation that non-university post-secondary education qualifications, especially in technical areas, will offer better employment prospects than university degrees in conventional academic subjects.

In addition, the Malaysian government has noticed that non-university post-secondary education is a cheaper way of expanding tertiary education in the country.

“All in all, the diversification of non-university education programmes results in cost savings for the government, improves employment opportunities for students, and reduces pressure on the university system to expand,” said Professor Morshidi bin Sirat of the National University of Malaysia.

Game-changer

Most researchers pointed out that diversification of post-secondary education was also increasingly becoming a game-changer in higher education by creating more space for women, mature students and groups from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“It is still part of the shift towards 'massification' of higher education, where traditionally under-privileged students view tertiary education as a passport to a good job in a progressive modern sector,” said Varghese.

Quoting Professor Philip G Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, Varghese noted that relevance to employment had become a crucial consideration in making study choices in most countries.

The growing demand for different skills from those produced by traditional university degree courses, it seems, has encouraged alternative modes of delivery and has led to many different kinds of education providers in non-university post-secondary institutions and platforms.

Further, according to the study, diversification has helped to expand post-secondary education, often with resource support from sources other than government – especially in non-university institutions.

The case studies indicate that the pressure from both expanding secondary education and the employment market demand for relevant skills resulted in a more diversified system of post-secondary education, consisting of universities and non-university institutions.

“Thus the expansion and multiplicity of post-secondary education providers pose challenges to planning and managing this particular segment of the education sector.”

NIGERIA: French lecturers' conference supports Francophony

Tunde Fatunde18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

The Nigerian state has invested heavily in French language studies in higher education since the country's independence 64 years ago. The various strands of Francophone studies that have subsequently developed were investigated at the recent 16th Annual Conference of the University French Teachers' Association of Nigeria, or UFTAN.

The conference was held at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, in Osun state, with the theme “French in the Wider World”. Some 125 members of the association were there, with the event one of the best attended yet, said UFTAN's immediate past president R Adebisi.

The French language, in the context of West Africa, is of diplomatic and strategic importance to Nigeria, which is surrounded by French speaking countries.

They are members of the international organisation called Francophony – the commonwealth of the world's French speaking states. A participant argued that future UFTAN conferences should invite diplomatic representatives of Francophone countries.

French is the official language of some members of ECOWAS – the Economic Community of West African States – as well as an official language of Belgium, Canada and Switzerland.

France is no longer the sole custodian of the language, which has been appropriated by many countries all over the globe.

This pertinent observation reminded one of the conference of the International Federation of Teachers of French, or IFIT, which took place in Durban, South Africa, last year.

There the French minister of international cooperation informed the audience that by 2050, the Francophone countries of Africa – and not France – would guarantee the survival of the French language and by extension French culture.

Celebrating Francophone studies' professors

An interesting highlight of the conference was the celebration of Nigerian professors who have contributed to Francophone studies, as well as retired Francophone professors who are still rendering academic services including supervising postgraduate students*.

The presence of leading active and retired professors captured the history of the development and growth of French studies in Nigeria.

They are representatives of the first, second, third and fourth generations of Nigerian intellectuals deeply involved in Francophone studies since independence 64 years ago.

These professors, and those who could not be at the conference, are products of investments by the Nigerian state in creating a class of intellectuals whose main objective is to produce French graduates to cater for the diplomatic, military and economic interests of Nigeria and ECOWAS.

The investment of France in Francophone studies in Nigeria has also been important but peripheral to the core investment of Nigeria itself in this field of study. The French embassy, a traditional partner of UFTAN, promised continuous support for French studies in Nigeria's universities.

Four retired professors were honoured as UFTAN pacesetters – V Aire, R Elaho, F Emordi and E Echenim. A special publication was released in their honour titled French Language in Nigeria, edited by N Obianaju, E Omonzejie, G Simire and M Tijani.

French in the wider world

Professor EN Kwofie, one of the pioneers of French linguistics in Nigerian universities – a Ghanaian who eventually opted wholeheartedly for Nigerian citizenship – delivered a magisterial keynote address titled “French in the Wider World”.

Strolling down memory lane, he demonstrated that the French elite over time developed the language as a strategic diplomatic and cultural tool in the community of nations. He argued that French would remain a language of communication in Africa.

The lecture reminded one of an important declaration of Francois Hollande, the French president, at the 2013 Francophone summit in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “French language is now an African Language,” he declared.

The four-day conference was mainly devoted to academic papers by UFTAN members in line with the conference theme. There were also two round table sessions specifically for distinguished scholars.

In the first Professor V Aire, in his paper “African Studies in French: A personalised testimony”, demonstrated how Nigerian scholars had made immense contributions to African studies developed in Canada's Francophone universities in Quebec province.

He cited the participation of Nigerians in the creation of academic journals and articles in journals and books: Dictionnaires Des Oeuvres Afro-Africaines de langue Francaise, Ecriture Francaise, Presence Francophone, Revue Canadienne des Etudes Africaines and Etudes Litteraires among others.

He revealed that there were about 5,000 Nigerian students in Canadian Anglophone and Francophone universities.

An intellectual movement

The second round table was highly technical. In his paper, “Literature and Law”, Professor 0 Oladitan, a literary critic and lawyer, illustrated the umbilical link between some literary writing and law.

He posited that the content of some novels could be subjected to legal analysis, and demonstrated his thesis by showing how legal terms can be used to analyse Sembene Ousman's novel Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu, a classic in the repertoire of Francophone novels in Africa.

Oladitan's presentation reminds one of the era of encyclopaedists, an intellectual movement in 18th century France. These iconoclasts demonstrated that there was constant correlation and interdependence between all parts of the body of knowledge.

There were also parallel sessions to accommodate various academic interests, ranging from comparative literature, French linguistics, translation and interpretation to culture and civilisations.

Some of the papers presented by PhD students had theoretical pitfalls and faulty formats and did not conform to international standards. Members agreed that the association should hold zonal seminars and workshops to assist these younger colleagues, supervised by active and retired professors.

The conference ended on two positive notes.

First, participants approved a proposal that the 17th UFTAN conference be held at the Nigeria French Village in Badagry in Lagos state. Second, a new executive was elected into office for two years, with the writer of this article elected president.

* Nigerian professors honoured for contributions to Francophone studies were: O Oladitan, C Mokwenye, V Okeke, M Iwuchukwu, E Obitaba, D Obieje, F Angrey, T Adejir, D Chima, V Obinna, I Mojola, B Ayeleru, R Adebisi and this writer. Retired professors honoured were: U Edebiri, I Mojola, V Aire, R Elaho, F Emordi, N Koffie, K Echenim and K Sonaiya.
 

AUSTRALIA: Young researchers YouTube their work

18 April 2014 Issue No:316

Each year at its annual conference, the Australian Cooperative Research Centres, or CRC, Association holds a “Showcasing Early Career Researchers” session.

This year for the CRC Association's Innovating with Asia 2014 conference in Perth in May*, 48 researchers – two years out from submitting their PhD to five years after submitting – braved the cameras and shot a 30-second video explaining the topic of their research, what they have done and what it means.

“It's a really hard thing to do,” says CRC Association Chief Executive Tony Peacock. “The so-called elevator pitch requires a lot of thinking and then great execution to do it well. All the judges were once again blown away that so many researchers had a go. We all wished we could have a much longer short-list.”

The short-listed candidates have already won A$1,000 (US$940) each along with participating in the CRC Association's conference in Perth. Each of the five finalists will present to the conference audience on their research for five minutes.

The audience will then vote for the winner who will receive a further A$5,000 presented at the AusIndustry-sponsored Excellence in Innovation Awards dinner.

The short-listed finalists

Jake Lacey – Poultry CRC

How gut microbiota contributes to health and productivity
Gut bacteria work like a community to modulate the immune system and defend the host. However, too often the ecosystem of healthy microbiota is thrown out of balance by pathogenic bacteria.

In poultry farms, necrotic enteritis caused by C perfingens is on the rise and results in poor welfare and a loss of productivity due to damage to the intestinal wall. Some birds show a natural resistance to the disease and by investigating the bacteria in these birds we may be able to find a probiotic cure.

Luigi Vandi – CRC for Advanced Composite Structures

Understanding interphase formation in thermoset composite welding
Composite materials have become the material of choice for manufacturing aircraft structures. However, unlike metals, carbon-epoxy materials cannot normally be welded together, making their assembly very challenging.

My project is centred on a new technology patented by the CRC-ACS, allowing these materials to be welded together. My PhD focuses on unravelling the molecular mechanisms at the interphase formed between these materials to ensure this process can be implemented on future aircrafts.

Dr Honor Calnan – CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation

Retaining the red in Australian lamb
The colour of lamb meat is crucial to customer appeal and strongly contributes to product value. Lamb meat currently has a shelf life of only two days before it is discounted due to browning, representing a major economic limitation to the Australian lamb industry.

My PhD investigates factors influencing the oxidative process of lamb browning, identifying practical methods such as feeding vitamin E and selective breeding that can improve the colour stability and thus value of Australian lamb meat.

Binbin Zhang – The HEARing CRC

Fabrication of drug delivery system
3D printing is changing our life in many aspects, from 3D printed food to airplane parts. How could it benefit the current research in life sciences? Printing human organs is of course exciting and ambitious. However, using this new technology to perfect readily available medical devices seems more achievable in the near future.

My research is to develop an integrating drug delivery system into the cochlear implant using 3D printing to prevent the detrimental post-surgery inflammatory response.

Michael Scott – CRC for Optimising Resource Extraction

Evaluation of energy efficiency, mission pricing and pre-concentration
This project evaluates the economic and production impacts from improvements in the energy-efficiency of mining and mineral processing activities, and the introduction of emission pricing on the optimal development of a low-grade, copper-gold deposit in Australia.

The research also examines the incorporation of pre-concentration strategies at the operation, which remove uneconomic material prior to expensive, and energy and emission-intensive, production processes.

* The Innovating with Asia 2014 conference will be held on 20-21 May at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

UNITED STATES: Why universities are under attack by hackers

FoxNews.com18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

Reports of university data breaches are becoming almost commonplace, writes Rick Dakin for http://FoxNews.com. Last month the University of Maryland reported that its system had been hacked for the second time in four weeks. Indiana University's server was breached in February, potentially exposing personal information of 146,000 students and recent graduates.

And earlier this month a systems breach at North Dakota State University compromised the personal information of more than 200,000 students, faculty and staff – but the hackers never took any of it. These attacks are probably just the beginning.

Cybercrime is not new, but the sophistication and intensity of attacks are increasing at an alarming rate. Universities are easy targets because of their open structure and long information retention periods. For modern hackers, breaching a school's data system is relatively easy. Today's hackers are tightly run criminal organisations operating in countries that are hostile or indifferent to US interests.
Full report on the http://FoxNews.com site
 

INDONESIA: New scholarships for study at world's top universities

Ria Nurdiani18 April 2014 Issue No:316

 

In an effort to increase the number of people with postgraduate qualifications in Indonesia, the government this month launched the Indonesia Presidential Scholarships, which are tenable at the world's top universities.

The international scholarships require Indonesian applicants to be accepted at a university abroad before they can apply.

They are intended to cover the expense of studying at 50 top-ranked universities in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Singapore, South Korea, Denmark, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

World-class universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge and Oxford are included in the list.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the scholarship would help “prepare future leaders who can lead the country in the next 10 or 20 years so that our country will not only become an emerging economy, but, in time, an advanced country.”

Minister of Education and Culture Mohammad Nuh has said the government is aiming for 100 grantees every year. Just over 50 have so far passed the selection process – 28 female students and 23 males – with registration still open until 20 April.

Two will be attending Harvard, one Stanford, three Oxford, two the University of Tokyo, six Imperial College London, seven University College London, eight Australian National University and three the University of Edinburgh.

The substantial scholarships, announced just a week before legislative elections on 9 April, have been criticised by Max Sopacua, deputy chair of the Democratic Party, who said the timing of the launch was a political strategy to boost the ruling party during the election.

The popularity of the president's party has sunk to below 10% due to a graft scandal involving its high-ranking officials.

A presidential election will also take place in July although Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has already served two terms, cannot be re-elected under current rules.

The youth vote is considered crucial in the legislative elections, the results of which will be declared in May. Some 50 million out of the total of 189 million registered voters are under 29 years. All parties were trying to overcome general youth voter apathy ahead of the election.

However, the timing allegation was refuted by the education minister. “We've been working on it since last year. That it was announced close to election day is pure coincidence,” Ibnu Hamad, the ministry's spokesperson, told University World News.

A forerunner to the scholarship was launched in 2010 when then Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is now managing director of the World Bank Group, began to set aside some money to be managed as an endowment fund.

In November 2011, her successor as finance minister Agus Martowardojo, now governor of Bank Indonesia, established a working group to prepare an institution to manage the fund in collaboration with the education ministry.

After almost three years of establishing the endowment with 20% of the funds provided by allocations from the state budget between 2010 and 2013, the scholarships were finally launched on 2 April.

Indonesians aged up to 35 years can apply for postgraduate degree study overseas, while the maximum age for a doctoral applicant is 40.

The scholarships will cover the fields of agriculture, medicine, food, energy, IT, telecommunication, technology, science, economy, finance, business, economics, law, religion, politics, and social and cultural sciences.

Grantees will be obliged to return to Indonesia after completing studies abroad, with sanctions imposed on those who do not return.