Mission

My First Year Seminar class at Pepperdine this semester is called, "Globalization and Equality." The class is assigned to read several books to survey this topic, including: "World on Fire" by Amy Chua, "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey Sachs, "Race Matters" by Cornel West, and "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus. Throughout the course, students have successfully wrestled with various topics ranging from international development and colonialism to social action and poverty reduction. The class also selected three loan recipients on www.kiva.org to watch microfinance in action.

One Saturday in November the class came together to teach english lessons at the Malibu Labor Exchange. The director of the exchange shared with our group his work with Cesar Chavez and the difficulties for migrant workers to find jobs in this current economic environment. As the students listened to him speak, it was enlightening to see the theoretical become real. The students worked one on one with migrant workers (some undocumented) to help them learn some practical and conversational language skills. After getting to know their language partners for the morning, several of the workers asked the students to come back, and many students reflected that they felt as though they learned more than they taught.

Knowing that education and relationships are two factors that contribute to poverty reduction, this element of service learning proved to be crucial for a class studying this topic. It also highlights the global and local aspects of globalization. Malibu is a wealthy community with migrant workers from all over the world waiting at a trailer for an opportunity to work. When the global and local collide and the tensions of wealth and poverty meet, it has the ability to help students and researchers unlearn as much as they learn.

Labels: equality, globalization, microfinance, Pepperdine, poverty reduction, service learning

As the economy continues to go through peaks and valleys, many questions arise about the changing nature of higher education. Will mediums change, how will institutions change (or survive), and what type of learning environment will prepare students for the future? Under the topic of higher education and the recession, The Economist recently published an article with the title, "It still pays to study." The author cites the OECD's studies on the impact of learning on earning. According to the OECD: the more education, the better. After taking in to account tuition, years off for studying, and taxes, individuals still benefit in terms lifetime earnings. In terms of publicly funded education, taxpayers benefit from the subsidies based on this additional taxes paid over a lifetime of higher earnings. Given the financial crisis and the rapid rate at which universities are cutting budgets, the author speculated, "It may be worth rethinking the wisdom of ever-expanding higher education. But not this year."

The analysis represents a larger trend in higher education, where the benefits are measured by this rate of return analysis. The benefits to individuals and to taxpayers are reduced to one criteria: lifetime earnings. This narrow framework ignores the immense social benefits that are generated from research in many areas, but especially in medical sciences and engineering. Individual rates of return do not account for social health benefits, civic engagement, and other higher order benefts that result from higher education. Economists are often uncomfortable with the attempt to measure social rates of return because the reliability is not as strong as individual rates of return. In other words, there is no accepted model. As higher education continues to adapt during these economic conditions, it will be important to focus on these social rates of return. Not only does it show a greater value of the institution, it makes the institution more valuable to the degree that universities are committed to benefiting society in concrete, measurable ways. This can range from providing services in health and education to producing invaluable research to help solve problems that do not yet exist.

Labels: degree value, higher education, rate of return, recession, research, universities

Connecting universities with the overarching focus on reducing poverty is not a common refrain. It does not appeal to common sense to argue that the most impoverished areas of the world need higher education. However, in terms of long-term growth and the ability to find local solutions for local problems, higher education has the ability to contribute a piece of the puzzle in the fight against poverty.

This notion was featured in a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: African Universities Tackle the Continent's Agricultural Crisis. The agricultural crisis is highlighted by a disease that is attacking cassava, a staple root crop common to the region. Farmers are not sure what to do about the disease and the research infrastructure that would develop a disease resistant variety is very weak. Because universities house and incubate the type of research to combat these types of problems, many parts of the African continent have been weakened by decades of constructed neglect of university education by donor agencies.

However, there are small, but positive developments that are creating a foundation for the type of network needed to respond to these agricultural problems. One scientist in East Africa, mentioned in the article, has planted about 40 different cassava varieties, some selected for their disease or insect resistance, others for their quality roots. The scientist and other students are creating hybrids that combine the best traits of different plants to build up their susceptibilities to disease. Local farmers are then able to test the varieties in their fields.

The image shown here is a photo I took of a woman outside of Kampala, Uganda. She is standing next to drying g nuts, an important source of protein, but another vulnerable plant variety. Other farmers like herself could lose an important source of income and nutrition without the infrastructure to combat evolving diseases. The model of utilizing the university for the good of the public is perhaps more visible in Africa than many other regions of the world. The benefits that come from investing in university research greatly surpass those who actually attend the university. These social benefits, highlighted by the fundamental issue of producing crops, are directly linked to reducing poverty.

-Christopher S. Collins

Labels: Africa, cassava, poverty reduction, research, universities

During the summer of 2009 I had the pleasure of serving as a Visiting Professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, where I taught a 6-week course focused on research trends and methodologies in the study of U.S. higher education. My visit took place thanks to an invitation from Juan Hu, Director of Renmin's Higher Education Studies Office (HESO), and was supported in part by her office, Renmin University, and Beijing's International Education Exchange program.


In addition to teaching for 6 weeks, I also conducted extensive interviews with professors as part of a research project funded by the UCLA Academic Senate Research Grants Program. My inquiry, which is in its beginning stages, seeks to better understand the complex changes taking place at Chinese universities and the impact on academic culture. In the coming years, I also hope to spend extensive time at Beijing University and Beijing Normal University, where once again I plan to conduct extensive interviews with faculty.

Renmin University of China, or Zhongguo Renmin Daxue, as it is known in Chinese Pinyin (Pinyin is the romanization of the nation's official language-Putonghua), was founded in the mid-1930s to prepare cadre for the growing Chinese Communist Party. Closed during Mao's Cultural Revolution, Renmin still today prepares many of the nation's governmental and policy leaders and enjoys excellent standing within the national Ministry of Education. Although Renmin's initial mission was fairly precisely defined, today it ranks as one of China's top research universities, specializing in the humanities and social sciences. In fact, many educators and policy makers in China consider Renmin the nation's top university for the humanities and social sciences (a recent study titled Introduction to National Discipline Ranking in Mainland China, conducted by HESO, lists Renmin as the top university in China in the humanities and social sciences on the basis of individual disciplinary rankings).

The course I taught at Renmin was geared toward faculty, staff, and researchers working at HESO and the Office of Development and Planning, as well as graduate students interested in the study of higher education. Improved understanding of how U.S. universities are studied is part of the broader initiative by Chinese universities to achieve prominence as world-class research universities. As part of such an initiative, Chinese universities are investing in more advanced analyses of their own universities, adding layers of evaluative complexity to the internal operations of their leading universities. Accordingly, my course was specifically geared toward helping those participating in the class to better understand how U.S. colleges and universities are researched and the degree to which those studying Chinese universities might be able to learn from U.S. higher education methods and practices. Some of the research topics I addressed included the following: U.S. higher education policy research, studies of student learning and development, research on higher education management and change, studies of the U.S. professoriate and academic freedom, and research on the impact of globalization on U.S. universities. I introduced class participants to some of the best known authors and researchers working in U.S. higher education studies, including the likes of Philip Altbach, Alexander Astin, Patricia Gumport, William Tierney, and Sheila Slaughter, among many others. I also used some of my own work to highlight analyses of higher education from a critical framework, while raising questions about some common assumptions concerning U.S. higher education.

Given the high level of English ability that many university faculty, staff, and students have in China, I was able to teach in my first language, although from time to time I tried to introduce or explain ideas in my less-than-flowing Chinese. The class proved to be as much of a learning experience for me as it was for the students, as a great deal of our time was spent comparing and contrasting Chinese universities with those in the United States. Comparisons between Chinese and U.S. universities also were part of the interviews I conducted with faculty at Renmin and although my study is in its infancy, I offer some initial observations about the changes taking place in China.

A point expressed by all of my faculty interview subjects is that the top research universities in China clearly are "raising the bar" in terms of expectations for faculty research and scholarly productivity. This means that faculty at universities such as Renmin face greater pressure to publish and bring in research funds. Where they publish also is increasingly scrutinized, as faculty at Renmin are expected to publish in the top journals in their respective fields. Additionally, many faculty are expected to have international experience, whether in terms of obtaining the Ph.D. at universities outside of China or in terms of spending a semester or year abroad as a visiting professor. In fact, many schools within the university have developed elaborate international partnerships with top universities around the world, such as the one at Renmin's School of Public Administration, where faculty can spend a semester abroad teaching at the University of Michigan. The advanced English ability of most of Renmin's faculty, especially among a new generation of young scholars, makes building exchanges with countries such as the United States much easier. The primary impetus of many of these kinds of initiatives is to propel the Chinese university toward world-class standing.

A concern expressed by several professors, as well as some of the participants in the class, is that Chinese faculty tend to be evaluated through a complex administrative process, often involving administrative staff and government officials. This process lacks the strong peer-review component so common in the United States and leaves some Chinese professors hopeful that the future might lead to a faculty evaluation system more in the hands of Chinese professors. In a nation where change has become the norm, anything seems possible. In any case, I look forward to exploring these and other Chinese higher education issues in the coming years.

-Robert Rhoads

Labels: China, higher education, research

From Starbucks to baristas at McDonalds and the emergence of the fair trade label, I wonder how many people ever contemplate the journey of the coffee in their cup. Through a deeper study of higher education in developing countries, I found a unique partnership between Michigan State University, Texas A&M, the University of Rwanda, and USAID. The Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) assisted the nation of Rwanda in its efforts to rebuild from the aftermath of the war and genocide of 1994. PEARL works with rural communities across Rwanda to generate income through agricultural product development and market linkages. The project trained 17 faculty members from Rwanda at MSU and Texas A&M, assisted in curriculum development at the University of Rwanda, established an outreach center where coffee farmers in Rwanda can glean knowledge created in the university setting, and implemented washing station and cupping technology for coffee co-operatives.

While visiting MSU, I visited a CEO of a coffee company who was one of the first buyers. He showed me the whole coffee production process and spoke about his reasoning for buying coffee from Rwanda. You can buy specialty Rwandan coffee at Whole Foods or on the Paramount website.

In speaking with both students from Rwanda and program administrators, it seems clear that one of the most successful components of the project stems from the diffusion of the mission of a land grant college. From its inception, MSU was designed to be of service to its surrounding community and to transfer knowledge from the laboratory to the farmland. This land grant mission is now taking on a global flavor. The model seems to be an appropriate way for universities in developing countries to facilitate education in a way that links university knowledge, human capacity building, and technology transfer to communities in a way that reduces poverty. The participants in the co-operatives assisted by PEARL and all of its participants provide a model representation of how we can move away from the ivory tower university and move toward a more globally responsive land grant mission.

Labels: coffee, development, Rwanda, universities

The university is often seen as a key player in the knowledge economy, especially when it comes to science research. Scientific research in the university setting can be a powerful force for a nation-state, especially when connected to promoting social and economic well being. However, as with many aspects of globalization, there is often a degree of stratification and inequality. WORLDMAPPER is an initiative at the University of Sheffield directed by Dr. David Dorling. The project created the map above, which shows the proportion of all scientific papers published in 2001 written by authors living in that geographic region. It demonstrates the greater amount of scientific research (measured by published results) in richer territories. The United States and Europe (and the northern hemisphere in general) are shown to have a substantially greater number of publications than regions like South American and Africa.

The UNESCO Science Report in 2005 showed that the world devoted 1.7% of the GDP to research and development. The same report showed that while 70.6% of the World's population lives in developing countries, only 22.2% of the gross expenditure on research and development is spent in those regions. Knowledge, education, science, technology, and innovation are drivers of progress, and there is a greater need for higher education to facilitate the relationship between these components in a way that benefits society. The role of the university can be crucial to promote the advancement of the society through scientific and technological means. Dr. Dorling noted on the WORLDMAPPER website that "Scientific research is as much the product of the society that enables it, as of the individuals who author it."

The UCLA Academic Senate provided a grant to study the impact of the World Bank on higher education in developing countries. Two countries were chosen as case studies: Thailand and Uganda. Each country has a unique history, culture, and approach to education. Thailand was the first country I visited. While there, I was able to interview staff members from the World Bank, officials from the Thai Ministry of Education, and professors in science and engineering programs who have benefited from the World Bank loan to Thailand. These loans were provided to enhance science and technology programs at various institutions of higher education. The money from the loan provided equipment for teaching and research for twenty of the best public universities in Thailand. The photo on the right is from a lab that benefited from the Bank loan to Thailand.

Uganda was the second country I visited. A loan from the World Bank was recently procured for the advancement of science and technology. Given their history of borrowing, as well as the trials and tribulations of Western colonialism, perceptions of development by Ugandan officials and the World Bank was quite different from views represented in Thailand. In both countries, I took photos of the universities I visited as well as labs for science and technology. One professor in Uganda suggested that I visit a village while in the country so that I could have a glimpse into the difficult educational path from village life to a university. The photo on the left is a picture of a school in a village a couple of hours away from Kampala.

Both countries face several challenges to developing their higher education sectors. Funding, access, and development are all key areas that need support. While the Bank has had a varied history of supporting this sector, a larger commitment has been made to developing science and technology in the university setting. This area of research shows promising results for incubating indigenous research that will serve local and global needs.