Global Student Stories – 30/01/17

This week’s global student stories include changes in majors taught by universities in Vietnam, Finnish PhD academics migrating from the country, Indian Prime Minister warning academics to guard their freedoms and Swiss Students’ Unions appealing for refugees.

Vietnam: Universities focusing on majors easy to teach and learn

Majors include those related to business and management, despite the government’s warnings of the already high supply of graduates in finance and business administration.

These majors do not require substantial investments in facilities and laboratories so are more favourable to universities.

Education experts are comparing multidisciplinary universities to ‘supermarkets’ where there are ‘saleable goods’.

The Ministry of Education and Training shows that there are 403 business-related majors in universities, 363 for education and training, 280 for humanities, 232 for technology and 150 for computing and information technology.

On the lesser side is 116 majors related to agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, 47 for production and processing, 16 for social services and just 12 for transport services.

Finland: Finnish PhD academics leaving the country

This comes due to the fear of government funding cuts to universities causing a long-term damage to Finland’s higher education sector.

Recent figures revealed an increase of highly educated people moving abroad, with evidence showing leading academics leaving to take up positions in other locations.

The Finnish government said that basic funding to the country’s 15 universities and 26 polytechnics would be reduced by €500 million over a four-year term and €100 million research funding cuts.

This follows the weakening of the country’s economy in 2015. Last year, the university of Helsinki announced that it would cut staff numbers by almost 1,000 by the end of 2017 in hope of reducing its budget by €106 million by 2020.

Jaakko Hameen-Anttila, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, said to Times Higher Education: “The future seems very bleak.”

Switzerland: Swiss students’ union appeal for refugees being able to access university easier

The Swiss students’ union are appealing to the federal and cantonal authorities to change the rules to make it easier for refugees to access the Swiss university system.

Most refugees are said to have pursued or finished tertiary studies in their home country before reaching Switzerland.

Foreign qualifications refugees hold do not qualify them to access the Swiss job market which means they must take up a recognised Swiss university course or training.

Multiple obstacles still stand in their way however, such as high standards of language proficiency making it difficult for young refugees to study here.

The students’ union is asking for publicly funded courses to be reintroduced and are also calling for the availability of grants for refugees to cover the costs of accommodation during study.

India: Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh warns academics to guard their freedoms

Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, warned academics to guard their freedoms from the threat posed to independent thinking and free expression.

He also urged authorities to guard their free will as well as students’ right to express disagreement.

Singh said that every university must give its students the freedom to pursue knowledge, even when that knowledge may oppose established intellectual and social traditions.

On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the former PM touched on the threat from the rise in neo-nationalism across the world and the tendency for direct hatred against backward classes and minorities.

Singh stressed that true nationalism is found where students and citizens are encouraged to think and speak freely.

At the 200th founder’s day programme of Presidency university, Manmohan Singh said: “Recent attempts to interfere with free expression of the student community in Hyderabad Central university and Jawaharlal Nehru university are of particular concern. Attempts to suppress peaceful dissent are not only inimical to learning, they are also undemocratic.”