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| UNSW has a large International Student Population |
Reading Rizvi’s Chapter on ‘Education and Its
Cosmopolitan Possibilities’, there is certainly a direct correlation between
some of the points Rizvi raises and University. Like my previous blog which
referred to education for minorities within Indonesia, this blog will try to
look at how tertiary education is used as a way to create a divide within
developing nations and how Australia is actively involved in creating this divide.
Rizvi writes that ‘Both Britain and France invested heavily in creating
educational systems in the countries they colonized’ (Rizvi, 103-104). This was
done for the sole purpose of promoting the benefits and powers of the
controlling country and establishing loyalty. As Rizvi writes, ‘knowledge was
constructed in a particular way which portrayed the native as simple and
inferior’ (Rizvi, 104). After reading my previous blog you might ask whether or
not these attitudes still exist in the developing world. However this is really
going against what Rizvi is trying to put out. Rizvi it seems supports what she
refers to as the ancient Greek mode of thinking of ‘citizens of the world’ or
‘those who considered humankind as more important than their own state or
native land’ (Rizvi, 105). With a globally connected world where ‘the volume
and speed of intercultural exchange has increased at an unprecedented rate’
Rizvi commented that ‘never before has there been a greater need of
intercultural understanding and communication’ (Rizvi, 114). The question now
is are Universities the place where this happens or are they actually a method
that harks back to the historical colonizer using its system to show strength
over the ‘inferior other’. In an article in The
Sydney Morning Herald on October 15th 2012, Michael Short makes
mention that tertiary education is ‘Australia’s third biggest export earner’
and is being ‘driven by... an abundant middle class... pronounced in China and
India.’ Along with this is the competition worldwide for these foreign students
with Short commenting that ‘foreign competitors are experimenting with...
courses for a fraction of the price charged by Australian institutions’ and ‘
brands as strong as Harvard [and] Stanford... are starting to offer accredited
and assessed courses online’ in order to
get a piece of the Asian pie. The language used by this article, ‘competitors,
institutions, competition’, makes me slightly uncomfortable because it
highlights how Universities, including ours, perhaps aren’t seeing foreigners
as a way to promote Rizvi’s idea of cosmopolitanism but rather as a way to fill
their own coffers. So essentially is the ideal of cosmopolitanism getting lost
through our participation in a market economy? Are International students now just a commodity?
References:
Rizvi, F. (2008). Education and Its Cosmopolitan
Possibilities. In B. Lingard, J.Nixon & S. Ranson (Eds.), Transforming Learning in Schools and
Communities: The Remaking of Education for a Cosmopolitan Society (pp.
101-116). London: Continuum
HI Lucas,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog to reiterate my own ideas about Rizvi's romanticised notion of cosmopolitanism and further put the effects of the commodification of education into perspective. I believe that sheer amount of revenue that AUstralia makes from selling international education is hindering true cosmopolitanism and I agree with you that the act of placing such high monetary value on education further enforces the discourse of the hegemonic powers in the world. Through selling education at such a high price, colonial ideology is reintroduced as it is the previously colonised countries that our purchasing the education, reiterating the political and economic power of the west. I found an article which examines UNSW's predicament of too many international med students and not enough funding for placement. To me this suggest that UNSW interest was solely in the $300,000 revenue from university fees of international students and not about integrating cultural into the society.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1698649/Doctor-shortfall-looming-in-Australia
The flip side of the educational capital exchange is also interesting in terms of the pit falls of Cosmopolitanism. From the perspective of the foreign student purchasing the international education I do not think it culture interconnectivity that is the motivation, yet personal economic opportunity and gain. So in answer to your question, essentially is the ideal of cosmopolitanism getting lost through our participation in a market economy? Yes. I believe the high economic benefit from both the consumer and the producer is hindering the true form of cosmopolitanism