2022-05-25 17:04:59
Human rights are low on the agenda for governments ruling in many countries that are important source markets for international students. Sophie Hogan asks what the international education sector should be considering when collaborating with countries with poor human rights track records.
The international education industry is, by definition, a global operation. Countries across the world exchange students, knowledge and research, and the benefits of these exchanges can be felt in every corner of learning. However, these exchanges sometimes happen with countries that have poor track records when it comes to human rights – yet some of these countries have a large share of the international student market.
So, the question remains: is the sector turning a blind eye to these countries’ shortcomings in order to maximise their markets’ effects on the sector? And, if that is the case, what can and should be done, if anything?
The Canada-Saudi case
On August 3, 2018, Canada’s foreign policy twitter account sent out a tweet that would shatter its reputation in the eyes of Saudi Arabia for years to come.
"Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia… we urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them," the tweet read.
The response from the Saudi government was swift – the ambassador to Saudi Arabia for Canada, Dennis Horak, was made to leave the country within 24 hours.
Perhaps the biggest blow from an industrial point of view was to the Canadian international student body. Saudi Arabia pulled out more than 12,000 students and family members who were residing and studying in Canada at the time.
Many of these students were reportedly transferred to other countries.
The Canadian Broadcasting Company allowed a Saudi student, who was in Canada at the time, to write an op-ed on his "five stages of grief" about being, essentially, kicked out of the country he had grown to love.
"At first I thought, okay, that’s none of my business – diplomatic conflicts happen all the time," the student wrote.
"A couple of days later, my friend sent me another Twitter screenshot from the SACB in Canada: ‘To all students and trainees, sponsored and non-sponsored… all students are required to end all ties in Canada and return to the Kingdom within one month.
"I’ve lived in Canada for years, there’s no way I can end all my ties in one month."
That transfer of students was confirmed when the article’s author received an email telling him that Saudi cultural offices around the world were "making arrangements for a seamless transition" to other countries.
"So are we now some cargo that needs to be shipped internationally?" he added.
The fallout brought into question that evaluation of human rights record, versus the real world consequences for students from those countries going somewhere different for, sometimes, a better life, and an unmissable international student experience.
"How much academic freedom do you need if you’re an electrical engineer?"
The definition of human rights
Peter Brady, an international education advisor with experience in ethics, essentially says institutions need to think about what the idea of human rights really means.
"It’s not as straightforward as you think," Brady tells The PIE Review.
"You see 'human rights', and, Amnesty International have a list of all the human rights abuses and issues. But these are very based on the concept of individual human rights.
"In some cultures, that’s not actually an issue – it’s not about individual rights, they work differently – so if you are doing an ethical review, I think you have to really assess yourself and look at ethnocentricity so you’re not looking at another culture through your eyes and judging it," he explains.
He gives the example of China, where the issue of academic freedom is especially brought into focus.
"In Chinese universities, you have the vice chancellor – but at the same level you have a party chief who has to make sure the university is conforming to the rule of the Chinese government – a.k.a, working on behalf of Chinese society," Brady says.
He muses then, about what that means regarding academic freedom as a process, even breaking it down by faculty.
"How much academic freedom do you need if you’re an electrical engineer, if you’re a physicist? The notion of autonomy in China is a different concept in the sciences; they see themselves as being able to work, and check in within the university towards a common goal," he explains.
In 2018, the IPI Global Observatory looked again at that all-important concept of human rights. Is it, in essence, a western concept?
"Some argue that human rights emanate from a European, Judeo-Christian heritage – typically labelled Western – and cannot be enjoyed by other cultures that don’t emulate the conditions and values of 'Western' societies," it read.
While examining these countries outside of this Western sphere with a fine toothcomb, as Brady pointed out, there is a need to examine our own view of what human rights really represent.
Massive markets, poorer records
When talking about the biggest outbound markets in international education, there are two countries that instantly come to mind: China and India.
While these markets fuel a large portion of mobility in the sector, their human rights violations are recorded and often talked about in international news.
In its 2022 World Report, Human Rights Watch found that Indian authorities "intensified their crackdown" on journalists and activists who criticise the government – with prosecutions often being labelled as "politically motivated" – as well as accusations that the government failed to provide "adequate healthcare" as tens of thousands died of Covid.
"The Indian authorities have given up any appearance of tolerating dissent and are using the machinery of the state to silence critics," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of the HRW, said in a statement after the release of the report.
China has a wealth of accusations on its roster; the most infamous of late being the government and army’s treatment of Uyghur muslims on the far-west border in Xinjiang. Also worrying activists is the Xi administration’s crippling hold on state media, as well as the recent issues in Hong Kong.
Saudi Arabia’s oppression of women, despite reforms in recent years, still concerns governments across the world – and of course, their treatment of activists worried Canada so much it severed their ties altogether.
But these countries are most certainly not alone. One only has to check the list on HRW’s website to see that human rights abuses have occurred in over 100 countries worldwide – and only two years ago Amnesty International found that 60 countries had committed such abuses during the pandemic.
TNE’s role
There are hundreds of thousands of students at university campuses set up by UK, Irish, and US universities – just the tip of the iceberg – in countries like China, Malaysia, the UAE and more.
"We’re in the market to survive," Ben Tonra, former VP for internationalisation and global engagement at University College Dublin, tells The PIE Review.
"This is the only strategy [universities] have available to them to generate cash – that is, students paying international fees, and bringing our education overseas to attract international students and generate international sales," Tonra explains.
Partly, Tonra says, working with these countries in such a way means "we have almost failed", something he includes himself in.
"We haven’t held our ground – we have allowed the managers to take control, and that is partly on us," he admits.
However, that doesn’t absolve the actions of some of these managers for their decisions to work with these countries, without due process.
Tonra is firm about one thing – that rules are rules, and need to be rules wherever you are in the world.
"The bottom line is that you have to apply the same standards at the overseas campus as you apply on the domestic campus. If you don’t you’re in serious trouble, because it’s your academics who are on the front line and who are being made vulnerable," he says.
Brady’s points about the difference in subject also factor in on overseas campuses – and that academics have to be vigilant about influences from overseas governments.
"The truth of the matter is that your teaching needs to not be in any way controlled because it is science, or engineering, or business studies – you make sure that doesn’t happen.
"In the bigger pictures, it comes down to people having different metrics for different things – for example, Australia questions the way Confucius Institutes are funded or operate, but some student groups could be funded by defence manufacturers and the like – you have to find out why these people have these metrics," Brady explains.
The Ukraine question
A more recent violation of human rights that has been seen, and caused a furore in the sector with it, is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which commenced in February after weeks of tension in the region.
Universities rushed to heavily condemn the attacks across Ukraine; Universities UK described the invasion as "appalling", and NAFSA called it a "shameful act of aggression".
One notable departure from such unequivocal language was UCD – where Tonra was VP of international and global engagement, and still teaches as a professor.
He quit the post, he said, because of their "anxiety to make a strong statement".
"They were anxious not to lest they were expected to maintain that kind of strength of response in any subsequent international controversy and China was specifically mentioned – we are quite heavily exposed to that market," Tonra says.
He relents that on one hand, commenting on a country’s each and every pitfall would be counter-intuitive, but the fact that Ukraine was given less of a mention by the university "lest they be held to the same standard" on China put the final nail in the coffin.
This begs the question; do universities need to take these sorts of stances, and should they? Or should politics be on the back-burner in educational establishments? Can it even be that way?
Examining the specific situation, Brady says, was more likely the best way to approach such things.
"I don’t think there is much of a difference with Ukraine – there is an actual situation, and there can be a government mentality that comes into play. For many universities, ties with Russia can be quite small rate, depending on where you are, so it’s much easier to take that economic hit than some other countries universities can be involved with," Brady explains.
"There’s not really a lot people can do to completely pull out of somewhere like China"
Where do we go from here?
With all these factors in play, the question still remains: what should managers, academics, agents… anyone in our sector be doing to continue uplifting the message that human rights are an important factor when working with other countries?
Before he left his VP post, Tonra was working on a document on just that; concentrating on academic freedom and ethics in international partnerships.
"I can’t see if it’s ever going to be implanted, but it actually sets out a scheme of how a university can approach it. It’s at least, the beginnings of good practice," Tonra says.
The ethical review, Brady insists, is the way forward for university partnerships, TNE campuses and general relations alike.
"There’s not really a lot people can do to sort of completely pull out of somewhere like China.
"Essentially, you spend a little bit of time to really cement these partnerships, but make sure it’s done with the consideration of ethics in mind. You going into a country should never be making it worse, and, in most cases, educating local people will not be making it worse," he says.
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