Dr. Michael Woolf: Presentation Transcript University Politics in an Age of Paradox: The Question of Internationalization An Age of Paradox I will start with an assertion that you may well want to challenge. We live in an age of paradox where borders are both more and less significant. Militant parochialism, leading to the re-enforcement of borders, is an emergent force in global politics. Development of radical nationalism in many contexts is symbolized by the construction of real and metaphorical walls. These reflect a retreat from internationalist or cosmopolitan values. Like the border, they exist to keep the world out and the parochial within (the USA, the UK, Hungary, Myanmar, the Czech Republic and so on and so forth). Simultaneously, borders are increasingly redundant. Technology means that we all know more about each other now that at any time in history. We are no longer strangers in a strange land unless we make the ideological choice of isolation. Borders are also of little or no significance when it comes to environmental degradation. They keep nothing in and nothing out. Climate change recognizes no borders. The notion of community is no longer constrained by geography— “Friend” is no longer defined by proximity. In terms of intellectual exchange, borders do not constrain the development of knowledge or research. 1
Dr. Michael Woolf: Presentation Transcript Open and Closed Ideologies This paradox has created a new ideological divide; the collision of grand narratives of recent history, the great isms that saw conflict between communism, fascism, and liberalism as the core causes of fractures in international politics, have become less and less significant. The collision of interests that created the Cold War have less and less resonance for us, and even less for the students we teach. Instead, the global political momentum apparent in 2019 signifies an ominous erosion of internationalist ethics. Militant, radical parochialism is increasingly strident, perhaps as a reaction to perceived impacts of globalisation as an alien dynamic that erodes national identities. Closed world views conflict with open world views. This is not a new concept. In 1945, Karl Popper analysed the tyranny of closed narratives in The Open Society and Its Enemies . The open world view he describes is inclusive and, most importantly, resists totalitarian militancy. Written between 1938 and 1943, Popper’s thinking evolved against the backdrop of a cataclysmic conflict. He argued that: This civilization has not yet fully recovered from the shock of its birth – the transition from the tribal or “closed society”, with its submission to magical forces, to the “open society” which sets free the critical powers of man. 2
Dr. Michael Woolf: Presentation Transcript The rise of militant parochialism, a “magical force” against the impacts of international and global dynamics, recreates a dichotomy between closed ideologies and open ideals. International Agendas at University It is apparent that universities have a choice that is simple and unavoidable. The purpose of any university is to serve the region, of course but, what constitutes the region has expanded and indeed exploded. Most of us would recognize that institutions best serve their region, however you might define it, by alignment with open rather than closed ideologies. Universities are not politically neutral. At the most basic level we believe in reading books rather than burning them. We recognize that knowledge has no boundaries. The poet John Donne’s axiom is entirely relevant “No man is an island.” No university either. International commitments are critical to universities. To relegate international education to a peripheral role is not the absence of action, it is a political action that signals parochialism; a rejection of contemporary realities and alignment with ideologies of isolation. This resonates with one of the criteria outlined in The National Survey of Student Engagement , “Reflective and integrative learning.” To achieve this, the survey suggests, students need to “make connections between their learning and the world around them.” That world is wider than neighborhood, broader than nation. A simple way to demonstrate 3
Dr. Michael Woolf: Presentation Transcript this to students is to ask them to look at the labels on their clothing. They are wearing the world as well as living in it. Our view is, however, inevitably conditioned by time. Each generation tends to believe that the present represents some kind of culmination of development; history, in this view, is progressive leading to the uniqueness of the present. That is, of course, an illusion. The academy has long seen the value of scholastic mobility. Erasmus taught at Cambridge from 1510 to 1514 and complained about the beer. Galileo taught mathematics at the University of Padova between 1592 and 1610. His fame attracted students from Jagellonian University in Krakow Poland. They complained about their housing and the Rector of Padova University complained that they drank too much. So, some things do not change that much. However, we operate on a different scale and in an environment where travel between Krakow and Padova is somewhat easier than it was in the sixteenth century, except on British Airways. Isolation is, for the most part and for most of us, not defined by geographical location. It is an ideological choice, a political action. In Karl Popper’s terms, its opposite is “the ‘open society’ which sets free the critical powers of man.” The politics of universities, often implicit rather than explicit, are aligned almost inevitably with open ideologies: we believe in the production and dissemination of knowledge; we believe that engagement with the unfamiliar is enriching; we believe that unexamined stereotypes are a form of prejudice. These are actions that are international in theory and practice. 4
Dr. Michael Woolf: Presentation Transcript An International Strategy The degree to which universities commit to an international strategy is a matter of aspiration, imagination, capacity and resources – human and financial. An international agenda, in any case, depends upon some level of integration of areas of action; each supports and strengthens the other. The mobility of people and ideas are critical in this process. The constituent elements are manifest in a number of ways including: a) Empowering faculty to establish transnational research relationships through physical and virtual mobility. b) Recruiting faculty from other countries so as to bring fresh perspectives into the intellectual life of the university. c) Bringing foreign students to the campus for full-degree and shorter-term study so as to bring the world into the classroom. d) Creating meaningful opportunities for students to study abroad in a manner that truly enhances their education. e) Reviewing curriculum to integrate international perspectives as far as possible (e.g. A course on The Vietnam War also needs to consider the alternative perspective war of Franco-American aggression. In studying the War of Independence, you might consider that, for us Brits, Benny Arnold is a patriot much maligned by unruly rebels). Considering, therefore, how parochial assumptions may be embeded in courses. 5
Dr. Michael Woolf: Presentation Transcript An integrated agenda includes mobility of faculty, staff and students and, critically, internationalization at home. Not all members of the university community can travel but international people and themes can be brought on to the campus. Let me spend a moment considering the question of the recruitment of international/foreign students which is sometimes contentious. There is no contradiction between serving the needs of local students and recruiting them from other countries. Indeed, if these students are supported effectively, they will enrich the learning environment by bringing the world into the classroom. We will though need to take a rather more nuanced approach to the notion of “international” students. “International” is an administrative category not a human one. No students come from a place called “international”; nor do students go there (wherever it is) to study. In short, the needs, of French, Indian, Chinese (or wherever) students are not the same. Provision of support needs to recognize the specificity of need. That said, there are significant institutional benefits to be gained by recruiting these students and giving them satisfactory educational and social experiences. a) They form national alumni associations who have positive perceptions of the institution, region and nation. This is a form of effective soft diplomacy. (Numbers?) 6
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