Page 76 - Education World November 2022

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RUSSIA tions would also benefit from an exemption, their earlier
Draft Damocles sword exclusion sent a message, says Chirikov.

THE WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS
China science superpower

HINESE UNIVERSITIES ARE CLOSING IN ON
US global dominance of higher education, but in-
Cternationalisation has proved to be a weak link for
the Asian superpower, according to the latest edition of the
Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings. The
biggest global ranking to date reveals that the research su-
premacy of American universities is waning, in part because
of a growing gap in output between elite universities and
the rest.
When it comes to research quality, as measured by ci-
tations, China is catching up. Over the past year, China’s
average score for citations increased significantly, from
Russian university students: war exemption status 55.6 to 58.0; in the same period, the US score dropped
slightly, from 70.0 to 69.4 (based on universities ranked
FEARS OF A BROADER DRAFT COULD BE USED in both years). Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong
to suppress opposition to the Ukraine war and fur- University, the third and fourth highest-scoring universities
ther limit free speech on Russian campuses, giving in China, respectively, increased their overall score signifi-
universities a “powerful tool” to silence potential dissenters. cantly this year, driven largely by robust performances on
To date, the Kremlin has said it is drafting only reservists to citations.
fight in Ukraine, with the presidential decree explicitly ex- The US has 34 universities in the Top 100, down from 38
empting students at public universities. But there’s anxiety last year (2021) and 41 five years ago. China, meanwhile, has
that more young recruits — including those with no combat boosted its representation with seven universities in the Top
history — could soon be tapped as Russian losses mount. 100, up from six last year and three five years ago. The Chi-
While university students are expected to remain exempt nese government has consistently invested in higher educa-
from Russia’s obligatory year-long military service, the war tion and research and development for more than 20 years,
effort has increased the risk for students who step out of with funding specifically targeted at developing world-class
line, warn academics. “If you’re expelled, you go straight to universities, training scholars at top institutions in the West
the army… the universities now have an extremely power- and building capacity in China.
ful tool to pressure students indulging in social or politi- Wei Zhang, associate professor at the University of
cal activities,” says Anna Lyubimtseva, coordinator of the Leicester and an expert on higher education in China, says
Freedom Degree project, which fields queries from Russian the country is now “unequivocally” a science superpower.
students facing dismissal. “The quality of research output sourced from China is catch-
Institutions could use the threat of conscription not only ing up with the US and will continue the upward trend.
to stifle students’ criticism of the war, but also to maintain China’s concerted efforts and actions have paved its way to
control over “basically everything which will make an im- transform the global publishing landscape,” she says.
pact on universities’ image”, she adds. But the picture is not entirely rosy for the Asian power-
Igor Chirikov, senior researcher at the Center for Studies house. The rankings data also reveal that internationalisa-
in Higher Education at the University of California, Berke- tion is proving a weak link, with all four measures of the
ley, says with an ongoing war, “the stakes are much higher” activity reflecting a decline. China’s average score for inter-
for young men. “The danger of being mobilised is still there national outlook dropped from 34.1 last year to 32.6, based
for students, which is why a lot of them prefer to flee the on all Chinese universities ranked in 2022 and 2023; the
country, despite assurances,” he says. country’s average score for international students slipped
Dr. Chirikov says that inside and between institutions, from 33.9 to 32.4, international co-authorship from 24.0 to
mobilisation has created rifts. Distance learners are not cov- 22.5, and international staff from 44.3 to 43.0.
ered under the exemption for public university students, for Simon Marginson, director of the Centre for Global
example. More than 300,000 students at private universi- Higher Education at Oxford University posits that as Chi-
ties are also not exempt under the September 21 order. But nese scientists and doctoral students have become less wel-
while Russia’s defence ministry agreed to broaden the scope come in some countries than they used to be, “it is likely
of the exemption on October 1, saying that private institu- that sooner or later, higher education in China will (be) less

76 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022