Page 60 - EducationWorld August 2022

International News

UNITED STATES missions protocols at selective private schools in the United
Affirmative action ban fear States is essentially a symbolic discourse,” says Mitchell

Stevens, professor of education at Stanford University. The
number of affected students is “statistically trivial”.
But in states with top-ranked public institutions, admis-
sion preferences still carry real weight. A nationwide study
earlier this year by University of California, Los Angeles,
researchers examining public medical schools, found that
among states that ended affirmative action, the proportion
of students from under-represented racial groups fell by
more than a third within five years of their ban.
A nationwide rejection of affirmative action in admis-
sions by the Supreme Court might however intensify pres-
sure on US higher education institutions to take other
important steps in the direction of racial and economic
equity, says Dr. Hirschman. Those actions could include
selective universities growing in size or adopting a lottery
system among all applicants who meet a particular eligibil-
US Supreme Court: conservative majority concerns ity threshold, he suggests.
THE RECENTLY RECONSTITUTED US Supreme CHINA
Court is widely expected to rule against affirma- Foreign students returning slowly
tive action in university admissions in the wake
of its decision to end half a century of legalised abortion RECENT WEEKS HAVE BROUGHT SIGNS THAT
nationwide. In January, the nation’s top court announced China could be — slowly — starting to let in over-
that it would review affirmative admission cases involving seas students shut out of the country for over two
Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, years.
with a verdict likely next summer. On June 20, Li Jiming, China’s ambassador to Bangla-
This declaration of intent has raised concern that the desh, announced that China is planning to allow interna-
court plans to use its 6-3 conservative majority to prohibit tional students to return, stating that Bangladeshis would be
race-based preferences in college admissions. “The current “first in line”. That same day, Pakistan’s education minister
court has clearly shown its willingness to directly overturn Rana Tanveer, accompanied more than 100 China-bound
past precedents to achieve conservative policy goals, and students — the first batch from Pakistan — to the airport in
I don’t see why this case would be different,” says Daniel Islamabad ahead of their flight back.
Hirschman, assistant professor of sociology at Cornell Uni- Yet halfway through 2022, foreign students hoping to
versity. return to China seem, by and large, to be in the same boat
In the past, the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld they were in when the year began: no closer to returning to
the basic principle of affirmative action. Last year lower their disrupted studies. At a time when much of the world
courts ruled that Harvard and North Carolina universities is moving into pandemic recovery mode, loosening border
were entitled to consider race when assessing a student for restrictions and mask mandates, China has opened the door
admission as part of wider efforts to create diverse campus barely a crack. Of the nearly 500,000 international students
communities. in the country before Covid, only a small fraction have re-
But unlike the Supreme Court reversal on abortion — turned. And that’s not about to change any time soon, say
which went against the position backed by a majority of analysts.
Americans – the idea of prohibiting affirmative action is “We don’t believe this year will witness a surging inflow
politically popular. In 2020, voters in California – despite of international students. We see no signals of loosening
it being one of the most left-leaning states in the country – (the) zero-Covid policy,” says Claudia Wang, a partner in
decisively rejected a bid to restore affirmative action in its Oliver Wyman, a Hong Kong-based education consultancy.
public university system. Such votes show that Americans “That means there will still be strict quarantine provisions
strongly support the idea of a meritocracy, and mistakenly and the international air routes capacity will not fully re-
believe their nation already is one, “despite overwhelming cover.” Yet she is positive about Chinese universities’ re-
evidence to the contrary,” says Hirschman. silience. “I’m not too worried (in the) mid-to-long run, as
Affirmative action is also often dismissed as a relatively long as China improves the whole ecosystem supporting
minor issue, given that highly competitive institutions enrol international students,” she adds.
only a small percentage of US students. “Debate about ad- But those hoping for a speedy return may be disappoint-

60 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022