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International News

challenges” forced some offshore students to drop subjects,
“which ultimately also reduced international revenue.”
Many universities also charged less to students left
stranded in their home countries. The University of
Queensland, for example, says it has offered a “rebate” to its
offshore students during the pandemic “as they were unable
to access the benefits of an on-campus student experience”.
Murdoch University has been offering a 20 percent “wel-
come back” scholarship to many international students, ac-
cording to vice chancellor Andrew Deeks, who says Mur-
doch is now reviewing this approach. He says international
recruitment had hit record levels in 2023 “and that trend is
continuing this year.”
President Lula: wage increases & scholarships
BRAZIL
Return to normalcy this year as a result.
Jean Wyllys, an academic and former congressman,
HIGH-PROFILE “EXILED” ACADEMICS HAVE whose decision to leave Brazil in 2019 was hailed as a “great
returned to Brazil after a “change in atmosphere” day” by Bolsonaro himself, has returned to the country, as
in the year since Jair Bolsonaro lost the presidency. has Marcia Tiburi, a philosophy professor who fled to Paris
But the polarised country could now face strikes as higher after receiving online death threats from right-wing groups.
education continues to suffer from years of underfunding. Dawisson Lopes, a professor of international and com-
Hampered by a hostile legislature and spending restric- parative politics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais,
tions, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — known as Lula — has who spent part of the Bolsonaro years in the UK, says many
struggled to implement many concrete reforms since re- academics had felt the need to leave Brazil because of the
turning to the presidency in January 2023, but researchers “critically inhospitable conditions for research” and politi-
say his pro-education stance and commitment to science cisation of teaching. “I returned because the political atmo-
has left them feeling more secure than under his predeces- sphere was changing in the country, so it was safe for me
sor. “For science, technology and education, there is a peri- and my family to come back to Brazil. When I say safe, I do
od of calm that we did not see during the last government,” mean physical safety,” he says.
says Marcelo Knobel, professor of physics and former rector Bolsonaro has been barred from standing in 2026, but
of the University of Campinas (Unicamp). “The people who the ideology he inspired will continue to be a force in the
are in charge of the main agencies, the ministers, they are country, with some suggesting his wife, Michelle, might be
serious people who believe in science and higher education. convinced to run. Prof. Lopes says that whatever happened,
At the same time, not many changes can be made. It is very public universities should be taking steps to shield them-
hard to negotiate in the legislative houses, there is a lack selves against any further political or economic shocks.
of money, and it is very difficult to introduce new discus- “The Brazilian system is still over-reliant on public mon-
sions and ideas in this climate of constant polarisation,” ey. This is a problem we have to tackle in the coming years.
says Knobel. I don’t mean public money should be taken away, but it
Many universities were unable to pay for basic necessi- is time for Brazilian universities to start diversifying their
ties due to budget cuts during Bolsonaro’s term and uni- sources of funding. I don’t see any future for universities
versity lecturers and professors have seen their pay frozen that are so reliant on public funds,” says Lopes.
since 2016. In his first year, Lula handed academics a 9
percent wage increase and upped the funding for Masters CHINA
and Ph D scholarships in an attempt to stem the declining CCP takes charge
number of postgraduate students. Hiring freezes imposed
on universities were also lifted and some saw their budgets CHINA’S MOVE TO TAKE MORE DIRECT con-
begin to recover. trol of university governance is likely to presage a
But Lula’s government has signalled that no further pay further crackdown on academic freedom, experts
rises will come this year, instead proposing a 9 percent in- warn. University presidents have long complained of a lack
crease over the next two years as well as increasing other of autonomy stemming from the influence of government-
allowances. Lola Aronovich, a literature professor at the appointed party secretaries on campuses, but these parallel
Federal University of Ceara, says that while academics wel- governance structures are now being merged in institutions
come movement after the long freeze, it was “not enough to across the country.
cover what we lost” and cautions that there could be strikes Tsinghua University issued a notice in February an-

62 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2024