Page 58 - EducationWorld March 2023

International News

gramme and spent at least five years doing research there.
While the programme attracted high-calibre talent, it
failed to draw the star researchers China hopes to entice,
the researchers found. Those who turned down YTT offers
had larger annual research grants abroad -- with an average
of £25,300 (Rs.25 lakh) compared with their peers’ £3,700.
“For the very best researchers who have opportunities
to receive funding and build up their own research pro-
grammes overseas, the YTT programme is much less at-
tractive than (it was) to researchers who had capability, but
not the funding to pursue independent research overseas,”
Dr. Wang told Times Higher Education. The findings also
suggest that, once they returned home, some YTT scientists
struggled to “reintegrate into China’s academia”, causing
their research output to slow down. And once funding and Moraa Educational Complex, Kabul: forced to shutter
team size were controlled for, YTT scientists “barely outper-
formed (overseas counterparts) in terms of publications,” ticipate in protests against Beijing’” but could also imply
according to the study. that students should develop local communist groups and
But Dr. Wang doesn’t believe that the finding bodes ill “mobilise” other Chinese citizens overseas or even engage
for the programme. “Instead, this finding suggests that the in industrial espionage, he said, noting that the last would
effectiveness of the YTT programme reflects both the mer- “seriously harm the democracy and academic environment
its (and) strength of China’s talent recruitment initiations of hosting countries”.
as well as the weakness (and) structural problems in the
current scientific funding schemes in the US and the EU,” AFGHANISTAN
he says. Varsities downing shutters

Loyalty oath row THE MAJORITY OF AFGHANISTAN’S PRIVATE
universities face imminent closure, with their in-
CHOLARS HAVE EXPRESSED CONCERN ABOUT comes having plunged following the Taliban’s de-
allegations that Chinese Ph D students have been cision to ban women from higher education. The country’s
Srequired to sign oaths of loyalty to the country’s union of private universities said in December that the ban
government in return for funding. Chinese doctoral stu- could force 35 out of 140 institutions with 70,000 female
dents enrolled at several Swedish institutions with support students on their rolls, to shutter doors. But academics say
from the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) are required to the actual number of closures is likely to be much higher,
sign contracts swearing loyalty to the Chinese Communist with some suggesting that the union may have come under
Party and pledging to act in their nation’s interests, reports pressure from the Taliban to provide a low estimate.
the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. A clause specifying that Several researchers speaking with Times Higher Educa-
a member of the student’s family should remain in China tion believed that the recent ban on women in universities
until their return has aroused particular concern, with the is likely to be the “last straw” for the majority of private
prestigious Karolinska Institute subsequently imposing a institutions. Before the ban, women made up roughly 30
temporary bar on enrolments under CSC scholarships. percent of Afghanistan’s university students, across public
Yu-Hua Chen, assistant professor in China studies at Ja- and private universities. But the number of female students
pan’s Akita International University, says having to agree at some private institutions was much higher.
to such contracts in return for funding is “usual practice” Already, there have been reports of several universities
in China. However, he notes the country had become more shutting down. The Moraa Educational Complex, which
zealous in controlling the actions and statements of its includes a female-only university in Kabul, has allegedly
citizens abroad under Xi Jinping, with the early signs of closed all but one of its faculties. At the Afghan Swiss Uni-
change evident around 2013. Since then Chinese students versity, the medical faculty is closed to all students, while
began to avoid participating in discussions related to the the faculties of medicine at Dawat University and Khatam
South China Sea disputes or over the treatment of Uyghur Al-Nabieen University — both have large numbers of wom-
minorities in Xinjiang. en students — have informed their students that they will
Dr. Chen says Western universities would do well to pay be forced to shutter if the situation continues.
more attention to the issue, cautioning that the expectation Although male students whose universities close may be
of loyalty expressed in the documents could be a “moving able to continue their studies elsewhere in the country, no
target”. “It could contain a passive meaning like ‘never par- such option exists for Afghan women. They have been shut

60 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2023