Page 58 - Education World September 2021

International News

UNITED STATES Prof. Rajagopal, who will remain professor of physics
edX sale row at MIT, declined to comment. However, in an email sent

to colleagues on the day the sale was announced, he says:
“There is… broad agreement on the positive and negative
aspects of this particular deal with 2U. However, when I add
up the pros and cons, I have serious continuing reservations
about the path forward for edX that MIT has announced.”
CHINA
Mental health initiative

CHINA IS SET TO BECOME ONE OF THE first
countries to make mental health a compulsory
credit-bearing module for all undergraduate stu-
dents, in a sign of growing concern over the issue. But
experts are doubtful about whether this initiative offers a
genuine solution
MIT’s Krishna Rajagopal (left) and 2U’s Christopher Paucek A notice from the ministry of education puts mental
health on a par with other compulsory courses such as
THE DEAN OF DIGITAL LEARNING AT THE English and Marxist theory, and states that 32-36 hours
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has per semester should be dedicated to tuition. Student advis-
resigned as a staff revolt against the sale of non- ers should also pursue Masters degree in psychology, the
profit online course platform edX to for-profit competi- notice says.
tor 2U grows. Krishna Rajagopal, who has announced his Concern has been growing about the well-being of Chi-
departure, told colleagues that he had “serious continuing na’s students, particularly in the wake of lengthy lockdowns
reservations about the path forward for edX that MIT has that have confined undergrads to campuses. Meanwhile,
announced”. Meanwhile, many of his colleagues have vowed a 2018 study by Renmin University of China and Beijing
to create a new non-profit alternative platform to distribute Institute of Technology found just 36 percent of surveyed
their courses online. students were very satisfied with the mental health educa-
MIT created edX with Harvard University and developed tion they receive and that a mere 31 percent of mental health
it to have 160 partner institutions serving nearly 40 million teachers had degrees in psychology-related subjects.
students — many of them overseas — only to acknowledge While many institutions already provide mental health
that the idea of providing elite-level courses at no charge courses, action is needed to improve their quality, the re-
would struggle for financial sustainability. searchers argue. Ye Liu, senior lecturer in international
But selling the platform to 2U for $800 million (Rs.5,942 development at King’s College London, says she doubts
crore) was blasted by several MIT faculty as a betrayal by that a compulsory course could solve the challenges facing
the institution’s president L. Rafael Reif. “This will seed the China’s youth. “The ‘compulsory course’ does not identify
deplorable, reprehensible industry of for-profit education the roots of youth anxiety, such as academic pressure (and)
in the United States,” says Susan Silbey, MIT professor of toxic competitiveness. Moreover, this approach fails to take
sociology and management. into consideration the specific demographic groups who are
Others who declared their distress over the sale — and more likely to experience mental health issues in univer-
promised to leave edX for the planned faculty-organised sity,” she says.
alternative — include Esther Duflo, MIT’s Nobel prize-win- One survey of nearly 13,000 postgraduates at the Uni-
ning professor of poverty alleviation and development eco- versity of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), published
nomics. Prof. Duflo says the free distribution of MIT courses earlier this year, found that 35.5 percent of participants
over edX had helped many students abroad in recent years showed signs of depression, and 60.1 percent were expe-
— including some who later took regular MIT classes — and riencing anxiety.
that such work did not now appear “compatible with” edX’s
apparent mission under the control of 2U. FRANCE
Christopher Paucek, chief executive and co-founder of Historians protest censorship
2U, says he has seen an “overwhelmingly positive response”
from edX and 2U partners. 2U, which will benefit from the FRENCH HISTORIANS HAVE RAISED THE
creation of a combined entity with access to more than 50 alarm that a new terrorism and intelligence law
million students worldwide, has committed to “guarantee- will stop the release of state military and security
ing affordability” through the use of free courses. archival documents, amid accusations that elements in the

58 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021