Page 60 - Education World September 2021

International News

£688,000 (Rs.7.05 crore) and £519,000 in dividends and
pay from the college, which currently charges annual tuition
fees of up to £9,250 (Rs.9.42 lakh).
Overall, the school, whose students received £2.9 million
(Rs.29.73 crore) in tuition fee loans and £7 million (Rs.71.7
crore) in maintenance support (from government) in 2019-
20, recorded an after-tax profit of £5.9 million on its £27.6
million (Rs.282 crore) turnover that year.
At BPP University, which enjoyed a 19 percent profit
margin (£17.9 million) on its £94 million (Rs.963 crore)
turnover, vice chancellor Tim Stewart received £372,985
(Rs.3.8 crore) in salary, bonus and benefits, although its
unnamed highest paid director also received £294,000 in
qualifying services as part of £1.2 million (Rs.12.3 crore)
paid to directors. President Ilham Aliyev (right) & vice president Mehriban Aliyeva
In its accounts, BPP University, whose students claimed
£10.2 million (Rs.104.5 crore) in postgraduate loan support applicants are awarded scholarships to study in Azerbaijan
that year, and its holding company said they received £1.3 and the wider region.
million in government coronavirus grants. The focus of the centre is on the history, culture and
This bumper payout follows controversy over high pay languages of the region, but some topics are more contem-
for university vice-chancellors, despite some taking pan- porary — in May it hosted an event titled ‘Beyond the Boom:
demic-related pay cuts. Leaders of Russell Group univer- Toward Human and Social Development in the Post-Oil Era
sities were paid an average £386,000 (Rs.3.95 crore) in in Azerbaijan’.
2019-20, according to a Times Higher Education analysis. And for decades, scholars and journalists have raised
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and Col- the alarm about Azerbaijan’s destruction of historic tombs,
lege Union, says there is “no justification” for such gen- churches and cross-stones called khachkars of the minority
erous allowances to institutional leaders. “Staff are tired Armenian community. “There is reason to be concerned
of the hypocrisy from senior staff when it comes to pay,” about the potential impact on how the study of the South
says Dr. Grady. “It’s still clearly one rule for those in the Caucasus, past and present, will be framed — that is, what
classroom and another for those in the boardroom — lack will be included, what will be excluded, and what forces will
of self-awareness from university leaders when it comes to influence these ostensibly academic decisions,” says Marc
their own pay is an embarrassment for the sector.” Mamigonian, director of academic affairs at the US-based
In a statement, the LSST said directors’ dividends ac- National Association for Armenian Studies and Research.
counted for just 2.4 percent of revenues and pay only 1 The ultimate source of its funding remains a mystery.
percent. Announcing the creation of the centre in 2018, Oxford said
it had been made possible by “generous philanthropic sup-
AZERBAIJAN port from the British Foundation for the Study of Azerbai-
Oxford’s suspect research centre jan and the Caucasus” (BFSAC), a UK-based charity estab-
lished in 2016 and chaired by Prof. Pashayeva.
A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY OF AZERBAIJAN’S The foundation was listed as a project of the Anglo-Azer-
autocratic ruler sits on the board of a University of baijani Society, a body also co-chaired by Prof. Pashayeva
Oxford research centre that studies the country, that aims to build relations between the two countries. Al-
raising conflict of interest concerns for academics. A body though its website is no longer functional, it counted the
representing Armenian scholars expressed concern that Azerbaijani ambassador to London as a patron.
the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre, founded in 2018 by a
£10 million (Rs.102.5 crore) donation from an undisclosed JAPAN
source, could neglect the study of Armenian heritage in the Hagoromo chalk panic
central Asian country, which, they say, the current govern-
ment is trying to erase. IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE mathematicians
The donation was brokered by Nargiz Pashayeva, sister- get really excited, ask them about Hagoromo Full-
in-law of President Ilham Aliyev, who since 2003 has ruled touch Chalk. Writing on a blackboard with the de-
Azerbaijan amid accusations of torture, the jailing of politi- luxe Japanese chalk made of oyster shells is “like skiing on
cal opponents and corruption. Prof. Pashayeva, rector of the fresh powder, or waterskiing at dawn on a calm lake,” says
Baku branch of Moscow State University, sits on the seven- Dave Bayer, professor of mathematics at Columbia Univer-
person board of the Oxford centre, which decides which sity’s Barnard College.

60 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021