Page 53 - EducationWorld January 2021

In terms of spending on science, Trump took office in
2017 pursuing a budget proposal that would have slashed
federal research spending by 17 percent, and then urged
similar multibillion-dollar reductions each year afterwards.
But lawmakers from both parties refused, pushing budget
plans through Congress that gave scientific research fund-
ing modest but steady annual gains. That’s expected to con-
tinue, with even greater emphasis on health fields led by
cancer, which became a matter of deep personal interest to
Biden after the death of his son Beau in 2015.
“Congress has done pretty well by research funding” dur-
ing the Trump administration, says Smith. “It is unclear if
we will see huge changes” in funding levels during the Biden
administration, he says.

UNITED KINGDOM Pak Knowledge City: widespread scepticism. Inset: Imran Khan
Rising redundancies wave are never taken lightly. All of UCEA’s members will involve

UK UNIVERSITIES HAVE MADE THOUSANDS their trade unions as staff representatives and work hard to
of staff redundant since the start of the corona- avoid compulsory redundancies,” says Jethwa.
virus pandemic. Data, obtained by educational
platform Edvoy using Freedom of Information requests and PAKISTAN
seen by Times Higher Education, show that over 3,000 staff Knowledge city mirage
were made redundant between March 1 and September 20
this year by the 104 universities that responded. EXPERTS ARE SCEPTICAL OF THE MERITS
This includes those employed on fixed-term contracts and feasibility of the Pakistan government’s plan
that ended without being renewed. The impact of the pan- to create a new ‘knowledge city’. Prime minister
demic on university finances has led to reports of many Imran Khan tweeted that it was his “dream to build Paki-
institutions opting against renewing the contracts of staff stan’s first knowledge city”, after launching the first phase
in non-permanent roles. “The high number of job losses of the project last October. It will be developed around the
are a worrying indicator of the state of higher education in Namal Institute, which was established in 2008 and began
the UK. Casualisation has been a growing problem in UK as an affiliate college of the UK’s Bradford University where
universities, and these figures show how much this has been Khan was then chancellor.
exacerbated by the pandemic,” says Nicole Wootton-Cane, The plan is for the institute, located in rural Punjab, to
editor at Edvoy. evolve into the largest university town of Pakistan, with
In July, the University and College Union estimated that several academic centres, libraries and technology parks,
thousands of staff on fixed-term contracts could lose their as well as schools, shopping centres and hotels. Major con-
roles as a result of the pandemic. At the same time, the In- struction work is expected to be complete by 2027, but the
stitute for Fiscal Studies estimates that British universities target is 800 students and 50 faculty members in the ‘city’
could slash spending on temporary teaching staff by £200 by 2023.
million (Rs.1,977 crore), and on other temporary staff by Mehvish Riaz, assistant professor at the University of
£300 million owing to financial pressures caused by the Engineering and Technology, Lahore, says the knowledge
crisis. city “could transform the education, economy and technol-
Oxford University recorded 416 redundancies, mostly ogy sectors” in Pakistan, but there are more pressing higher
fixed-term contracts that expired. A spokesman said this education issues the country should focus on. “Considering
figure was in line with previous years. The University of the situation prevailing in existing universities that are fac-
Cambridge reported 267 redundancies, while the universi- ing budgetary cuts for research, salaries and other purposes,
ties of Leicester, York and Glasgow all topped 100. I don’t think starting a mega project like the new knowledge
Raj Jethwa, chief executive of the Universities and Col- city is practical,” says Riaz who believes “it would be wiser
leges Employers Association (UCEA), says institutions have to transform and upgrade existing schools, colleges and uni-
“worked hard to minimise the impact of the pandemic cri- versities and provide much-needed facilities there before
sis”. “In all sectors of the economy, Covid-19 has unfortu- starting this mega project.”
nately led to job losses and the non-renewal of fixed-term Pervez Hoodbhoy, Zohra and ZZ Ahmed Foundation
contracts. HE institutions boast some of the best employ- distinguished professor in mathematics and physics at La-
ment frameworks in the UK, and decisions affecting jobs hore’s Forman Christian College, says the “trademark of

JANUARY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 53