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Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) has issued a
             17-point Beijing Declaration on Mooc Development and has
             formed a 20-member Global Mooc Alliance with overseas
             institutions such as Cornell University, the University of
             Toronto and the University of Auckland.
                The revival of the Mooc in Asia seems to have been
             spurred by the need to support institutions without capa-
             bility to develop their own online classes. Miao Fengchun,
             chief of Unesco’s unit for technology and artificial intel-
             ligence in education, said at the Tsinghua conference, that
             2020 may mark the “real year of the Mooc” because of the
             much higher level of usage.
                A Unesco report, based on surveys in 150 nations from
             June to October, shows that 90 percent of governments
             facilitate or subsidise online learning, mostly through mo-  President Erdoğan: twitter qualification partiality
             bile phone access. “The courses provided by governmental
             agencies to support online learning, by nature, are mas-  plete power to appoint university heads into the hands of
             sive open online courses,” Miao told Times Higher Educa-  Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, replacing a
             tion. According to Miao, several new trends have emerged:   system in which academics played at least a partial role in
             governments are “becoming a major player” in Moocs; the   electing their rectors.
             languages used are being “significantly diversified” away   The academy points to one particular study that has gar-
             from English dominance; and Moocs have moved beyond   nered attention in Turkey. It found that almost a quarter of
             higher education.                                 rectors do not have a single published article in the Scopus
                Mainland China has an Internet penetration rate of 65   database of research literature. In addition, 72 of Turkey’s
             percent, according to a 2020 report by the China Internet   197 rectors have an h-index of zero. The h-index is a metric
             Network Information Center. That puts it ahead of develop-  of scholarly influence that measures both papers published
             ing nations like India — where it is about 50 percent — but   and how often they are cited. But what these rectors lack in
             behind high-tech societies such as Japan, South Korea, Tai-  research prowess, they make up for on Twitter.
             wan, Hong Kong and Singapore, where it is 85 to 95 per-  There is a correlation between weak research record and
             cent. Moreover, while top institutions like Tsinghua were   social media activity, and more than three-quarters of rec-
             able to shift huge numbers of courses online last year, this   tors with an h-index of zero were tweeting more than 100
             may not be true of all of China’s more than 1,200 universi-  times a day when the study was conducted last year.
             ties, particularly those in outlying provinces.     “The content of these posts includes their visits, hos-
                Qiu Yong, Tsinghua’s president, says that the pandemic   pitality services to government members and others, and
             “empowered Moocs and online education to have a large-  activities with associations close to government, as a means
             scale, well-organised and all-round system application   to promote the university,” reported the paper ‘Academic
             worldwide for the first time, which truly becomes a new   (dis)qualifications of Turkish rectors: their career paths,
             form of education”.                               h-index, and the number of articles and citations’, pub-
                                                               lished in the journal Higher Education. “These posts also
               TURKEY                                          contained statements showing their support and loyalty to
             Political rectors                                 the government and to President R. Tayyip Erdoğan, who
                                                               appointed them as rectors.”
                    DOZENS OF TURKISH UNIVERSITY RECTORS         These rectors are from leading universities that lag be-
                    have no international research record but tweet   hind in international rankings and measures of research
                    prolifically in support of the Ankara government,   prowess, found the study, authored by Engin Karadağ, pro-
             scholars have warned, raising further concerns about aca-  fessor of education at Akdeniz University.
             demic independence as the country has moved towards   In one controversial appointment, made after the study
             autocracy.                                        was carried out, Necdet Ünüvar, a former MP for the ruling
                In its annual review of academic freedom, Turkey’s Sci-  Justice and Development Party (AKP) was made rector of
             ence Academy, a breakaway group formed in response to   Ankara University. Although he does have a background
             perceived government influence over the country’s estab-  in medical research, some of his statements as rector have
             lished academy, pointed to a flurry of news reports rais-  been stridently nationalistic.
             ing questions about the academic qualifications of some
             rectors.                                          (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education and
                This follows a 2018 legal change that transferred com-                          The Economist)

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