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Since arriving in the UK in 2011, I have seen British (apols: English) higher education adopt more and more aspects of American financing of universities. /1 https://twitter.com/cwellmon/status/1282724248377790466
This is because few understand the actual structure of American HE which was largely the result of a) massive private endowments established in 19th and early 20th century, and b) states (as in Michigan/Wisconsin/California) picking flagship winners in an elitist public system /2
What we see unfolding in America now is what will unfold in the UK, Australia and other privatised HE systems, which have idiotically reproduced the competitive conditions of an American uni system consisting of 4,400 precariously run institutions duelling to the death /3
One of the 'competitive advantages ' some discovered was the massive market for upwardly mobile Chinese students seeking advantages in their own context where English language skills are valuable (essentially in business and other globalised professions) ¥¥¥
/4
/4
This has rapidly and dramatically changed the structure of Chinese status systems with international higher education becoming a mechanism through which a mercantile/financial class is competing with the existing political class/party /5
That's interesting, of course, but my key concern is extension of the idea that our HE systems should be organised around catering to this very specific (elite) cohort, simply because this is one of only a few sources of 'extra income' within otherwise publicly funded systems /6
The problem is that in setting every institution like dogs onto this admittedly growing - but not infinite- market, we have produced a highly precarious system of higher education funding, globally. /7
#Covid_19 has revealed this house of cards for what it is.
As UK higher education institutions respond to and try to mitigate the crisis, we simply must retreat from the disaster unfolding in America: mass closure of venerable institutions that simply got too greedy. /END
As UK higher education institutions respond to and try to mitigate the crisis, we simply must retreat from the disaster unfolding in America: mass closure of venerable institutions that simply got too greedy. /END
