Higher Education in Transition to a Market Economy: Two Case Studies

THE IDEA FOR THIS ARTICLE came from a visit to Tomsk that took place in May 1997. The authors visited the State University of Tomsk, one of Russia's leading universities, with an enviable research record and very good library and computing facilities, and were fortunate enough to be able to interview senior staff of the university concerning their budgets and financial situation. Apparently the situation in Tomsk is not especially bad; indeed it may well be rather better than elsewhere in Russia. In order to have a little basis for comparison and to provide a second case study, we also investigated some aspects of the financial arrangements at the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University. What we learned from these two cases-admittedly far from a representative sample-not only revealed a great deal about the current state of higher education reforms in Russia but also provided a snapshot of the state of Russian economic reforms in general. Hence although this article is partly about Tomsk and Moscow, it is also about these wider issues. In significant respects, Russia remains quite distant from a well-functioning market-type economy, and some of these respects are important for the higher education sector. In a very fundamental sense, one could identify the main source of Russian shortcomings in reforms as a general problem of the state.1 However, this is not the place for a general review of such a major topic. Instead, in this article we focus on a few aspects of Russia's reforms in so far as they affect higher education, namely (1) ownership, property rights and governance issues; (2) funding issues and the state budget; (3) the tax regime and (4) non-functioning of the market economy. In what follows, therefore, we proceed as follows. First we outline some general issues relevant for the reform of a system of higher education moving away from former, Soviet-type structures, focusing on the Russian situation; then we present the case studies of Tomsk and Moscow. The following section examines issues concerning higher education in particular and the reform process more generally, as highlighted in the two case studies and in the light of the above four issues. We end with a short concluding section.     

Pathologies of Development Practice: Higher Order Obstacles to Governance Reform in the Pakistani Electrical Power Sector

Development actors are regularly aware of the shortcomings of governance interventions before, during, and after development assistance is introduced, yet those programmes continue and are even revisited. Why? This paper uses the Pakistani experience with power sector reforms to illustrate how the donor-led reform agenda had readily apparent shortcomings. A new wave of development thinking responds to such failures by drawing on complexity theory and moving toward more local, iterative and experimental approaches. However, by highlighting how the awareness of problems with reforms isn’t sufficient to avoid them, this paper points to a higher order of obstacles which remain unaddressed.     

Theft,Gift-Giving,and Reciprocity: A South African Experiment

Abstract

This paper uses a taking game to examine how South African subjects alter the amount they choose to ‘steal’ in response to a resource transfer from the potential victim. Any positive resource transfer significantly reduces the amount taken. ‘Small’ transfers reduce a victim’s total losses, including the transfer and the subsequent ‘theft’. Larger transfers increase a victim’s total losses. This study failed to find that differences in the frame of a transfer (i.e. gift, as a bribe, or as a payment) influenced a taker’s response to the transfer.     

An Ethical Governance Perspective on Anti-Corruption Policies and Procedures: Agencies and Trust in Cameroon,Ghana, and Nigeria Evaluation

The purpose of this research is to state that ethical governance is important, because it concerns the right thoughts (values) and elements (mechanisms) needed for a successful anti-corruption crusade. Trust is strongly linked to performance; ethical governance can help in actualizing anti-corruption agencies’ expected or desired performance. The subjects of the comparative research are the anti-corruption agencies of Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria. A qualitative analysis of documents and interviews and a triangulation approach are used in arriving at research results, because policies and procedures are studied through anti-corruption agencies documents and public trust is investigated through expert interview. Ghana represents the strong case and best practices, because it has anti-corruption policies and procedures that agree more with ethical governance, followed by Nigeria, which is the moderate case, before Cameroon, which is the weak case. “Independence” as an ethical mechanism occupies the strongest position to achieving result in anti-corruption related crusade.     

The Transition from Education to Employment Abroad: The Experiences of Young People from Poland

This article examines the subject of the transition from education to the labour market among young people moving directly from education in Poland to first jobs abroad. With free labour mobility in the European Union (EU), there are now more options for transitions into adulthood, including working abroad. This study uses mainly qualitative empirical material with some contextual quantitative data to examine the characteristics of young people who opted for a first job abroad, how they made their transitions from education to the foreign labour market, and the impact of their first jobs abroad on their subsequent occupational paths after returning home.     

Networked and Polycentric Governance in South Korea: The Case of Dam Politics after Devolution

The South Korean intergovernmental environment has undergone drastic changes after the reintroduction of local autonomy in 1995. This study investigates how and why the governance has changed in terms of its structure and processes after devolution using the case of dam politics in South Korea. It also addresses the accountability implications of the changed governance. This study analyses two cases of dam construction initiative, which are the Youngwol dam project (1990–2000) and the Hantangang dam project (1998–2004). The analysis of these cases reveals that the governance structure concerning water resource supply has changed from a form of policy community, which can be characterized by its closed membership and stability in relationships, to a form of issue network, where the membership is enlarged to include various participants. More specifically, there are three important findings. First, the cancellation of the Youngwol dam project served as the moment to establish and empower a network of opposition against dam building, which had long been advocated and led by the policy community comprising the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Korea Water Resources Corporation, engineering experts, and some private companies related to dam construction. Second, as the central government plans to build 12 more dams including Hantangang dam, the network of opposition tends to be further vitalized with heated participation from local activists, some water resource management experts, and environmental activists. Third, as the pro-dam policy community and the network of opposition initiate dialogue among themselves, they are forming an issue network which works as a governance mechanism in the area of water resource supply management.     

Governance in Developing Countries: Sri Lanka and South Africa Compared

In this article, we investigate the main features of the governance model in two developing democracies, Sri Lanka and South Africa. We believe that these two countries are interesting test cases for a comparative study. Both countries are former British colonies and have inherited a similar administrative system heavily influenced by the British colonial model and have experienced an ethnic conflict to different extents in the past.

This comparison allows us to examine the determining factors for and against the level of effectiveness of governance in both countries. The findings suggest that the socio-political system within which they operate is dynamic and is an important influence for integrated governance. The study concludes that the outcomes of governance in both countries are better explained by taking into account the features described in an integrated governance model. This provides a better understanding of the dynamics of governance in developing countries.     

Strategic competence and agency: individuals overcoming barriers to change in South African higher education

Social relations, institutional arrangements and cultures bequeathed by South Africa’s system of apartheid continue be felt in the present despite the country’s formal transition to democracy 25 years ago. Race, class and gender inequities continue to structure South African society in ways that have proven intransigent to change, leading to growing frustration and widespread public dissatisfaction expressed in multiple arenas including worker strikes, service delivery and university student protests. While it is clear that social structures inherited from the past are difficult to change, it is also the case that change does happen. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study with 10 academics at one historically White university in South Africa, who have been agents of change within their particular context. We show how participants engaged in struggles to counter resistance to their efforts. In doing so they demonstrate what we call ‘strategic competence’ – the ability to act in ways that not only draw on personal resources but recognise the resources, contradictions and opportunities offered within the existing limitations of the social structure. Strategic competence thus emerges as a central feature of agency, enabling individuals to stretch the boundaries of what is possible.     

The Southern African customs union,cereal price policy in South Africa,and food security in Botswana

It is elaborated in this article that external factors may affect food security in developing countries even if these countries are not exposed to price instability in world food markets. This is the case in the Southern African Customs Union where the agricultural price policy in South Africa affects food security in Botswana, Lesotho and Swasiland. It is analysed quantitatively how cereal price policy in South Africa influenced the cereal import sector of Botswana in the period 1969–84. Cereal import prices increased due to Botswana's membership of the customs union, and cereal imports declined. The price increase was accompanied by a price‐stabilising impact.     

美国新兴技术治理的理念与实践

在中美科技博弈的背景下,新兴技术治理的实际效能兼具重要的经济价值和国际政治意涵。同时,新兴技术的高度不确定性对美国既有技术治理体系和能力提出全面挑战。美国新兴技术治理表现出明显的保护主义和技术民族主义倾向,服从并服务于其国家安全战略。新兴技术的革命性导致美国技术治理能力全面滞后于技术发展速度;国内治理体系碎片化且缺少有效协调机制的现实,制约着新兴技术治理的实际进程;全球范围内技术治理安全化的倾向严重阻碍着技术治理的国际合作,也阻碍美国与盟友之间的合作。拜登政府积极致力于实现美国技术治理体系和能力的现代化,试图采取多边主义策略对中国新兴技术发展进行限制和封锁;极有可能在坚持刚性措施的同时突出强调弹性措施在未来美国新兴技术治理中的优先等级;试图通过重建总统科技顾问委员会以及审查政府科学诚信政策等手段,重塑科学及科学家在新兴技术治理中的核心地位,突出“技术怀疑论”并对新兴技术发展采取更为严格的审查和监管措施,并可能重新确立基础研究在新兴技术治理中的基础性作用。     

The economic impact of genetically modified cotton on South African smallholders: Yield,profit and health effects

Results of a large-scale survey of resource-poor smallholder cotton farmers in South Africa over three years conclusively show that adopters of Bt cotton have benefited in terms of higher yields, lower pesticide use, less labour for pesticide application and substantially higher gross margins per hectare. These benefits were clearly related to the technology, and not to preferential adoption by farmers who were already highly efficient. The smallest producers are shown to have benefited from adoption of the Bt variety as much as, if not more than, larger producers. Moreover, evidence from hospital records suggests a link between declining pesticide poisonings and adoption of the Bt variety.     

Ambiguous Institutions: Traditional Governance and Local Democracy in Rural South India

In India, ‘customary village councils’ are generally believed to be disappearing vestiges of a pre-democratic, hierarchical socio-political order. However, while remaining informal and maintaining a low public profile, in Karnataka state they are actively taking on new roles, adapting to the democratic, competitive political environment, becoming more representative and pluralist, and providing a wide range of services that are highly valued by the populations they serve. The relationship of customary village councils to the formal, elected local councils (Grama Panchayats) – and to electoral democracy generally – is more synergistic and complementary than competitive.     

Renewing Global Governance: demanding rights and justice in the global South

Global inequality is increasing. Global inequalities are an expression of global social injustices and ‘pathologies of power’. Global governance has been posited as a way forward. However, global governance will not deliver justice unless it embraces a more radical vision of what justice means and permits the voices of the marginalised to be heard in spaces of decision making. We identify two important approaches to building more just forms of global governance: the civil society approach, which is useful when it draws attention to the agency of those at the margins of global circuits of power; and the rights-based approach, which can provide opportunities for justice claims by marginalised groups.     

The hares,the hounds and the African National Congress: on joining the Third World in post-apartheid South Africa

The utility of framing questions of global inequality in relation to a ‘First World’ and a ‘Third World’, a North and a South, or developed countries and developing (or underdeveloped) countries, has been much debated since the end of the Cold War. This article addresses the issue of the perceived weaknesses and possible continued strengths of the notion of the ‘Third World’ in general terms, and then grounds such a discussion through an analysis of the way that the African National Congress (anc) government in post-apartheid South Africa has approached the question of global inequality. Since its election in 1994, and more particularly since Thabo Mbeki succeeded Nelson Mandela as president, the anc has presented itself as having an especially important leadership role on behalf of the Third World. The profound contradictions inherent in the anc's effort both to retain its Third Worldist credentials and to present itself as a reliable client to the Bretton Woods institutions and foreign investors provides insights into how to design alternative strategies for overcoming world-wide poverty, strategies which might be more effective than those chosen by the anc. Since the anc was elected to government in 1994 it has pursued a brand of deeply compromised quasi-reformism, analysed here, that serves primarily to deflect consideration away from the options presented by other, much more meaningfully radical international and South African labour organisations, environmental groups and social movements. At the present juncture a range of increasingly well-organised grassroots movements in South Africa find that they have no choice but to mobilise in active resistance to the bankrupt policies of the anc. The increasing significance of these efforts points to the possibility that they might eventually be able to push South Africa—either through a transformation of the anc itself or through the creation of some new, potentially hegemonic, political project in that country—back into the ranks of those governments and groups that seek to use innovative and appropriately revolutionary approaches to challenge the geographical, racial and class-based hierarchies of global inequality.     

The Long Walk to Knowledge: On the Determinants of Higher Education Mobility to Europe

This paper investigates the determinants of demand for higher education mobility from students in developing countries to Europe. Used together with various linguistic relations, we emphasise the relevance of informal and formal networks in explaining resistance to student migration. The former are made up of friends or previous students while the latter are formal partnerships that have been established among higher education institutions. Overall, our results show that, apart from the usual economic considerations, student mobility is strongly correlated with non-monetary factors specific to origin and destination, such as socio-demographic characteristics, individual beliefs, and institutional profiles.