The sneaky way universities are privatizing teaching
UWindsor rejects deal with for-profit company to teach international students; UManitoba criticized for similar program.
It is easy to understand why students are drawn to companies like Navitas and SGI. If you click on the link to Keele University from the SGI website, you’d think you had been redirected to the U.K. university’s own website. The website—which mostly contains recruitment material—has the same grey border, black navigation bar and pale green highlights as the real Keele University site. You’ll even find the Keele University logo featured prominently on the top left corner—although it is clearly lower resolution than the corresponding graphic on the real Keele website. To the prospective student who would not otherwise qualify for Keele, SGI seems to be pitching an alternate way to get in the door, even if it doesn’t represent actually studying at Keele.
While the quality of education these international students will receive is the primary concern of opponents to these colleges, lacking transparency is perhaps more troubling. Senior administration at the University of Manitoba signed the deal to set up a Navitas college without proposing the contract to either the senate or board of governors. The faculty association and University of Manitoba Students Union had to file a freedom of information request under provincial law in order to gain access to the university’s contract with Navitas. (The University of Manitoba administration did not respond to Maclean’s before deadline.)
While UWindsor has been more open to debate on its proposed deal with SGI, there are still major gaps of information. Brown says that he’s unsure of how the college would be kept accountable and academic quality ensured. “We weren’t given very much information about what they would teach,” he said, noting that academic departments at UWindsor had not been given course outlines or material to consider.
Because SGI would function separate from UWindsor and hire its own instructors, it is unclear what qualifications faculty would have. Brown is concerned that students would receive a lower quality education from less qualified instructors who are paid less than regular UWindsor professors.
And that could compromise the quality of education, according to Dalhousie professors Mitchell and Dawson. “It would almost certainly disadvantage the Navitas students themselves, because their teachers—whatever else their merits—would not typically be leading experts in their fields, would not be governed by a collective agreement, and would not enjoy the protection of academic freedom.”
UManitoba’s McKenzie is also concerned about Navitas teaching course material developed by university faculty. Although little information on course material has been provided to the faculty association, he says it appears that Navitas is delivering already developed courses. If this is indeed the case, according to McKenzie, there are concerns about the intellectual property rights of UManitoba faculty being violated.
Regardless of whether faculty rights are being respected, McKenzie still finds it disconcerting that a private corporation should profit from material developed with public funds. “A for-profit company comes on to campus and gets a name and a reputation and brand,” he explains. “They are using publicly funded university facilities to turn a profit.”
It would have helped to talk to at least one international student and include their perspective in the story. Just saying.
Are you just campaigning to get a job at Macleans?
[...] to fund universities. Universities are in turn turning to students for increased tuition and, in some cases, to for-profit sub-contractors. Many universities are already relying to a greater degree on [...]
Jeez, faculty unions are regressive. The question of whether these educational experiences are worth it is easily answered. How do the stduents who complete the first year of one of these private programs perform in their second year (and beyond) at the public institution.
And, by the way, it would not be surprising that a univesity senate voted agaionst such arragnements. Univesity senates are notoriously stacked with engaged faculty union members. It’s one way the faculty unions can exert some form of control over the institutions in which they reside.
Finally, this story is so one-sided and lacking in alternative voice that Macleans should be embarrassed to host it on its site.
Stig is E Aboyeji’s sock puppet account. You can tell because he makes the same spelling mistakes! That guy is going onto every thread and posting about how important it is to include international student opinions… even in articles like this one that don’t have a big international student perspective. Stop campaigning for a job at Macleans!
@Stig,
With respect to your suggestion that our story is one-sided, you will note that throughout the article there is mention that we attempted to speak with university administrators at Dalhousie, UWindsor and UManitoba. As noted, in the story, they either declined, were unavailable or took too long in responding.
The arguments concerning this article’s limitations also included a failure to include international student’s view points, the one’s who stand to gain the most in a pre-university acclaimitization year.
This is still a somewhat ragged whole in the above article’s argument. Perhaps a follow up of sorts could be done?
(I can assure you, I do not post using an alias but my name is but my first and last initials.)
Steve,
1. I am not Stig. I have never in my life posted under an alias. I always post in my full name and leave a website so if you would wish to, you can reach me. I come from a country that prides itself on its frank talk. I say shit like it is. No fear, no favor!
2. Frankly, I don’t need a job from Macleans. I am already occupied with a better paying, more important job. I just wish the discourse on Canadian Higher Education would broaden beyond Candian’s noses because believe it or not, Canadian Universities need to become a part of the world they are competing in or risk being local champions. Nevertheless, if Macleans would man up, I would gladly volunteer to provide this perspective. Hell, I already do for Imprint.
Besides Steve,
If you actually read the article, which I honestly doubt you did, you would find that it has a huge international student perspective.
This is terribly sloppy journalism….Not one international student, nor anyone involved at Navitas or Study Group International (who come in for a pounding here!) were approached for comment. Shocking…
Privatizing universities? Hmmm…works in the US and around the world, and seems like a great idea to break out of the stultifying faculty-union atmosphere that chokes so much innovation at our Canadian public institutions. Canadians don’t want to buy retail at government commissaries or canteens, so lets have a choice of private hospitals, municipal services – and schools!!
Links:
http://www.fraseric.ca/index.php/about-us-mainmenu-2/a-member-of-navitas.html
If by “works in the US and around the world” you mean that America has one of the lowest education ratings in the industrialized world, and the sick are forced to buy their lives from corporations because of loopholes in the fine-print of their insurance contracts, then yes, privatization does work.
If you’re sane, on the other hand, and view life, health, and education as the rights of all people (especially those in the richest countries in the world, who can easily pay for them) then you will oppose handing our education and health-care systems over to corporations – unaccountable, pathologically selfish, private tyrannies.
As for your unsupported claim that “Canadians don’t want to buy retail at government commissaries or canteens”, I’ll remind you that in a democratic state the government is run by the people for the people, and the people, if so inclined, have every right to choose free, government-provided healthcare and education (it’s what taxes are for).
Note, also, that in considering the government as a foreign entity separate from the population you are assuming an enormous democratic deficit in Canada today. This may well be the case. However, the solution is to revamp our governmental system to make it functionally, and not just ostensibly, democratic – not hand the state apparatus (responsible to the electorate) over to corporations (who are responsible only to profit).
My primary concern is that Canadian public institutions, funded by the Canadian taxpayer, are using their infrastructure to support private companies to turn a profit. Although it might appear that these ‘private colleges’ are separate and distinct from the mother university in fact they rely heavily on the name recognition and the promise that students will move on to academic studies in those universities.
My secondary concern is that the enormous profits realized by international students coming to Canada to study are not staying in Canada but are going to the stockholders of Navitas and other similar companies. Canadian universities may charge a set fee to these private colleges, e.g. $2-3 million/contract or some sort of arrangement, but if the private college has 1000 students paying $15,000/year then the $10-15 million in fees go outside of the university and presumably outside of the country.
My third concern is that these students study for 2 years in Canada at a university campus, like SFU, but end up with ‘credits’ that are not transferable to any other universities in Canada. In BC this flies in the face of BCCAT.
This is all pretty much ‘buyer beware’ but reflects badly on post-secondary education right across the country.