Tête-à-Tête: Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. with Dr. Balasubramanyam Chandramohan F.R.S.A. on BRICS University
Categoría: Embajadas, Noticias

Dr. Balasubramanyam Chandramohan F.R.S.A is an experienced academic, specialising in internationalisation and transnational education.

He is educated in India (MPhil, JNU), UK (PhD, Sheffield) and Switzerland (Post-doctoral, Switzerland), with experience in learning and teaching at higher education institutions in the UK, South Africa, Switzerland, Algeria, Tunisia and India. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, researching on Transnational Education in the Commonwealth, and a Consultant for the Youth Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.

 

Dr. Balasubramanyam Chandramohan F.R.S.A(2)
(Dr. Balasubramanyam Chandramohan F.R.S.A.)

 

1. Manish Uprety: Hello Dr. Chandra, it is good to see you in New Delhi. What brings you to India this time?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Hello Manish. As always it is a pleasure meeting with you. I am participating in the BRICS Roundtable organised as part of QS Conversations in Asia conference organised by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), an organisation that provides university rankings.
2. Manish Uprety: I remember you speaking on internationalization and the crucial role of language in connecting cultures in the context of the Commonwealth at the University of London, a few years back. Nueva Diplomacia is based in Chile and South America is essentially a Spanish speaking continent. Do you think that what goes for English in the Commonwealth is also applicable for Spanish in the Hispanosphere?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Yes. The seminar you refer to was a very successful one which examined the issues of language policy and practice in the Commonwealth. It explored many interesting themes such as Bhojpuri in India and in Diaspora, with special reference to the Caribbean and Hinglish in the Indian media – linguistic hegemony or hybridization among others.

Coming back to the issue of English and Spanish, I would say that there are many similarities between the two situations. Language is a key component of cultural interactions and part of the ‘soft power’ of empires that lasts longer than the empires themselves.

 

3. Manish Uprety: Culture is a very abstract concept. It can be defined in many ways such as through customs, language, practices, food, behaviour etc. which are its components. It is very fascinating how things move across cultures. Many words in the English language have their origins in India such as Avatar, Bandanna, Blighty, Jungle, Karma etc. You know the kind of dresses the British Governor Generals used to wear are now being worn by the Bandwallahs that lead the marriage processions in India. An interesting anecdote was narrated by my friend Sanjay Narain who is from Lucknow that he was taken aback by consternation to see the now-famous Rumali-Roti being offered at posh restaurants in the West and elsewhere. Traditionally it was used in place of a handkerchief after the meals to wipe hands because of its excellent absorption qualities by the noblemen in India which was later fed to the household pets. It seems that things happen at various levels such as Aveda Ayurvedic cosmetics or Bikram Yoga phenomenon. What is your impression of the process?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Ancient civilisations have a range of products, processes and philosophical approaches that find relevance and popularity in new times and new places as people turn to them sometimes out of interest in the ‘other’ and sometimes to (re)discover new solutions/tastes. The key is to sustain the interest in such things in both diasporic communities from the country/region and in the mix of the communities they live in.

 

4. Manish Uprety: In your recent seminar you spoke about the BRICS University. It is a very interesting concept. Could you please elaborate upon it?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: BRICS represents an aspiration shared by the member countries for a new collective space in international affairs. Such aspirations need to be underpinned by institutions and shared arrangements in a range of areas that represent ‘hard power’ as well as ‘soft’ power’. The ‘hard power’ is realised through treaties and economic institutions such as central banks and/or other financial institutions. The ‘soft power’ lies in institutions that have power to develop ideas and perceptions and an ability to ‘persuade’ action on the desirability of sustaining a specific collective entity (BRICS, for example).

A university is one such institution through which BRICS countries could find a ‘soft power’ glue to further develop and sustain a collective identity and purpose. My presentation was an evaluation of three models for developing such a university: a traditional (‘brick and mortar’) institution, an online distance education institution, and an institution that leverages the emerging technology/academic provision offered by Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

 

5. Manish Uprety: What shall be the role of technology in any such initiative as BRICS countries are totally different from one other in terms of language and culture?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Technology is crucial to the success of the initiative. Technological achievements help to project an image of modernity and power. Further, crucially, technology could play a key role in addressing economic problems and eradicating poverty within the member countries, in their neighbourhood and in the world at large. Technology can also help to overcome differences in terms of language and culture by making people-to-people contacts cheaper and accessible to a wide range of communities of practice and the general public.

 

6. Manish Uprety: BRICS a term coined by the then chairman of Goldman Sachs Jim O’Neill is very popular now. A young friend of mine Mateo Bruneti from Puerto Deseado in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina is very excited about the possibility of his country joining the group along with Indonesia. Why do people from other developing countries look towards the BRICS with such a hope?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: These countries share some similarities with BRICS counties in their status in international institutions and global interactions, and have similar aspirations to leverage their economic achievements to gain enhanced status through membership of a new international organisation.

 

7. Manish Uprety: In a country like India, higher education was essentially a sphere controlled by the governments. Over the years, many private institutions have come up in the country. I am sure it would have happened in other countries as well. As an educationist, how do you see the trend?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Changes to perceptions about the role of the state – from an institution that has the sole/major role in development to one that ‘facilitates’ development by sharing space with private and civil society sectors – provide the background to the rise of the private sector across all levels of education, including higher education.
Reductions in public funding for universities in developed countries push institutions to rely on income from overseas students and ‘for profit’ partnership activities. On the other hand, developing countries face the problem of inadequate financial resources and insufficient institutional capacity to meet the educational and skills development needs arising from demographic changes, especially the rising proportion of youth in their population.

The situation is likely to continue for some years till a reasonable balance between supply (funding and institutional capacity) and demand (educational needs of youth) is established. In the meantime, some anomalies in terms of oversupply could arise, for example vacant seats in private engineering colleges in Tamilnadu state in India.}

 

8. Manish Uprety: At the seminar was also impressed by the issue raised by Dr. Troy Crawford from the University of Guanajuato, Mexico that universities should also be ranked on the basis of the contribution they make towards the betterment of the society or neighbourhood they are part of. It is a very important and valid issue which is much overlooked. I would like to have your viewpoint on it.

 

Dr. Chandramohan: One has to answer some questions: Ranking for whom? What should be the criteria? What should be the relative importance of each criterion?

These are complex questions and the international ranking agencies (QS and Times Higher) go for criteria that are largely aimed at communities of practice in research and/or teaching, academic infrastructure and student experience. Criteria such as social relevance (gender, for example), local impact or contribution to national or regional educational needs are not included or given prominence. Perhaps one needs more types of rankings. Then, the question will be which one will have legitimacy or seen as fir-for-purpose by funding agencies and governments.

 

9. Manish Uprety: It is perhaps a coincidence that the name of the currencies of all the BRICS countries starts with R- Real, Rouble, Rupee, Renminbi and Rand. And now there is a BRICS bank as well. Black money is also a big challenge for these countries. Why not give the opportunity to people of the BRICS countries to invest their black monies in each other countries and also in other developing nations in core areas such as education and health, and make it tax-free. Rather than lying idle in tax havens and the Swiss banks, the monies can be used in a constructive manner for social development. Education is a priority area for BRICS and other developing countries as well; and all the governments always claim paucity of funds for social initiatives. Your thoughts on the issue as one can kill two birds with one stone in this case. I am asking this because you have worked extensively in many countries of Asia and Africa, and have seen and experienced things the way they are first hand.

 

Dr. Chandramohan: The problem with black money is that the counties where the money was made do not benefit as the money circulates outside the formal economy and no tax is paid.

By allowing black money to circulate through BRICS banking channels individual countries which lost their tax will not benefit. This will also set up unhealthy competition among BRICS members for the black money and lead to tensions as individual counties try to get back ‘their’ money.

 

10. Manish Uprety: Any good and motivating incident from your experience in Asia, Africa and Europe in the field of education that you would like to share with us.

 

Dr. Chandramohan: In one of my classes, I was conducting a research study to check how one could combine tutor (staff) assessment, peer assessment and self-assessment. One of the students, who used to always try to sit in the front row, scored a very high grade in peer assessment. When I checked the peer group comments, I found that the student’s peers gave high grades as she was deaf and followed my lectures though lip reading techniques. I did not know that she was doing this.

I had always thought that I knew my students well. I then realised … I did not know what was happening in front of my eyes, even in the front row!

 

11. Manish Uprety: I must say that it is a very beautiful incident that underlines one’s determination and the old saying- where there is a will, there is a way. What is your message to the peoples of Chile and South America? What are the specific areas where possibilities of cooperation with Chile and South America exist?

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Chile in particular and Latin America in general have passed through hard times when expectations were crushed though violence. As they rebuild democratic institutions, one wishes them good luck and hopes that they can learn from each other and come up with ideas and processes that the rest of the world can learn from.

 

12. Manish Uprety: Thank you for speaking to Nueva Diplomacia.

 

Dr. Chandramohan: Thank you Manish. My best wishes to the readers of Nueva Diplomacia and the peoples of Chile.

 

 

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