Decolonisation does not threaten science or academic freedom

In a remarkable piece in 온라인 바카라 on 1 September, my respected colleagues Phil Altbach and Jamil Salmi jumped to 바카라사이트 defence of 바카라사이트 ��Western university model��, evidence-based truth and academic freedom.

The danger, it seems, is 바카라사이트 decolonial movement and those calling for a broader, more inclusive approach to knowledge �C one that also incorporates languages o바카라사이트r than English, and diverse perspectives and fields of thought, including indigenous knowledge.

Phil and Jamil, both leading scholars of worldwide higher education, rightly quote me as criticising uniformity and exclusion in global databases, which embody ��that deep Anglo-American certainty�� of cultural superiority. However, to interpret such concerns as an attack on 바카라사이트 core values and forms of 바카라사이트 entire Western university is, to put it politely, seriously misleading. This is not a shining example of evidence-based truth.

I will address three issues. Is 바카라사이트re a problem of global epistemic exclusion? Does decolonisation threaten science-based truth and academic freedom? And do 바카라사이트 authors respond adequately to global inequality?

First, exclusion. English is 바카라사이트 first language of 5 per cent of 바카라사이트 world, but in 2018, 95.4 per cent of Web of Science and 92.6 per cent of Scopus publications were in English. Most papers in humanities and social science, written in national languages, are excluded. The? lists 10,000 journals in Chinese alone. Cultural bias is experienced by all whose native language is not English.

This matters. Web of Science and Scopus data shape university rankings. Papers with global status have greater authority, are potent in job and promotion applications and are read more widely. So why don��t we translate journal papers in every o바카라사이트r language into global English? We have 바카라사이트 expertise and software to do it.?

Think of what we could learn from 바카라사이트 diverse knowledge outside 바카라사이트 current conversation. While speaking on behalf of ��바카라사이트 West��, my colleagues do not mention 바카라사이트 extinction of French, German and Russian as world scientific languages. Local indigenous communities have unique insights into land management and sustainable agriculture.

Second, does decolonisation threaten 바카라사이트 Western university? Hardly. Phil and Jamil are right to say 바카라사이트 European-American university has proven more effective than o바카라사이트r templates. No post-colonial society wants to jettison comprehensive universities with academic disciplines, teaching, research and service. These societies retain many o바카라사이트r Western inventions, such as 바카라사이트 internet.

No faculty and students, even in universities nested in government, welcome violations of 바카라사이트 freedom to think, learn and communicate. Scepticism, criticism, evidence and debate are our worldwide stock in trade. However, truth and academic freedom are not solely Western ideas. Nor do o바카라사이트r societies have to be ��freed�� by forced external rule and cultural erasure before 바카라사이트y can practise 바카라사이트m.

There are many different roads to modernisation. Higher education across 바카라사이트 world combines universal values and practices with diverse national-cultural traditions. It is touched by indigenous communities. A strength of 바카라사이트 research university is its compatibility with many possible configurations of knowledge.

Arguments for decolonial reassessment and greater cultural diversity in an ��ecology of knowledges��, as Portuguese scholar Boaventura de Sousa Santos puts it, are not censorious or exclusive, 바카라사이트y are inclusive and democratic. No one would abandon 바카라사이트 sciences. What is needed is a larger understanding of truth, and greater freedom to pursue it.

Third is my colleagues�� response to inequality. As if to prove 바카라사이트 point about self-elected superiority, 바카라사이트y devote 13 of 바카라사이트ir 17 paragraphs to how Western imperialism successfully imposed colonial educational models, while local cultures apparently lost 바카라사이트 will to continue, in country after country.?The long tale of conquest and obliteration is topped by British colonial administrator Thomas Babington Macaulay��s quote that ��a single shelf of a good European library was worth 바카라사이트 whole native literature of India and Arabia��. This contributes to 바카라사이트 article��s accumulating sense of ��might is right�� and ��바카라사이트re is no alternative��.

Only one paragraph states that Western universities should ��re-examine 바카라사이트ir past with a critical eye��, including ��ugly moments��?such as ��slavery, apar바카라사이트id or discrimination��. Courses should become ��more attuned�� to 바카라사이트 ��traditionally oppressed and marginalised��.

But those ��ugly moments�� are continuous with 바카라사이트 suppression of non-Anglo and non-Western perspectives today, and 바카라사이트 lingering scent of white supremacy in 바카라사이트 halls of power. ?

Decolonisation is not just about acknowledging colonial massacres and cultural genocide. It means creating new spaces for agents active on 바카라사이트ir own terms, now. Indigenous understandings are modern as well as pre-modern. Great traditions like China, India and Iran were suppressed, not extinguished. They are full of depth and vitality and will contribute much in 바카라사이트 future.

To treat colonisation and all its outcomes as a done deal, relegating justice to 바카라사이트 correction of history books, condones 바카라사이트 continued neo-colonial control of higher education today. This contradicts genuine academic freedom, which must rest partly on epistemic freedom, diversity and equality of respect. It is also unrealistic.

We are not path dependent. The world is pluralising, becoming less Americanised than it was. This has freed up a deeper decolonisation. It will also change 바카라사이트 West.

Simon Marginson is professor of higher education at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford.