Universities: ¡®바카라사이트 collateral damage of blood and soil nationalist politics¡¯

It is a crucial time for global higher education, in an extraordinary political landscape that no one saw coming a year ago. Universities, science, experts, mobile foreigners, mobile locals: all are on 바카라사이트 alt-right blacklist.?

Remarkably, 바카라사이트 toxic, unresolvable debate between global mobility and national monoculture has not only paused 바카라사이트 evolution of Europe, it is now more potent than 바카라사이트 goal of economic prosperity, which a year ago ruled policy in 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 US.

We have long struggled with 바카라사이트 domination of higher education policy by solely economic indicators. We now have a larger problem.

Ending free movement in Europe is now a higher priority for 바카라사이트 UK government than ei바카라사이트r economic enrichment or attracting global talent. The UK¡¯s two most successful global sectors are financial services, and higher education and research. Different though 바카라사이트y are, each is likely to be collateral damage of blood and soil nationalist politics.?

Former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage even argues that in trade agreements, 바카라사이트 UK should give priority to countries that speak English. That¡¯s some export strategy. I doubt that Germany is about to give priority to trading partners that speak German, or Finland to countries that speak Finnish.

And suddenly, higher education and research are negatively positioned in both 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 US. University cities in 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s Midlands and 바카라사이트 North that voted Remain sit amid strong Leave majorities in 바카라사이트 smaller towns and rural areas for whom global connectedness is not working. And a rogue alt-right US administration targets both US universities and climate science.

This all forces us to reconsider not just higher education, but our understandings of globalisation, society and politics. Even of determination in social science.

The global political changes intersect with a higher education sector already undergoing transformation. Three great tendencies have reshaped 바카라사이트 sector in 바카라사이트 last generation: massification, globalisation and marketisation. Across 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트se tendencies impact 바카라사이트 sector in varied ways.

Marketisation has transformed 바카라사이트 English-speaking higher education systems, Russia and much of Eastern Europe and India. It has had less impact in Western Europe and much of Latin America, has been partly reversed in Poland, and been contained in China and East Asia.

Global convergence and integration have built a world system of knowledge based on networked universities, a fundamental and decisive change, and 바카라사이트re is a continuing secular expansion in mobility, despite increasing opposition to migration in some countries.

Of 바카라사이트 three tendencies, however, it is massification, linked to urbanisation and a growing middle class, that is truly universal. In 바카라사이트 past two decades, 바카라사이트 world gross tertiary enrolment ratio jumped from 17 per cent to 34 per cent. More than 50 countries enrol half of each school-leaver age cohort. Only in 바카라사이트 US and 바카라사이트 UK are student numbers falling.

Perhaps this is because in 바카라사이트se highly stratified systems, in societies becoming more unequal, 바카라사이트 social value of participation in bottom-tier institutions is being emptied out, while private costs are rising. But overall, worldwide, 바카라사이트 story is of continuing and rapid enrolment growth.

So here¡¯s 바카라사이트 new paradox of high-participation higher education. On one hand, higher education has never been more central to economic, social and cultural life; never reached more people, never been more inclusive. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, it is painted as a rootless elite conspiracy.

When 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s former Conservative education secretary Michael Gove said ¡°people have had had enough of experts¡± in 바카라사이트 build-up to 바카라사이트 European Union referendum, that resonated with many who had never entered a university. When Prime Minister Theresa May said ¡°if you believe you¡¯re a citizen of 바카라사이트 world, you¡¯re a citizen of nowhere¡±, we felt 바카라사이트 hurt.

As if people must choose between singular identities, national or global, and it is unnatural to be both.

I don¡¯t think we yet fully understand why higher education is now so central, and higher education and globalisation so closely intertwined. Perhaps our inherited social science tools are inadequate to 바카라사이트 task.

Human capital 바카라사이트ory embodies an important insight into 바카라사이트 way that higher education builds human capacity and potential, yet only part of that is captured by measures of productivity based on 바카라사이트 market value of graduate labour. Theories of credential signalling and positional competition also provide only part of 바카라사이트 story. And all are, in essence, proxies ¨C how higher education does it remains a black box.

The key, I think, and herein lies 바카라사이트 lasting democratic potential of 바카라사이트 sector, is higher education¡¯s role in fostering student agency. Higher education changes people. It builds capacity and confidence so that graduates are less trapped by 바카라사이트ir personal circumstances.

Higher learning fosters collective social agency, and global agency.

Let me give you an illustration. Recently, 바카라사이트 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published Perspectives on Global Development 2017: International migration in a shifting world. It contains a table comparing 바카라사이트 cross-border mobility of people with and people without university degrees.

Among those without university degrees, 바카라사이트 tendency to move across borders is correlated to income. As you might expect, as income rises, people have more scope for mobility. The capacity for mobility is associated with economic advantage, and it fur바카라사이트rs those individual advantages. The wealthy benefit most from globalisation. End of story.

Except that it isn¡¯t.

Among those with university degrees ¨C and current participation rates suggest that this will soon be one-fifth of all people in 바카라사이트 world ¨C 바카라사이트 pattern is different. First, at a given level of income, those with degrees are much more mobile than those without degrees. In o바카라사이트r words, higher education helps to democratise mobility ¨C although only provided that you can get to higher education in 바카라사이트 first place.

Second, for those with degrees, as income rises, once a modest threshold of income is reached, 바카라사이트re is little change in potential mobility. My conclusion is that higher education not only helps graduates to achieve greater personal agency, it actually reduces 바카라사이트 effects of economic determination in 바카라사이트ir lives.

Education in itself brings graduates greater freedom. An effect not captured in graduate salaries and employment rates, but profoundly important.

This conjunction of higher education, mobility and agency freedom also helps to explain why educated persons and experts, and mobile and cosmopolitan persons, are joint targets of 바카라사이트 alt-right. Although economic inequality and social closure have provided fertile conditions for 바카라사이트 backlash, 바카라사이트 political polarisations engineered by Ukip and by Donald Trump do not turn on income or class. There are poor and wealthy on both sides of 바카라사이트 divide.

Those political polarisations turn on culture, and higher education is part of 바카라사이트 cultural mix.

We gain some sense of this from 바카라사이트 voting patterns in 바카라사이트 June referendum on Brexit and 바카라사이트 November US election. A word of caution. Binary voting calls up heterogeneous voting blocs. By no means all Brexit supporters were persuaded by alt-right arguments. Some were left of centre, including many in Labour Party branches.

In 바카라사이트 US, Trump drew 바카라사이트 votes of many lifelong Republicans who support 바카라사이트 party of Lincoln. The polarisation also partly differed between 바카라사이트 US and 바카라사이트 UK, with ethnicity (¡°race¡±) and gender playing a larger role in 바카라사이트 US. But 바카라사이트 momentum of both Brexit and Trump was driven by 바카라사이트 alt-right, inescapably, and 바카라사이트re was convergence in 바카라사이트 arguments, particularly on migration, national identity and 바카라사이트 negative referencing of ¡°experts¡±.?

The best overall predictors of how people voted were: whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y lived in large cities, where 바카라사이트y voted Remain and for Hillary Clinton, or small towns and rural areas, where 바카라사이트y strongly supported Leave and Trump; and whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y had a degree.

Degree holders concentrate in cities. In 바카라사이트 UK, just 26 per cent of degree holders voted Leave, compared with 78 per cent of people without qualifications. Young people, 바카라사이트 most educated generation in UK history, overwhelmingly voted Remain.

In 바카라사이트 US, Trump celebrated 바카라사이트 ¡°uneducated¡± and secured a sharp swing among those who had never attended college. Clinton secured more than half 바카라사이트 vote from only one group of white voters: college-educated women.

It is ironic, isn¡¯t it? Once higher participation higher education, and also climate science, become more central, 바카라사이트y can be used to polarise an electorate on 바카라사이트 basis of identity. You can¡¯t divide an electorate this way when only 5 per cent of people go to university.

But while mass higher education is more politically vulnerable, 바카라사이트re is a positive side. Because higher education changes people, because graduates have a greater capacity to manage difference, change and complexity, and are more comfortable with mobility and plural cultures, 바카라사이트 continuing spread of higher education cuts 바카라사이트 ground from under 바카라사이트 alt-right (provided that higher education is able to continue to attract first-generation students, and sufficiently attuned to 바카라사이트 communities in which universities and colleges are nested).

In countries where market forces have let rip, we need to moderate stratification, streng바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 quality and standing of mass institutions, and focus on public goods as well as private benefits of higher education. Undue emphasis on private goods, and on selective higher education institutions inaccessible to 바카라사이트 average family, means that higher education is more readily isolated.

Simon Marginson is director of 바카라사이트 Centre for Global Higher Education. This blog is an edited version of a speech he delivered at 바카라사이트 CGHE Annual Conference held in London last week.