NN41, December 2008
The New Politics of Partnership: Peril or Promise?
The Downside of North-South Academic Cooperation
By Sheldon Shaeffer, UNESCO Bangkok
Email: s.shaeffer@unescobkk.orgKeywords
North-South, Academic cooperation
Summary
This article suggests a few ideas about what to look for when an examination of North-South cooperation takes place.
North-South cooperation, only slightly less than South-South and North-South-South cooperation, has become the fad of the moment ? in fact, it has been so for many years, but the experiences shared are usually the best practices ? and not the worst. And the downside of N-S cooperation has rarely been examined. A few ideas about what to look for when such an examination finally takes place:
? to what extent is the southern partner a token one, attached to the project for cosmetic purposes?
? to what extent has the southern partner been genuinely involved in the development of the joint proposal?
? as a total percentage of the total budget of the institution, how large is the share for the southern partner compared to the northern?
? to what extent are the benefits equal for both partners ? or does the northern partner get desired research permits, visiting professor assignments, paid up foreign students, enhanced prestige for its external relations (or marketing) office, and a fat overhead; and the southern partner, a few scholarships, free trips for its administrators, and its name on the final publications? (E.g., how many southern partner professors get invited to lecture at its northern partner?s institution?)
? to what extent does the northern partner impose its research paradigm on the southern one or appreciate and absorb its, often quite different, paradigm?
? who gets ultimate credit for the final products ? is it distributed according to the inputs made?
? and how lasting is the partnership itself and its supposed benefits to the partners? Or does the northern one take its benefits, as above, and run?
If one visits China and reads the local English newspaper, almost every day some new agreement between a northern and a Chinese university is announced. The president of the northern institution (sometimes barely known among academics of the North) is shown, smiling, as he signs the agreement with his equally happy counterpart. It would be very interesting to know who is smiling most at the end of the agreement.
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