Vice-chancellors in the UK have little desire to confront “difficult questions” over their institutions’ “unequal” relationships with universities in the developing world, the director of SOAS University of London has said.
Reflecting on his first 18 months in post, Adam Habib, who previously served as vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, told the Centre for Global Higher Education’s conference that he had seen little evidence so far that colleagues were prepared to engage with the challenge of trying to build a more equitable, inclusive global education system.
Professor Habib has previously voiced concerns over African “brain drain” caused by Western institutions cherry-picking the best students and taking them abroad. He has also criticised institutions’ “unsustainable” business models where high fees for international students are used to subsidise the education of their domestic peers.
