Higher education and poverty reduction in ACP countries and regions

Professor Melanie Walker, School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK

► ► There is a missing moral core in our technological advance. In rich nations and poor, the moral foundations of economic growth are often lacking. And we are too embarrassed even to mention morality any more. (developer of HDI Index, Mahbub Ul Haq) ‘What is it about [higher education] which keeps alive our optimism in its socially transformative power and provides the preconditions for any socially transformative project, yet which also pulls in the opposite direction – towards an ethos of individual competition and the reproduction of a hierarchy of social advantage?’ (philosopher, Ruth Jonathan)

Outline of the paper

► (i) introduction and defining poverty ► (ii) the international policy climate which is shaping higher education nationally and globally ► (iii) the contested purposes of higher education ► (iv) higher education and a human development and capabilities approach ► (v) higher education and poverty reduction in a South African research project.

MDGs

► eradicate poverty and hunger; ► achieve universal primary education; ► promote gender equality and empower women; ► reduce child mortality; ► improve maternal health; ► combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ► ensure environmental sustainability; ► develop a global partnership for development.

The argument

► ► ► higher education not only can play a role in reducing poverty but also that it must if higher education is to be, and seen to be, socially responsible and to fulfil its unique role in society. higher education can and ought to foster human solidarity and, as social critic and space of reasoning and debate, promote critical understanding of economic and political developments. higher education systems, institutions and individuals ought to have commitments to ‘human development’ and capability formation.

How do we understand poverty?

► multidimensional : poverty includes lack of income but cannot be reduced only to this. Rather it includes the lack of choice about one the life one vales and wants to live, absence of food and other security, powerlessness, the lack of respect and human dignity, and diminished access (if any access at all) to political and cultural human rights.

Contested higher education purposes

► Expansive and broad or narrow and reductionist?

► Magna Carta Universitatum (1988): ‘the universities' task of spreading knowledge among the younger generations implies that, in today's world, they must also serve society as a whole […] and that universities must give future generations education and training that will teach them, and through them others, to respect the great harmonies of their natural environment and of life itself’

Main goals for universities

► research function ► teaching function ► public service function ► ethical function

Nussbaum’s three core ‘capabilities

► critical self-examination ► the development of the ‘narrative imagination’ (being able to imagine what it might be like to be in the shoes of the other - a person different from oneself - to be an intelligent reader of that person’s story, and to understand the emotions and wishes and desires that they might have ) ► the ideal of the world citizen

Universities and human development

► Aim of human development ‘is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives’ (UNDP). ► Human development is opposed to ‘inhuman development’ (Des Gasper, 2009) ► It requires development by and for people, humane priorities, wide and deep participation, as well as human and economic resource development (Haq, 1999; Boni and Gasper, 2009).

Four principles of justice from Amartya Sen to guide higher education

► Pragmatic and comparative, rather than transcendental ► Capability formation ► Obligations to others ► Global in reach and responsiveness ► Process of critical individual and public reasoning and discussion crucial [university education claims to develop this resource of reason]

A different kind of university (Boni and Gasper, 2009)

► ► ► ► Human development can give us arguments to reinterpret the three core missions of university – teaching, research and social engagement. quality in universities would be measured using dimensions and values of: well-being, participation and empowerment, equity and diversity and sustainability. a good university would then be a university based on human development principles and values such a university would in turn promote poverty reduction through forming particular kinds of reasoning graduates, undertaking research and producing knowledge to understand how to reduce and eradicate poverty, working with communities outside the academy to share this knowledge but also in an inclusive process of knowledge making; and making contributions to the lives of people living in poverty.

Professional meta functionings and c ore capabilities

Meta functionings of public good professionals as transformative agents who: ► ► ► ► expand the capabilities of the poor act for social transformation and to reduce injustice make sound professional judgments recognize the full dignity of every human being.

Through professional education the opportunity to form eight multi-dimensional core capabilities: 1.

Informed Vision and Imagination 2.

3.

4.

5.

Affiliation (solidarity) Resilience Social and collective struggle Emotions 6.

7.

8.

Integrity Assurance and confidence Knowledge and practical skills

Capability & Functioning resources & Constraints for prof. education in South Africa univs Draft [Public Good] Professional Capabilities Index (PCI) SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS EDUCATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS PROFESSIONAL CAPS.

1. vision 2. affiliation 3. resilience 4. struggle 5. emotions 6. Knowledge & skills 7. integrity 8. confidence curr. & pedagogy advancing criticism, delib, resp systemic & material based Biographies of dis/advantage (autonomous agency & capability to

realize)

META FUNCTIONINGS

• expand capabi-

lities of the poor

• act for social

transformation and to reduce injustice

• make wise prof.

judgements

• recognise every

person’s full human dignity

► ► ► ► Universities and human development = universities that contribute to poverty reduction the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of the economic purposes of universities. developing countries and indeed developed countries would be better served now by rebalancing of the purposes of universities, in ways more attuned to the moral urgencies of contemporary times. contribution to poverty reduction through research (e.g. knowledge about poverty); teaching (e.g. public good professionals); social/civic engagement (e.g. inclusive knowledge; service learning programmes); equal global partnerships for human development (North-South and South-South) that universities can contribute in some way to poverty reduction seems unarguable; that some will, also seems possible and probable.