{"id":32885,"date":"2012-02-14T09:29:41","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T09:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=32885"},"modified":"2016-11-21T16:44:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T16:44:49","slug":"mike-diboll-bahrain-edinburgh-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=32885","title":{"rendered":"The downside to international education partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

I worked in higher education in Bahrain<\/a>\u00a0at the College of Arts, University of Bahrain from 2007-2008, and at Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain — founded in 2008 as a key part of the Crown Prince\u2019s \u201cBahrain 2030 Vision\u201d from 2008-2011 — where I was Academic Head of Continuing Professional Development, and was closely involved in the start-up of the college. The last time I set foot there was 13March 2011, when I bore witness to an attack<\/a> on a peaceful anti-government protest by armed outsiders, followed by a general melee involving pro- and anti-government supporters, the latter backed up by the riot police.\u00a0 I sent testimony and supporting evidence based on what I witnessed to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry<\/a> (BICI).<\/p>\n

The University of Bahrain, Bahrain Teachers College, and Bahrain Polytechnic have effectively lost whatever autonomy they once had from the Bahrain Ministry of Education, and are now an extension of the regime. The Bahrain Ministry of Education is deeply complicit in repression. From mid-2010 onwards, I witnessed the toxic effects of institutionalised sectarianism, the suppression of academic freedom and the violation of civil and human rights at the University of Bahrain. These continue to this day.<\/p>\n

The University of Bahrain refused to accept my May 2011 resignation, thereby depriving me of a substantial settlement, citing surveillance of my Internet use to invoke contract clauses against \u201cunauthorised political activity\u201d and \u201cpromoting sectarianism\u201d. My wife and I are now prohibited from re-entering Bahrain.<\/p>\n

In \u00a0December 2011 the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) presented its Academic Freedom Award<\/a> to:<\/p>\n

\u2026all faculty, students and staff of Bahraini institutions of higher education who, by speaking out, documenting abuses, and engaging in myriad other forms of resistance have struggled against a range of brutal assaults by the Bahraini government upon academic freedom and upon the autonomy and integrity of the country\u2019s educational institutions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On 20 September 2011 MESA wrote its third letter<\/a> of 2011 to Dr Majed Al Noaimi, the Bahrain Minister of Education, to express its \u201cserious concern over the ongoing assaults, arrests, and dismissals of individuals connected to academic institutions in Bahrain\u201d<\/p>\n

On 27 November 2011 The Chronicle of\u00a0Higher Education\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0\u201c\u2026attacks on academic freedom, including the dismissals of professors and students for participating in political demonstrations last spring”,\u00a0while on the 16 May it reported that the University of Bahrain was ” requiring students to sign pledges of support for the government of King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa\u201d.<\/p>\n

When these abuses were pointed out to the University of Edinburgh in early 2012, it\u00a0pulled out<\/a> of a proposed deal with the Ministry of Education. Rector-elect at the University of Edinburgh Peter McColl e-mailed me on 26 January, saying \u201cI share your concerns\u201d and Edinburgh University Student Association President Matthew McPherson wrote a handwritten letter to me on 27 January stating<\/a>: \u201cThe student body at Edinburgh shares your concerns, and I am glad the University has decided to withdraw the agreement in question\u201d.<\/p>\n

Finally, Edinburgh University\u2019s Principal wrote to me on 30 January saying: \u201cYour letter was of interest and I note your personal experience and the important information it contained. I am in a position to confirm that the University of Edinburgh will not proceed with the work in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

University internationalisation is fast becoming and important revenue stream for cash-strapped UK universities. More positively, it leads to the internationalization of curricula, and a globalised learning environment for all students. Governments are also keen to use quality higher education institutions as a means of projecting \u201csoft power\u201d. However, to be sustainable, internationalisation has to have an ethical dimension if such relationships are not to be used as PR to legitimise oppressive regimes. The University of Edinburgh withdrawal is important, since now other UK universities contemplating involvement with Bahrain will have to follow Edinburgh\u2019s lead, or explain why they have a different set of ethical standards.<\/p>\n

The ball is now in Bahrain\u2019s court. If it wants real higher education reform, the deeper crises of political legitimacy, representation, human rights and equality of opportunity will have to be addressed first. A tree that has been planted in unprepared soil will die.<\/p>\n

Mike Diboll is former head of Professional Development at the Bahrain Teacher’s College, with an interest in education and the Middle East. He tweets at @MikeDiboll<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I worked in higher education in Bahrain\u00a0at the College of Arts, University of Bahrain from 2007-2008, and at Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain — founded in 2008 as a key part of the Crown Prince\u2019s \u201cBahrain 2030 Vision\u201d from 2008-2011 — where I was Academic Head of Continuing Professional Development, and was closely involved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8843,4060],"tags":[7405,4303,3866,4302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32885"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32926,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32885\/revisions\/32926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}