PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 1994 ID-39038
.
~ .
Democratic Students Union (DSU).
Students for Campus Development.
Students' Solidarity.
.
Reclaim the campus..
Fight against corporatisation and privatisation of education.
and the shrinking democratic space in campus and out. .
.
The policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation have crept into universities in the form of corporate.
funding of the c.1mpus spaces be it in education or infrastructure. Increasingly, learning is taking a back seat and.
university is becoming investor friendly to cater to the needs of the market. More and more academic programmes.
on the campus are being funded by the likes of Ford Foundation. The fact is, there is an ever-increasing attack onstudents through increasing cost of education (including the cost of living in the campus), and orienting academics.
.
towards private, international capital, rather than the need of of students and society at large. This is happening in.
tandem with the new economic policies, implemented by successive governments -Congress, NDA, UPA and.
their allies. In its policy docutnents the Indian state is positing education as a commodity of merit, available to a.
few, the resultant knowledge to be sold to the highest bidder. Natura.lly, even primary education is denied to a vast.
population. Out of the total enrollment in primary education, only 6% manage ro get into higher education. Of.
course, even this 6% is a huge market taking into consideration the population density of a country like India. Andthe race is on ro capture rhis higher education market..
It is unfortunate that this gross abdication of the responsibilty of the State from higher education and the.
resultant entry of international funding agencies have been accepted uncritically in this campus. The Global Studies.
Programme in the CSSS/SSS is a startling example of this growing insensitivity to the legitimisation of corporate.
funding in campus programmes. While the university authorities are clever enough to project .it as only aprogramn1e of exchange between two German universities and JNU it is never declared to the student communitythat this progratru11e is also promoted by such international management consultancy groups like McKinsey andthe corporate giants like BM\X/. Neither of these organisations have ever been accussed of being pro-people, orprioritising the interest of people or society over profits. McKinsey is one of the global 'experts' in implementingthe policies of globalisarion and liberalisation. In India, they are advis.ing the Maharashrra government as well as theLeft (sic!) Front government in West Bengal on economic and social policies. (One of their more visible successes is ~ the large-scale displacen1ent and mass destitution through slum demolition in the name of city beautification.) The.
studied silence and inrransparency of the JNU authorities about these funders and their practices speaks volumesabout the shrinking democratic space in our campus.Another aspect of corporatisation and privatisation of education here is the replication of disciplines,provided it it permits the unhindered entry of co rporate capital. So when a Centre for Political Studies is alreadythere we also have a Centre for Law and Governance funded by Ford which deals with topics which can very well.
come under the purview of the forn'ler. Similarly we have a Centre for International Trade and Development in SISfunded by Ford while we also have Centre for Economic Studies & Planning. It is not surprising that these parellelcentres and programmes also have a different (in other words, exorbitant) fee structures..
In a clever sleight of hand, one onslaught is used to justify another. Tthe entry of corporate funding islegitinused by the logic of subsidy cuts by the State in higher education. Scholarships are getting fewer and more.
inaccessible for most students. Even .
the scholarships meant for students from weaker, underprivilegedbackgorounds are not being withdrawn. More and more students enrolling for research are forced to be part of the.
projects run by their faculty. Most of these projects are funded by donor agencies like Ford, Rockefeller etc..
Students have little choice in deciding the areas of research. Most of the students end up doing research, whichmeets the needs of the project undertaken by the faculty. Research gets reduced to projects. Learning gets reducedto collection of data. D ata chat is later utilised elsewhere, at the behest of corporate and imperialist interests, to be.
recycled as conceptual tools or policy initiatives. The university is becornic an academic sweatshop..
surprisingly, when one's academic life depends on consenting to these corporate demands, critical thinking or .
N otdissent becomes a very risky proposition. We are taught to self-censor, to assimilate globallsation and liberalisationin our classrooms..
The JNU administration last year decided that the ,rule enacted by the University in 1972 preventing the.
faculty from raking honorarium in the projects they head should be removed. At the outset it looks very i.nnocous. .
' .
.
./ .
\ .
.
PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 1994 ID-39038
.
~ .
Democratic Students Union (DSU).
Students for Campus Development.
Students' Solidarity.
.
Reclaim the campus..
Fight against corporatisation and privatisation of education.
and the shrinking democratic space in campus and out. .
.
The policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation have crept into universities in the form of corporate.
funding of the c.1mpus spaces be it in education or infrastructure. Increasingly, learning is taking a back seat and.
university is becoming investor friendly to cater to the needs of the market. More and more academic programmes.
on the campus are being funded by the likes of Ford Foundation. The fact is, there is an ever-increasing attack onstudents through increasing cost of education (including the cost of living in the campus), and orienting academics.
.
towards private, international capital, rather than the need of of students and society at large. This is happening in.
tandem with the new economic policies, implemented by successive governments -Congress, NDA, UPA and.
their allies. In its policy docutnents the Indian state is positing education as a commodity of merit, available to a.
few, the resultant knowledge to be sold to the highest bidder. Natura.lly, even primary education is denied to a vast.
population. Out of the total enrollment in primary education, only 6% manage ro get into higher education. Of.
course, even this 6% is a huge market taking into consideration the population density of a country like India. Andthe race is on ro capture rhis higher education market..
It is unfortunate that this gross abdication of the responsibilty of the State from higher education and the.
resultant entry of international funding agencies have been accepted uncritically in this campus. The Global Studies.
Programme in the CSSS/SSS is a startling example of this growing insensitivity to the legitimisation of corporate.
funding in campus programmes. While the university authorities are clever enough to project .it as only aprogramn1e of exchange between two German universities and JNU it is never declared to the student communitythat this progratru11e is also promoted by such international management consultancy groups like McKinsey andthe corporate giants like BM\X/. Neither of these organisations have ever been accussed of being pro-people, orprioritising the interest of people or society over profits. McKinsey is one of the global 'experts' in implementingthe policies of globalisarion and liberalisation. In India, they are advis.ing the Maharashrra government as well as theLeft (sic!) Front government in West Bengal on economic and social policies. (One of their more visible successes is ~ the large-scale displacen1ent and mass destitution through slum demolition in the name of city beautification.) The.
studied silence and inrransparency of the JNU authorities about these funders and their practices speaks volumesabout the shrinking democratic space in our campus.Another aspect of corporatisation and privatisation of education here is the replication of disciplines,provided it it permits the unhindered entry of co rporate capital. So when a Centre for Political Studies is alreadythere we also have a Centre for Law and Governance funded by Ford which deals with topics which can very well.
come under the purview of the forn'ler. Similarly we have a Centre for International Trade and Development in SISfunded by Ford while we also have Centre for Economic Studies & Planning. It is not surprising that these parellelcentres and programmes also have a different (in other words, exorbitant) fee structures..
In a clever sleight of hand, one onslaught is used to justify another. Tthe entry of corporate funding islegitinused by the logic of subsidy cuts by the State in higher education. Scholarships are getting fewer and more.
inaccessible for most students. Even .
the scholarships meant for students from weaker, underprivilegedbackgorounds are not being withdrawn. More and more students enrolling for research are forced to be part of the.
projects run by their faculty. Most of these projects are funded by donor agencies like Ford, Rockefeller etc..
Students have little choice in deciding the areas of research. Most of the students end up doing research, whichmeets the needs of the project undertaken by the faculty. Research gets reduced to projects. Learning gets reducedto collection of data. D ata chat is later utilised elsewhere, at the behest of corporate and imperialist interests, to be.
recycled as conceptual tools or policy initiatives. The university is becornic an academic sweatshop..
surprisingly, when one's academic life depends on consenting to these corporate demands, critical thinking or .
N otdissent becomes a very risky proposition. We are taught to self-censor, to assimilate globallsation and liberalisationin our classrooms..
The JNU administration last year decided that the ,rule enacted by the University in 1972 preventing the.
faculty from raking honorarium in the projects they head should be removed. At the outset it looks very i.nnocous. .
' .
.
./ .
\ .
.