Workshop Scope

Economic growth is increasingly tied to the supply of individuals with advanced research based education in science and technology (S&T). Countries that possess such resources will be able to attract research and development (R&D) activities of international companies and are likely to see a marked growth of new, domestic high technology industries.

However, many rich countries are unable to convince a sufficient number of their brightest young people to study the science and engineering subjects in high demand. This has led to an increasing import of young scientists from poor countries (brain drain). Most of these countries cannot afford the loss of their best talents and of the investments in their education.

The workshop aims at clarifying the problems related to capacity building at a high level in S&T in industrialized and developing countries and to explore solutions that ensure a balanced and ethically correct supply of this highly valuable “soft” resource. These solutions involve national initiatives in rich and poor countries, aid and development programs targeting capacity building in advanced S&T and the need for broader international cooperation and coordination.

The workshop is organized by the Science Committee of the Danish National Commission for UNESCO and the Niels Bohr Institute and is sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Education, the Niels Bohr Institute/University of Copenhagen and the University of Aalborg, Denmark.

Foreword

by Torben Krogh, Chairman of the Danish National Commission for UNESCO

Through at least three – perhaps four – decades the traditional European and North American donor communities have given low priority to higher education in their foreign aid. The perception has been that such education is restricted to a rather limited and comparatively wealthy segment of the developing societies. Furthermore, one of the first main theories of foreign aid – the so-called trickle down effect – turned out to have major flaws when it came to the practical consequences.

Experience in recent years has shown, however, that higher education does play a vital role in the overall development of societies with a modest gross national product per capita. During the Workshop at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen 17 – 18 May 2005 – the result of which is published in this report – several examples were highlighted in this context. Also, the participants, contributing from very different professional backgrounds, presented very convincing arguments of a more analytical nature to underscore the point, that higher education should be given higher priority in the development cooperation.

Some donor agencies and countries – notably Germany and Sweden – have moved in that direction in recent years. Nevertheless, as it becomes clear from the proceedings much still has to be done. At the same time it is clear that such a process will not be without complexities. One serious threat, hovering over such an effort, will be the risk of brain drain. During the later years highly developed countries have suffered from lack of qualified, highly educated persons. To various degrees they have tried to make good for this by attracting such individuals from the developing world.

Here it has to be realized, however, that this phenomenon is closely related to lack of research possibilities, professional challenges and proper salaries in the countries of origin. Consequently, brain drain can not be countered just by a change of policy in the receiving countries. The most important factor in this regard is reinforcement of the scientific and research activities in the developing countries themselves.

This point is forcefully underscored by the plurality of presentations in the proceedings. For us in the Danish National Commission for UNESCO it has been rewarding and eye-opening to be associated with this initiative. It is with great pleasure that I recommend this publication to everyone who is engaged in international development cooperation and more specifically in the thrust to strengthen the educational component in foreign aid – not least higher and research based education.

Foreword

by the Programme Committee

Universities in many industrialised countries have a dilemma regarding developing countries. On the one hand faculty and students may be highly motivated to deal with exactly their problems in terms of education and research, and often the universities in their policies and strategic goals express solidarity with the South (the developing countries). On the other hand, the ministry under which the universities operate usually has no policy regarding development in general (not to speak of development in foreign countries), and there is no budget to sustain possible ambitions of this kind. Governments often have a strong interest in developing countries. For example, during times of overheated economies, governments may try to find badly needed talent by offering scholarships to top level foreign students or lucrative jobs to skilled graduates from abroad. This leads to a debate about brain gain by wealthy countries at the cost of brain drain in developing countries.

On this background the Workshop Programme Committee consisting of representatives from Aalborg University, University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University decided to organise a workshop to analyse the problems and seek ways and means of addressing the dilemma constructively. The workshop was sponsored jointly by the Danish National Commission for UNESCO, University of Copenhagen and Aalborg University.

The Programme Committee is grateful to speakers, sponsors and participants for making the workshop possible and thereby also this publication of the results from presentations and discussions. Special gratitude goes to the authors who took the time to write down their oral presentations and to the rapporteurs who took notes during discussions. The rapporteurs were Ingrid Karlsson from Uppsala University, Ole Mertz from Copenhagen University,and Laura Zurita, Birgitte Gregersen and Eskild Holm Nielsen from Aalborg University. We thank Helle Glen Petersen from the secretariat of the Danish National Commission for UNESCO who did an excellent job in pulling strings together before and after the workshop and getting this publication ready for print.

The Programme Committee has tried to summarise the outcomes of the workshop and their own views in the introductory paper, and to make some conclusions. However, the reader is encouraged to consult the original papers provided by the authors in full in this booklet. We hope that this publication will provide food for thought regarding capacity building in higher education and research in general, and the role universities may play in bilateral and multilateral international aid programmes in particular.

Opening Address

by Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje, Professor, the Danish National Commission for UNESCO and the Niels Bohr Institute

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It is my significant pleasure to welcome you in Copenhagen for the work-shop:

Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research on a Global Scale

organized by the Danish National Commission for UNESCO. The meeting has been sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Education, The University of Aalborg and the Niels Bohr Institute/University of Copenhagen.

There is a worldwide perception that continued economic growth in the world will increasingly be based on a new type of “raw material”. This new resource cannot be dug out of the ground like gold and diamonds, but is tied to the ingenuity of humans. Indeed, in an increasingly complex world, development is intimately tied to creating new materials, methods, and products. The country that has the best conditions for creating new ideas and concepts also has the most direct route to gaining an edge in world competition to the benefit of its population.

Needless to say this requires individuals with advanced training and higher education and, in particular, with research training, principally within Science and Technology.

However, the “raw material” of the “knowledge based economy” is hard to come by and most countries experience a shortage of people with advanced training in research and development.

The threshold is low for trying to compensate for own shortcomings by “borrowing” from others by providing conditions of living and research that far exceed those that are available in the country of origin. This leads to the well know brain drain problem for some, to a brain gain for others.

The brain gain dilemma is complex and has many overtones related to economic development. Unchecked brain drain increases the divide between rich and poor countries by draining poorer countries of their costly investment and hinders the development of many regions of the world. At the same time brain gain is for other countries a condition for maintaining a high standard of living.

Brain drain is thus a global problem which can only be overcome by building up sufficient capacities in the countries and regions. How to do that in a balanced way is the subject of the present workshop. I hope that our discussions in the next two days can help clarify the problems and issues at hand and perhaps also provide some guidelines for how to act in the future.

I hope that the participants will be inspired buy the atmosphere of this venerable institute founded by Niels Bohr.

Bohr as you know, a passionate believer in the open world and the free exchange of ideas, founded an institute based on international cooperation, running an extended visitor program here at Blegdamsvej, most of whom returned to their home countries and build up new areas of science, often founding what we today would call centers of excellence.

I invite you in the break to take a look at the pictures framing this room.

I trust that our discussion will be equally far reaching and lively as the many that have taken place and still take place here on physics and quantum mechanics, and …. that they will make up for the hard benches that have changed little since the 20’ties.

On behalf of the organizers, Erik W. Thulstrup, Jens Aage Hansen and myself, I wish you all a good and productive workshop.

Opening Address

by Henrik Toft Jensen, President, Roskilde University, Danish Rectors’ Conference

It is a pleasure for me to address this workshop “Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research on a Global Scale”.

In a fast developing world it is important to be aware of and to create actions to meet manpower needs in Science and Technology.

First of all it is universities and scientists who should be active in this field and as the chair of the International Committee of the Danish Rectors’ Conference I can inform you that Danish universities have a current project on building universities for the future. This is in response to internal demands for being live and active academic institutions working on the leading edge in research and higher education. And it is in response to external demands from government, civil society and industry regarding partnerships in developing a knowledge society, e.g. in terms of advanced development and use of science, technology and innovation.

Actions from international organisations are very important, and I would like to stress that capacity building and North-South relationship is on the agenda in the two global university organisations “International Association of Universities” and “International Association of University Presidents” as well as in many regional university organisations such as the European University Association.

I would like to stress that global organisations are very important in this capacity building. Therefore, it is promising that representatives from The World Bank, OECD and UNESCO are participating in this conference and the workshops. This will contribute to secure the global dimension.

But let me return to researchers and universities active in this capacity building.

International and mutual interactions as well as establishment of partnerships across traditional borderlines (cultural, academic, geographical, and technical) are necessary for universities to meet future and global demands. There is a long tradition for doing so, in particular between universities in the industrialised world. Interaction between countries and universities in the industrialised and in the developing world is much less obvious and not always mutually beneficial and productive. But over the past decade there are some interesting examples of Danish university involvement in capacity building in the 3rd world.

One example is the ENRECA (Enhancing Research Capacity in Developing Countries) with a budget of app. US $ 8 million/y and about 40 projects running a project contributing to capacity building and partnership between North and South. The ENRECA evaluation in 2000 also identifies a dilemma between doing research and building capacity to do research and use the results. The weaker the economy, the more need for capacity building before real research can be done. Occasionally, this places the donor country researcher in a difficult position, because the demand at home is publishable results from real research, while time spent on education and tutoring does not create academic merit. But institutional and educational capacity building is a prerequisite for research, and therefore we hope that the donor agency DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency) will increase budgets to allow for a combined building of institutional, educational and research capacity. Danish faculty and graduate students have performed very well and with great enthusiasm in ENRECA projects and overall the evaluation in 2000 was very positive. Universities have contributed financially in terms of time and use of equipment.

Another example is Danish University Consortia for Environment and Development, DUCED-I&UA for Industry and Urban Areas, and DUCED-SLUSE for Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Development. These two consortia comprise some 20 universities in Botswana, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia and Denmark and the annual budget from the donor (DANIDA) was app. 4 million US $/y. Universities contributed a similar amount of resources.

The DUCED programme was designed for education capacity building (curricula), but in order to install new capacity at universities and maintain the enthusiasm of faculty and graduate students, the research component increased over time in terms of several Phd. students enrolled and forming a core group of capacity builders.

What can been learnt from the ENRECA and DUCED programmes is very important.

The programmes have been successful in building capacity, in particular when combining institutional, educational and research aspects in the programmes.

The programmes have been very cost effective, but obviously the institutional and educational capacity building process in recipient countries requires extra input from donor agencies. The Danish universities cannot absorb this in their budgets which are made for national activities so far.

The experience gained by Danish universities is of high value for both Danish students and faculty in terms of preparing for careers in Denmark and internationally. So in effect, capacity building has taken place both in South and North and has been mutually beneficial.

The simple conclusion is that Danish universities are ready for more of that type of experience and international networking, simply because it means providing the foundation for knowledge societies, and the basis for global prosperity, democratic development, and reduction of poverty.

This workshop addresses capacity building in higher education and research and there is focus on the potential conflicts of interest between the rich and the poor countries. Universities in both worlds provide the ideal platform for an important continued dialogue, oriented at creating action towards mutually beneficial progress. A dialogue orientated at creating of a mutually beneficial roadmap and define action to achieve progress. The workshop also includes donor institutions and university representatives from different countries. The ground seems to be laid for a constructive exchange of experience and for shaping some of the foundation necessary to move ahead.

On behalf of the Danish Rectors’ Conference I look forward to the results from this workshop. I hope mechanisms for increased future university involvement in capacity building and for better interaction between universities and donor organisations will be some of the results of your efforts.

I wish you two successful days in Copenhagen.

This page is included in the publication "Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research on a Global Scale"
© The Ministry of Education 2006