Volume 24, number 1 (2003)
Theme Issue: Canadian Universities and International Development
Canadian Universities and International Development: Learning from Experience — Introduction
This introduction locates the special issue’s focus on Canadian universities and development within the current discourse on “internationalization.” We argue that the push for the internationalization of universities does not necessarily address international development unless universities demonstrate a strong commitment to make development, and its related goals of poverty reduction, social justice, and global citizenship, central to their teaching, research, and outreach functions. Our own project experiences in Brazil and Vietnam are used as background to discuss the insights emerging from the papers that follow. The paper concludes that universities could simultaneously enhance their contributions to development, while strengthening themselves as learning institutions. They could structure more lasting partnerships with developing country institutions, approach projects and partnerships in a spirit of mutual learning through engagement with complex social problems rather than as knowledge transfer exercises, develop more collaborative relationships with funding agencies, better integrate development work with teaching and research missions, and apply resources to the ongoing study of universities themselves.
Linking Lessons: Disentangling the Subtexts
The objective of this paper is to identify some problems and contradictions in the concept of “linkage” as Canadian universities have tried to develop it with their “partners” in the South (and in the North). After an analysis of the ideological framing of such projects in the official documents of one university and of CIDA and AUCC, I will take examples (both positive and negative) from the three main stages of a project — project design, project implementation, and project evaluation, attempting in each case to suggest ways in which current practice can be strengthened and made more conceptually coherent.
How University Projects Produce Development Results: Lessons from Twenty Years of Canada-China Co-operation in Higher Education
While aid agencies may remain sceptical about university projects, a review of 20 years of Canada-China higher education co-operation demonstrates that, when they are successful, higher-education interventions can produce durable and far-reaching results. The review highlights the “knowledge advantage” of university co-operation, including the inherent results multipliers of teaching and research, and the multi-generational nature of project participants. CIDA and Canadian universities should move from a transactional to a strategic relationship. Engaging a new generation of faculty and students, renovating centres of expertise and building knowledge networks are important tasks for the future.
Working and Worrying Partnership: A Case Study of a Long-Term Academic Development Project in China
This paper consists of a case study of a long-term academic development project in China. The background and framework of the project as a whole are first described, and then the particular context and goals of work in three focus areas — gender studies, moral education, and minority and bilingual education — are elaborated in more detail. Some of the more notable results and their impact are identified for each focus. Attention is then given to an evaluative account of special challenges faced, how they were approached, and worries about structural obstacles to truly collaborative partnering.
Human and Institutional Capacity Enhancement for Environmental Management in Indonesia: The Experience of the University Consortium on the Environment, 1987–2002
The University Consortium on the Environment involved collaboration among [the University of] Waterloo, York [University], and seven Indonesian universities in Java and Sulawesi in a comprehensive effort to enhance the capacity of Environmental Studies Centres in Indonesian universities to support good environmental management. Focusing on graduate student education (for both Indonesians and Canadians), joint faculty research, workshops, and the preparation of academic publications and practical training manuals, this large, complex project yields a number of important lessons. Important factors relating to success include forms of participation, leadership and management, institutional relations and structures, communication, and cross-cutting themes for environmental research, training, and management. The experience demonstrates the particular values and challenges of undertaking such projects in Canadian universities.
Issues of Participation in a University–Non-Governmental Organization, North-South Partnership: Internationalizing a Community Economic Development Program
The increasing collaboration of universities with outside organizations in international development work has been accompanied by a number of issues and challenges, particularly in the critical area of participation and partnership. Some of these challenges are common to collaborative North-South development initiatives in general (for example, logistical difficulties, cultural differences, unequal power relations), while others are rooted in the particular values, structures, and regulations of universities and their partners (for example, systems of career advancement, grant recognition, disciplinary fragmentation, government-mandated regulations). These issues are addressed within the context of a CIDA/UPCD project to create a community economic development program in Mexico, involving a partnership between a Canadian public university (SFU), a Mexican private university (ITESM), and a Mexican NGO (CEDAC) oriented toward community development and poverty alleviation. Analysis and policy recommendations focus on the following issues: the need for (government) funders to encourage a more truly participatory approach to development by assuming a more flexible, less formulaic stance toward use of, and control over, financial resources between Canadian and overseas partners; and the need for universities to match their rhetoric concerning internationalization with concrete measures to add incentives and remove disincentives to the participation of academic programs and faculty in practical development initiatives.
Learning the Culture of Partnership: A Case Study in Collaboration Between a Canadian University and its Costa Rican Partner
This paper is a review of an international collaboration with Costa Rica currently underway between the University of Toronto Centre for Research in Women’s Health (CRWH) — a designated WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre in Women’s Health — and the Centro de Investigación en Estudios de la Mujer [Centre for Research in Women’s Studies] of the University of Costa Rica, based on an analysis of written correspondence, minutes, contracts, and other documents between the principals, spanning a three-year period. The review was undertaken to understand better the dynamics of the partnership and to develop a critical understanding of the impact of external conditions, partner relationships, and cultural issues. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for Northern universities, their Southern partners, and funding agencies alike.
Flexible Networking in Research Capacity Building at the National University of Laos: Lessons for North-South Collaboration
This paper describes a research-training project for building social science research capacity at the National University of Laos (NUOL), supported by IDRC. At the international level, the project was structured as a flexible network of resource persons from six countries. The main successes of the project turned out to be unanticipated: the project offered significant insights to NUOL’s ongoing assessment of its administrative capacity to manage university-based research. The flexibility of the network approach, combined with a structure that oriented the international network toward engaging with, and responding to, needs articulated by NUOL staff, proved crucial to the project’s ability to respond to changing institutional needs in NUOL. The importance of paying careful attention to how projects can be structured so that they are responsive to Southern needs has been heightened by intensified pressure in Canadian universities to generate funds, while promoting excellence in research and training takes a backseat.
Evaluation of Capacity and Policy Development for Environmental Sustainability: A Case from Himachal Pradesh, India
The Kullu District in Himachal Pradesh, India, a Himalayan mountain area, has experienced rapid development in tourism, agriculture and hydro-electricity with substantial impact on the local society, economy, and environment. This paper describes a project undertaken in the area since 1994 by the Universities of Manitoba and Delhi involving collaborative research and action to promote environmental sustainability. Collaboration, in addition to that between the universities, involved government agencies, non-governmental organizations, unions, educational institutions, and local residents. The results of this field activity led to an evaluation of collaborative planning and development. Objectives relating to capacity building within the universities and action-research were achieved, whereas objectives relating to policy development in environmental sustainability were frustrated by the institutional context and a lack of time and resources.
Academics as Citizens: Collaborative Applied Interdisciplinary Research in the Service of Communities
The article uses two case studies from native Dene Aboriginal communities in the Canadian boreal forest and the Alaskan Arctic, to argue that university-community partnerships are essential to applied interdisciplinary research and community development. It analyzes development research in those communities, with particular reference to human ecology and the impact of chemical pollutants, as well as the empowerment of women. Employing foundational concepts of community participation and indigenous knowledge, it outlines innovative outcomes arising from collaborative research and concludes with key lessons for universities. It suggests that universities be socially responsible, institutional citizens by participating in development initiatives; provide an enabling environment for engagement with communities; and integrate research and teaching in a way that emphasizes community benefit as the essential objective. The article also argues for a redefinition of merit criteria to reward publications that may not fit an academic genre but are useful for communities and policy makers. Finally, it emphasizes support for co-production of knowledge with indigenous communities and an acknowledgement of their proprietary rights over such knowledge.