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Title of Article

Date of Issue

Focal Country/

Countries

Focus of Article

(politics, economy, social, etc.)

Brief Synopsis of article (one paragraph)

Of all the things you learned after reading this article, what one thing stands out the most? Why?

(Explain your thought process; paragraph form)

What is the most probing question you have about what you learned? Follow-on questions are good.

(Explain your thought process; paragraph form)

1

The Scramble for Students

August 23rd, 2018

Great Britain

Education

Great Britain public universities are finding it harder to get students to attend them. The enrollment rates are dropping, and the schools are having to compete against each other to get enrollment rates to increase. In order to do this, some measures have been taken that are not necessarily the best option for the schools. “Clearing”, which is when universities can fill open spots for students who did not necessarily meet the testing standards the when applying the first time, and unconditional offers, which is when students are offered a spot in the university independent of their grades, are on the rise. Universities are becoming desperate to get students to enroll and are now taking actions that are hurting their reputation. The end of the article expressed the growing concern because birth rates during the early 2000s were lower, which will make the lower enrollment rates even lower in the near future.

I do not know a lot about Britain’s university system and was not aware of this issue before reading this article. That being said, I was able to learn a lot about issues with the education system in other parts of world and how some of the issues are similar to the United States. I know that a lot of high schools are doing away with class ranks and standardized test scores, like the ACT and SAT, are given less attention when it comes to college applications in the US. Given this knowledge, the item that stood out most for me in this article would be that unconditional offers to students increased from 1.1% in 2013 to 22.9% in 2018. This fact was the most salient to me because I was so shocked that the enrollment could be such an issue that universities are handing out so many offers to students without any consideration to having particular grades. I can see where unconditional offers can be good in some cases, but with almost a quarter of the offers given being unconditional, I can only see problems occurring. Although the US is looking at standardized testing and class rank less, these are still contributing factors to the decision they give students.

After reading this article, I was left with a few questions. The most prominent question I had was how are the universities going to combat this enrollment issue in the future, given that birthrates were lower at the beginning of the 2000s? This question was most salient to me because the issues that are arising due to the “solutions” of clearing and giving unconditional offers now will only increase as the enrollment rates get smaller. I was left wondering if some of the universities have discussed combining/joining together in order to save money on space, faculty, and other costs. This would help for a number of reasons. One being that if there were less universities to choose from, enrollment rates would increase at those that are left without having to compromise on the talent of the students who attend them. The best resources from the universities that join together could be utilized, such as taking the best professors from each university in order to strengthen the programs. This could help with the reputational damage that was incurred from the sudden surge in clearing and unconditional offers. Ultimately, the question about what the universities should do for this problem in the coming years was what I was left with because the solutions now will not be suitable long term.

2

India’s Government Turns Down Disaster Relief

August 30th, 2018

India

Disaster relief

Areas in India were hit hard with recent flood waters. Central authorities are not allowing the states to accept foreign aid in order to speed up the reconstruction process. India strives to be self-sufficient and has been denying foreign aid for many years. The UAE was wanting to donate $100 million, but the authorities denied it. Many citizens are angry because they believe that the government in Delhi was not doing enough to help the people. The government in that state asked for a certain amount of money, but they were only given about a quarter of it. India will accept foreign development aid but will refuse disaster relief aid.

Before reading this article, I was aware that certain areas of the world are more collectivistic and individualistic. My original thought was that India was a more collectivistic culture. I presumed that the people in India valued harmony, family, and fulfilling one’s duties. Since I had these presumptions about India, what I found to stick out the most after reading this article was that the people of India are actually more individualistic and value self-sufficiency. This fact was stated in the article a few different times. Another point of the article that I found surprising was that those in positions of authority held this belief strong enough to deny help that was given to them. After doing some more research on India’s culture, I was able to find that India shows an even amount of individualistic and collectivistic traits.

After reading this article and doing more research on India’s culture, I was left with one big question: when seeing the citizens of India suffering and needing aid from the floods, how did those in the central authority positions think they would raise the funds to help fix the issues that the country was left with? I understand that they were able to allot some money to the areas that needed it, but it seems obvious that the area was in more trouble and would need a lot more funding. This is especially surprising to me given that the country has almost an even amount of collectivistic and individualistic tendencies. I would assume that the collectivistic values would come through during a time when people are in clear need of help. I also know that some areas of India are not very affluent, so I would assume that getting the funding for the repairs on their own will be very hard. Ultimately, I would like to know how the country plans to help the citizens with only their resources and funding.