This weeks Henard reading included two subjects that go hand in hand, internationalization and off shore campuses, and internationalization and ethics and values. This topic was touched on this weekend in a New York Times profile of the newly appointed president of NYU, Andrew Hamilton. The Times notes recent controversies faced by NYU, including the issue of poor labor conditions during the construction of the NYU Abu Dhabi campus and the challenge of running an off shore branch in nations with authoritarian regimes.
Henards section on off shore campuses notes that the political, legal and cultural environment will differ from that of the home institution. Regarding ethics, Henard notes that attitude on ethical issues will differ across societies and that national regulations may pose ethical challenges.
We can see the difficulties of maintaining ethics and values when establishing an off shore campus in NYU Abu Dhabi. NYU made efforts to ensure labor guidelines that met US standards, to ensure fair wages, hours and living conditions of construction workers. In spite of this, the guidelines cover only two thirds of workers, with a loophole that allowed for different standards for subcontractors, which were mostly foreign workers from South Asia. An NYU professor who critized such conditions was barred from traveling to the United Arab Emirates.
Henard points out that ethical behavior in other countries and cultures may differ from behavior at home, institutions face a challenge in defining and maintaining ethical standards on their off shore campuses. Is it ethical for institutions to establish branch campuses in nations with ethical standards starkly different from our own? Complicating matters is that many global business hubs are in countries with questionable human rights records. Last month US Congressman Chris Smith spoke at NYU Shanghai, following a June congressional hearing he chaired on issues of academic freedom with partnerships between China and American Universities. Smith also raised concerns about human rights, labor rights, and treatment of ethnic minorities in China.
Should certain nations be considered off limits to American universites looking to establish branch campuses due to their human rights records? Is is possible to govern an off shore campus with our own ethics and values intact? The issues faced by the Abu Dhabi and Shanghai campuses of NYU bring up a lot of issues of maintaining the standards and institutional mission when a university expands abroad.
Allison Olly
Resources:
Andrew Hamilton http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/nyregion/andrew-hamilton-new-york-university-president.html
NYU Abu Dhabi labor: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/nyregion/nyu-labor-rules-failed-to-protect-10000-workers-in-abu-dhabi.html?_r=0
NYU Shanghai: https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/02/18/congressman-talks-human-rights-nyu-shanghai