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Reconciling Development and National Interest in an age of uncertainty.

n  Karen Medica, PhD Candidate, Monash, Department of Management

Australia Awards - ‘Sacred Cow’?

Agenda today

1.  Background and Quick facts on Scholarships 2.  Look at funding allocations, including

comparisons between Scholarships, ANCP and AVID (last year’s budget)

3.  Consider the rationale for the Australia Awards and why the program has been relatively quarantined from the recent aid cuts

4.  Suggest recommendations to bring back ‘Development’ into Scholarship program

Foreign Aid - Age of Uncertainty n  $11 billion cut (2014-5 aid

budget); $3.7 billion (2014) n  NGO wave of program cuts -

Plan; World Vision ($5.5m) n  Volunteering (30%) n  Scholarships (may be affected –

likely 30-40% cuts but unconfirmed in the absence of further info.

The Government has taken a ‘wrecking ball’ to Australia’ aid program. $11 billion from the aid budget in just over 12 months (ACFID, December 2014)

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DFAT Development Scholarships

n  (Historical) Colombo Plan – 1951-1980 - 20,000 + n  Scholarships premised on delivering improved human

capacity that will lead to economic development n  In Australia’s national interest – huge returns to our national

economy – fees, living costs, etc. n  DFAT - Development and Leadership Awards, Prime

Ministers Pacific Award, ACIAR - excludes Endeavour and New Colombo Plan

n  Mandatory return of awardees to home country for minimum 2 years.

DFAT Development Scholarships cont’d

n  $300K - PhD (4 years); $150K - Masters (2 years) n  Other costs – Managing Contractors; Alumni grants

& events; DFAT A-based and O-based staff, extensions, drop-outs (eg PhDs around 20 per cent)

n  Most scholarships are government targeted (around 70%) - stipends paid on-award from home government

n  Selection – 40% based on assumed development outcome

2013-4

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2013-4

Program Snapshot 2014-5

* Snapshot does not include all programs

New Colombo Plan – DFAT ‘diplomacy funding’

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Awards Program quarantined

n  2014 – DFAT invested $362.2m (6% total ODE) - 4,400 awards

n  2015 – difficult to know implications for the Scholarship program from the recent aid cuts – some predictions of 30-40% cuts but unconfirmed

n  Scholarship Impact not known - issues of transparency ANAO 1999 – performance indicators to measure outcomes of ADS program lacking, in terms of measuring contribution to poverty Challenge of measuring ROI beyond level of individual

Aid Measures by comparison Budget Development

Awards ANCP funding AVID

2013-4 $362.5 million $131 million $55.3 million

2014-5 (ests)

$360.0 million $134 million $56.6

Australia Development Awards (excluding Endeavour Awards and New Colombo Plan is more than double the combined funding for ANCP and AVID)

“The logic of the aid scholarship scheme is best understood as the neo-liberal discourse of a ‘trickle-down’ effect” (Stieglitz, 2009)

Rationale #1: ‘Trickle down’

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Rationale #2: ‘bums on seats’ Ø 2014 – foreign students

contributed unprecedented $16.6 b – Australia’s 4th biggest export

Ø 2025 – Australian government seeking to double numbers of international students and associated visitors to Australia

Rationale 3: Soft Diplomacy

•  People-to-People linkages – networks, etc. Ø  Evidence that awardees

develop their closest links with other co-nationals and third-country nationals while in Australia (research in progress)

Rationale #4: Boomerang effect

Ø Course Fees (subsidise local students)

Ø Living expenses (housing, utilities, food, other goods, recreation, insurances

Ø In many instances family members join – more money spent in Australia

Another delivery mechanism for exporting Australian education, with the principal mode being training of foreign students in Australia (Hughes, 1998).

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Other factors? The specific breakdown of aid packages negotiated as part of re-settlement deals is unclear and not transparent Scholarships are a relatively quick and easy mechanism to distribute aid, plus considerable benefit returns to the Australian economy

Success stories n Many examples of good

development outcomes n DFAT case studies – impacts include the

areas of disability, gender, health, etc n Soft power diplomacy, the Awards

program appears to be effective – ie many Alumni in senior leadership roles

n Links to programming – eg Knowledge Economy (Indonesia) – supply/demand

Recommendation #1 n  Calculating donor spend on scholarships is complex

given ODA figures report total funding for the Education Sector as a whole with no disaggregation for higher education scholarship programs.

n  Evaluation studies in the public domain for reasons of transparency and sharing lessons learned

Australia should ensure an evidence-based approach to the delivery of aid (ACFID Recommendation 12). Transparency – Need clear information from DFAT on disaggregation of Australia Awards (budget blue book)

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Recommendation #2

n  Selection – don’t assume a development outcome (more tangible evidence) - applications will tell selection panels what they want to hear.

n  Motivation is linked to individual career-related goals (scant reference only to development objectives – research, in progress)

Recommendation #3

n  Bring back ‘Development’ in the Australia Awards program

n  Prepare awardees to deliver a development outcome (not just English, Academic, Cultural preparedness

n  Mandatory to go back, but should be mandatory to deliver development outcomes – linked to poverty alleviation

Recommendation #4 n  Tensions – elitism – highly competitive

nature of the Awards (1:15 applications on average) – selection on merit to the ‘best and brightest’

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Recommendation #5

n  ‘Soft diplomacy’ doesn’t have to occur in Australia – awards can be delivered offshore (and to more people for the same dollars)

n Different models to deliver higher education – MOOCS, transnational education (TNE), deliver regionally (eg Pacific scholarships)

Development Awards n  http://dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/australia-

awards/Pages/australia-awards.aspx n  Alumni (sustained people-to-people linkages) –

soft power diplomacy

Where’s the Development Outcome?

– thanks Karen Karen.medica@monash.edu

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Further Information n  ACFID Federal Budget submission, Feb 2015 n  ANAO (1999; 2011), Management of Australian

Development Scholarships Scheme2015 Draft National Strategy for International Education

n  ANU Centre n  DEVEX updates – www.devex.com n  DFAT Australia Awards – dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/

australia-awards n  DFAT (2014) Performance of Australian Aid n  DFAT (2014) Portfolio Budget Statement n  Medica, K (2011) - Mixed Motives in Australia’s Higher

Education Scholarship Programme (Norrad, 2011)