By: Staff Writer
August 3, 2021
A high level committee commissioned by the University of London on the matter of keeping Commonwealth Studies in the school’s curriculum says that the institute is “important” to the standing of the University and should not be scrapped.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former British minister for foreign affairs under the John Major administration, chaired a Committee of Inquiry into the relevance and necessity of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London with his committee finding in a report that the Institute for Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) is important to the overall good standing of the University and none of his committee members voted to have the Institute closed down, despite the financial challenges the University and the Institute has been experiencing over the last several years.
The report states: “We were impressed that none of the 78 written submissions or evidence from 11 witnesses that we received, supported the closure of the ICwS. All the submissions regarded the Institute as important to the standing of the University of London as an institution of academic excellence and considered that an enhanced Institute could contribute even more to their 72-years of valuable association. Many proposals were made concerning the ways in which work of the Institute could be widened, adding both academic value and further revenues to the University.”
Some of these proposals for widening the work of the ICwS included, widening what constitutes Commonwealth Studies to include dynamics such as racism and climate change solutions. Also, the activity of the ICwS should be widened where the report said regarding the use of technology for the ICwS to do its work: “The financial restraints on the ICwS supporting Commonwealth-wide events and networks, were now more easily overcome. We believe that the ICwS can build upon this virtual breakthrough to help establish itself as a centre of the many nongovernmental Commonwealth networks.”
The report also said: “We are in agreement that for the ICwS to serve a contemporary purpose, it needs a contemporary focus. Without losing its independence, it must align itself to the Commonwealth as a group of states, organisations and civil society bodies and have greater involvement in contributing to debates around issues that are of concern to the Commonwealth itself and to the Commonwealth in the wider world. In other words, while the ICwS should continue to generate its own research and teaching on Commonwealth issues (as it does in partnership with other Institutions), its emphasis should be on building a unique position between academia and the official organisations of the Commonwealth.”
Some new areas of focus have also been highlighted, including:
• Greatly enhancing the Institute’s virtual conferencing and online technology to facilitate dialogue and collaboration across the Commonwealth.
• Working with Commonwealth institutions and networks to promote dialogue at a grassroots level.
• Expanding its research capability from its traditional, strong base in the Commonwealth’s history and identity, to become a think-tank type generator of new ideas for the modern Commonwealth as a geo-political entity, providing thought leadership and policy solutions for contemporary Commonwealth issues.
• Helping advance Commonwealth negotiations on critical issues such as Climate Change.
• Greater engagement with civil society organisations, legal networks, academic institutions, scientific bodies, and human rights institutions in respect of Commonwealth values and aspirations, as stated in the Charter of the Commonwealth.
Financial constraints are a reality, however, but this is a challenge the committee, while empathetic to the burden the ICwS has put on the University, felt that the University and the ICwS benefit each other and lowering staff complements is not the answer to solving the problem.
The report said: “The University of London, particularly since 1949 with the advent of the ICwS, has been the leading exponent of historic multi-disciplinary studies and contemporary issues, working with academic colleagues in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and other universities throughout the Commonwealth on research, dialogue, conferences, and other areas of common academic interest. Further, throughout the 19th and early 20th century, London has attracted to the University many tens of thousands of students, lawyers, scientists and others from throughout the Commonwealth. London’s transformation into what is now the most multiracial of all the world’s great capital cities, with an elected Mayor of Asian origin, has made London not only a great British City but also a Commonwealth one – with the University of London as a beneficiary. That value cannot be discounted, nor can it be replaced.
“We received a report from the University of London, outlining the financial challenges facing the University at present. This report also presented the ICwS financial position, within the context of the SAS. While it was clear that the University is confronting considerable financial problems, we did not feel that a financial case for closing the Institute was made… ‘when we examined the finances of the Institute, we were encouraged to see that not only was it paying its own way, but in the financial year 2019-2020, it had returned a surplus.’
“To be fair, the original SAS (School of Advanced Studies) proposal did not claim that the ICwS was financially unsustainable. It cast the case for closure on academic and intellectual grounds, such as enhancing interdisciplinarity and developing key projects with law and history. After analysis, we came to the view that such interdisciplinarity exists in practice at ICwS, and that ICwS should remain as part of SAS to greater facilitate interdisciplinary cooperation.”