3. (cc.
Dr Carey replied that the latter suggestion was certainly one which was worth pursuing, and that he had already briefed the Head of the Southeast Asia Department at the FCO, Julian Hartland-Swann, about the scheme. As regards the first point made by the Warden, he begged to differ and stressed that the two operations of fund-raising for bursaries/scholarships and for a post in Modern Southeast Asian studies were closely linked since the first could not really come about (in the social science subjects at least) without the latter: ie, that if the University went ahead with the scholarship/bursary scheme alone, it would soon find itself in the acutely embarrassing situation of not being able to provide adequate teaching /supervision in the social sciences, not to
speak of the near total blank which would exist in the teaching of matters relating to Southeast Asia.
4. Mr McCarthy came in at this point to stress that when Southeast Asian students came to Oxford in the future, they would certainly be keen to be able to relate their courses to their home regions, and that, for example, a graduate course in International Relations which enabled them to choose at least one paper on the politics of Southeast Asia, would make a very attractive option. He also mentioned that following on his conversations with Sir Donald Hawley, the chairman of the Anglo-Malaysian Society, in London on 23 October, that there was a good deal of interest in the Oxford scheme in UK/Malaysian businesses, who would be much more prepared to consider stumping up five figure sums (i.e. between £10,000 and £50,000) if they knew that (a) the University itself had been prepared to put forward some substantial 'seed finance' ie of the order of £50,000, and that (b) one or two of the big foundations like Leverhulme had come forward with commensurate or slightly larger sums. After discussions with Sir Geoffrey Allen about the Leverhulme Trust, he felt optimistic that this could be a major source of funding for the post provided it was approached in the correct manner. the erstwhile Warden of Merton, Sir Rex Richards (now Chairman of the Leverhulme Trust) would be a crucial person here, He agreed to write to Dr Carey from Malaysia about the correct way of approaching Leverhulme either through Sir Geoffrey Allen or through the Chairman of the organisation himself.
5. The Warden of Merton then asked for clarification about the scholarship/ bursary side of the proposed scheme, and stressed that in his experience countries like Taiwan and Singapore had always had a very clear idea of the sort of scholarships which they wished to see offered, namely those which would help their brightest graduates obtain further training and qualifications in the applied sciences, rather than the social sciences/humanities. Dr Carey replied
that, while he was well aware of the demand in these areas from Southeast Asian countries (he cited here the recently established Anglo-Indonesian Trust fund which was now sending up to sixty Indonesians students a year to complete degrees in such subjects as chartered accountancy, applied economics, business management and computer sciences), the Oxford scheme had been conceived precisely not to duplicate the already existing scholarship/bursary arrangements, but to concentrate on training the potential 'high-fliers' from Southeast Asian countries in the humanities, men and women who were likely to go on to make their mark in the political life of their respective countries. Dr Roberts came in at this point, and underlined the very difficult situation which the University already found itself in with regard to providing adequate supervision in
atters relating to Southeast Asia for the small trickle of graduate students who have studied here over the past few years, and stressed that the provision vi a new post in Southeast Asian Studies (to be held by an international relations or political science expert) was a top priority. At the same time,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.