It is also important to comprehend benefits brought by perpetuation of this institution, since the waqf system could successfully survive for centuries. Some preventive measures to ensure longevity were finding new sources of income, establishing new auxiliary endowments, deploying tax exemptions, protection of property from natural deterioration, and establishing a skillful management.3 Even when the governments suffered from crisis, these critical installments have served to lighten fiscal burden on the government and operated without an interruption in their service to community, as a result of being funded by endowments. For example, since the beginning of Islam, the madrasahs functioned depending on the income of the estates assigned, and hence the central government hardly spared any budget for education.5 More outstandingly, as an independent source of finance, waqf provided a class of religious notables and scholars with an economic base independent of political authorities, enabling them to take positions unreservedly.3

Agricultural revenues were channeled into urban services through awqaf which also played a role in activating economic growth, expansion, diversification, and development. For instance, housing units, service facilities and/or shops bequeathed onto a school, a hospital or a comprehensive mosque around which they were established; the core project progressively became a nucleus for a commercial center, even gradually growing into a town center. Added to all these kinds of direct participation, there are other indirect kinds of contributions of awqaf in the economic growth6 as they have helped reduce government expenditure and consequently paving the way for growth.7

“As an institutionalization of Islamic values, waqf system presents good lessons in dealing with poverty and income inequality.”8 Having taken the Prophetic saying “One who sleeps while his/her neighbor is hungry is not one of us” and many other hadith in the similar context as a reference point, Ottoman society presented exemplary behavior in interpersonal relationships.9 In addition to the strong family bonds, this compassionate approach is among one of the main factors that prevented homelessness, a major contemporary social problem in the West, to appear in Ottoman society. Without any personal interest, people founded thousands of institutions allocating some or all of their private properties such as farms, houses, enterprises, and savings as revenue sources to these institutions to ensure their continuity in the service of public.10

According to Islam, everything besides God is transitory and perishable.11 Stemming from the belief that any charitable action does not expire, awqaf have functioned as nongovernmental institutions throughout the Islamic world in various fields. In the 11th century, every Islamic city had at least several hospitals funded by awqaf for various expenses, including the wages of doctors, ophthalmologists, surgeons, chemists, pharmacists, domestics and all other staff; the purchase of foods and medicines; hospital equipment such as beds, mattresses, bowls and perfumes; and repairs to buildings. Awqaf funded medical schools and their libraries as well, and their revenues covered various expenses such as maintenance, wages of teachers, and stipends of students.12 In the Bayezid complex in Edirne, for instance, there were 21 doctors and other officers to look after only 50 patients who were cured through performances of 10 musicians, carried out three days a week.13

Estimates show existence of some 26 thousand awqaf in the Ottoman State.14 In 1527, 12% of the whole Ottoman state revenues were controlled by waqf administrations, while at the end of the eighteenth century the combined income of the Ottoman awqaf reached to one-third of the state’s total revenue, including the yield from tax farms in the Balkans, Turkey, and the Arab world. Although these estimates rest on arguable assumptions, there is no disagreement over the orders of magnitude. As a measure of their rights and status in the society, nearly 40% of awqaf were established by women by means of their own wealth.10 Founded in 1552 by the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent, Jerusalem’s Haseki Hurrem Sultan charitable complex possessed 26 entire villages, several shops, a covered bazaar, 2 soap plants, 11 flour mills, and 2 bathhouses, all in Palestine and Lebanon. For centuries, the revenues produced by these assets were used to operate a huge soup kitchen, along with a mosque and two hostels for pilgrims and wayfarers.15

There is abundant evidence to show the massive economic significance of the waqf system that even a single waqf could carry great economic value. Another waqf established in Halep (Aleppo) in the eighteenth century included 10 houses, 67 shops, 4 inns, 2 storerooms, several dyeing plants and baths, 3 bakeries, 8 orchards, and 3 gardens, among various other assets, including agricultural land. By the end of the eighteenth century, in Istanbul, whose estimated population of 700,000 made it the largest city in Europe, up to 30,000 people a day were being fed by charitable complexes established under the waqf system. At the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, three-quarters of the country’s arable land belonged to awqaf.10

A closer look at the Ottoman practice

Throughout the Ottoman realms, the waqf was without any doubt, the primary philanthropic institution which had long served as a major instrument for delivering public goods. For six centuries, the Ottomans largely succeeded to eradicate poverty through awqaf via a voluntary transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor and the latter were fed and taken care of in a decentralized manner. More importantly, health and educational services, essential conditions for the development of human capital, were provided via this institution.16 Waqf was instrumental to the spread of the Ottomans whose policy of settlement relied heavily on the establishment of awqaf in support of Sufi centers that were planted along the frontiers of the expanding state, on its strategic trade routes and traffic arteries, amidst its political rivals and enemies, or in other strategic locations, thus contributing to the spread of Islam as well.3

Alternatively, waqf was extensively used for the development of public and commercial institutions leading to the economic revitalization of major cities, and also as perhaps the major tool to bring about cultural integration for conveying Ottoman culture and services to the regions being settled. The participation of centrally appointed officials and local notables in awqaf helped bridge gaps between these two groups and produced a homogeneous urban elite throughout the vast empire.3

The Ottoman state contributed to awqaf in two ways. First, either by directly establishing waqf17 or by granting land to those who wanted to found a waqf. In this way, the vacant lands had been brought into cultivation, creating extra revenues for the state. Second, the state contributed by supervising, controlling, and recording the revenues and expenditures in order to secure their well-functioning. The control and the supervision of the waqf system can be attributed to the importance of the land in Ottoman politics.8

Granting these privileges, the state sacrificed from large amounts of tax revenue, yet also kept an eye on the activities of awqaf to ensure quality of service.18 The revenues and expenditures of the awqaf had been recorded very carefully. In terms of production of statistical records, systematization in record-keeping, there are not too many states in history to rival the Ottomans.19 Many of these records have been carefully archived,20 and are still available as primary sources to researchers. 21

Awqaf in daily life

The Ottoman state was mainly responsible for security, justice, and border protection. Almost all other social tasks were being performed individuals. The belief that “Charity pleases God and brings God’s blessings” determined Muslim behavior in many fundamental acts of economic importance and the Ottomans were particularly zealous in that regard.22 People set up and administered awqaf for benevolent purposes, which followed the principle, “there always is a necessity to service wherever living things exist.”23

The beneficiaries were not limited to the poor and needy. Awqaf have served the public for a variety of purposes that outline an endless list: protecting the unfortunate, meeting the need of wayfarers and pilgrims, raising orphans, providing scholarships to students, employing the unemployed, educating apprentice artisans toward mastery, helping the bankrupt or those with excessive debt, covering marriage expenses for needy couples, sheltering animals, taking care of widows, hungry and the destitute, sick and the disabled, running health care, sports and educational programs, producing candles for mosques, taking care of the environment, paving roads, enlightening streets, paying a neighborhood’s taxes, supporting retired sailors, organizing picnics for a designated guild, subsidizing the cultivation of rare roses, operating commuter ships, lending to small businesses, helping prisoners, and providing toys to children of poor families. These were among hundreds of other purposes of varying social significance. Also, there have been many applications to launch, construct, manage, and preserve public institutions and infrastructure like military establishments, pavements, lighthouses, malls, cemeteries, hospitals, public baths, drinking fountains, mosques, schools, dormitories, inns, caravanserais, dervish hospices, bridges, roads, aqueducts, libraries and so on.

Some basic ethics of charity in Islam are anonymity, avoiding pretension, preserving purity of intention, and protecting assisted people from any possible psychological effects.24 A thoughtful application of these principles came into life in the “Charity Stones.” In this Ottoman practice, charitable people would leave some money (generally in the dark of the night) to these two-meter-high marble columns with a hole on top, which were commonly located at the unobserved corners of mosques, madrasahs, cemeteries, mausoleums, and neighborhoods. Needy people, later on, would take money from there, astonishingly, no more than they needed. The rest would be left back with decency for someone else, which shows the achieved level of the brotherhood and solidarity in the society.25 These stones were used to prevent a form of mendicancy in the society and at the same time, not to offend needy people.

The Turkish waqf spirit which cares for all living beings has extended its reach to birds as well, when from the fifteenth century on, kiosks for birds were started to be built. Some of these “bird houses,” also called “bird palaces,” resembled mosques with their minarets, high-hopped towers and signs in the form of a crescent, and displayed an extraordinary workmanship. Having observed such bird houses with great interest, the Austrian ambassador Busbecq wrote in 1550s that “in Turkey everything has become humanized and every rigid thing has been softened; even the animals.”10 Many examples of awqaf have served for protection and enhancement of the environment as well.26 In “Ottoman land,” Comte de Bonneval stated, “it is possible to see Turks passionate enough to dedicate money for men to water unfruitful trees, in order to protect them from drought due to hot weather.”27 According to D’Ohsson, this caring motivation is rooted in Islam: “Qur’an has transformed Turks into the best philanthropists of the world.”28

There were awqaf established for each aspect of life. One can talk about the excess supply of public goods rather than their scarcity thanks to extensive waqf services, so much so that Ottoman cities did not need to implement actual municipality organizations to deliver urban services in a centralized and coordinated manner before 1856.29 “Thanks to the awqaf flourished during the Ottoman Empire, a person would have borne into a waqf house, slept in a waqf cradle, ate and drunk from waqf properties, read waqf books, taught in a waqf school, received his salary from a waqf administration, and when he died, put into a waqf coffin and buried in a waqf cemetery.”30 Had the awqaf gained corporate powers, “they would have acquired the ability to transform themselves into organizations akin to municipalities.”31

By means of the awqaf founded in different spheres of social life, privately accumulated capital was voluntarily endowed to finance all sorts of social, cultural, religious, and economical services alongside with health and transportation, all of which were free of charge and open to everyone, without discrimination. As a result, the awqaf played a very eminent role in setting up a sound integration, cooperation, and mutual confidence between the society and the state. Aqwaf, in other words, became the medium for financing Islam as a society,32 and have served as the primary mechanism for a better distribution of income.

Awqaf’s services were provided through decentralized decision-making, i.e., not by a central authority but by philanthropists determined to address social and economic issues in their neighborhood.17 The multiplicity of waqf founders, together with the generally uncoordinated character of their choices, furnished abundant opportunities for learning from failures and successes. Such associations that individuals create, operate, and transform essentially on their own, without direct guidance from the state, also contributed to a strong civil society.31

The notion that wasting or misusing properties of awqaf, the state, or orphans is a severe violation of the rights of others, thus will be punished in the Hereafter, provided an extreme sense of self-discipline in individuals and immunity to those properties. Traditionally, waqf deeds even contained imprecations to discourage any possible abuse and orisons to encourage compliance with the deed.33

The centralization policy, promoted partly by the Western powers and partly by the Ottoman reformers in the late nineteenth century, undermined the role of awqaf and transformed these traditional institutions to European-inspired municipalities for providing public services with a central manner.34 Most countries now directly or indirectly administer waqf lands in separate Ministries, leading to the demise of its nongovernmental identity. Moreover, as a usual practice in the Europe, North America, and Australia, Muslim communities establish nonprofit organizations which in turn own the waqf property. Despite the reduction in its influence in the social spheres, and despite the considerable cutback in the size of its properties and revenues due to the colonial experience and the emergence of modern nation states, waqf remains as an institution of substantial wealth and potential, and it still holds some of the historical flexibility that qualifies it to play a major role in contemporary societies.35

Senkaya has a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Leadership. He can be contacted at senkayao@seattleu.edu.

Notes

1The word waqf, and its plural form awqaf, were derived from the Arabic root verb waqafa, which means “to cause a thing to stop and stand still.” Heffening defines waqf as: a pious endowment established when an owner of a property surrenders her/his disposal rights, without transferring them to some other party (Heffening, W. “Waqf.” Vol. 4. In Encyclopedia of Islam, 1096-1103. 1934).

2 Toraman, Cengiz. “Cash Awqaf in the Ottomans as Philanthropic Foundations and Their Accounting Practices” Paper presented at the fifth Accounting History International Conference. Canada: Edward School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, August 9-12, 2007. http://www.commerce.usask.ca/special/5ahic/papers/5AHIC-37%20FINAL%20Paper.pdf

3 Dallal, Ahmad. “The Islamic Institution of Waqf: A Historical Overview.” In Islam and Social Policy, Stephen P. Heyneman, 13-43. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004.

4 Othman, Muhammad Z. “Institution of Waqf.” Islamic Culture 58, no. 1 (1984): 55-62.

5 Canan, ?brahim. Kütüb-i Sitte Tercüme ve ?erhi. Vol. 16, 275-281. Ankara: Akça? Yay?nlar?, 2004.

6 Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “Islamic Waqf Endowment.” http://www.isesco.org.ma/english/publications/WAQF/Chap6.php

7 Çizakça, Murat. A History of Philanthropic Foundations: The Islamic World from the Seventh Century to the Present. Istanbul: Bogazici University Press, 2000.

8 Ba?kan, Birol. Paper presented at 17th Middle East History And Theory Conference, May 10-11. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago. 2002, “Waqf System as a Redistribution Mechanism in Ottoman Empire.” http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/mehat/past_conferences/Baskan.pdf

9 Ar?, Saim. “Osmanl? Mahallesinde Sosyal Dayan??ma Örne?i: Avar?z Vak?flar?.” Sizinti 24, no. 287 (2002) http://www.sizinti.com.tr/konular.php?KONUID=210

10 Yediy?ld?z, Bahaeddin. Place of the Waqf in Turkish Cultural System. Translated by R Acun and M Oz. Istanbul: Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), 1996. http://www.history.hacettepe.edu.tr/archive/waqfkultur.html

11 Qur’an, 55:26-27.

12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waqf

13 Maksudo?lu, Mehmet E. “Osmanl? Vak?f Uygulamas?ndan Baz? Örnekler” Diyanet Ilmi Dergi, 2003 http://www.diyanet.gov.tr/turkish/DIYANET/ilmi_dergi/ilmi_39_3/main.asp?makno=6

14 According to the findings of Ekrem Hakk? Ayverdi (in The Ottoman Architectural Artifacts in Europe), there were 3339 Turkish waqf buildings in Bulgaria in 1982. Of these 2356 were small and large mosques, 142 universities, 273 bridges, 16 caravanseraies and the rest consisting of baths (hamam), tombs, fortresses, public fountains, libraries etc. (Yediy?ld?z).

15 Peri, Oded. “Waqf and Ottoman Welfare Policy. The Poor Kitchen of Hasseki Sultan in Eighteenth-Century Jerusalem.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 35, no. 2 (1992): 167-186.

16 Çizakça, Murat (interviewed by Dr. Shariq Nasir). “Combining Islamic History with Islamic Institutional Economics.” Islamic Business and Finance, March 2006 http://www.cpifinancial.net/v2/Magazine.aspx?v=1&aid=392&cat=IBF&in=5

17 Named as state waqf, this type of awqaf are legally different from private charitable awqaf. Because the Sultan established the waqf from the treasury of the State, these awqaf were called, waqfi gayri sahih (Ba?kan).

18 Emino?lu, Kamil. “Osmanl?lar’da Vak?f Anlay???.” Sizinti 8, no. 90 (1996) http://www.sizinti.com.tr/konular.php?KONUID=2411

19 Crecelius, Daniel. “Introduction.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 38, no. 3 (1995): 249.

20 http://www.vgm.gov.tr/01_VakifKayitlariArsivi/001_VakfiyeArsivi/vakfiye.cfm.

21 For more information regarding superintendence mechanisms readers may consult to Akgunduz. Akgündüz, Ahmet. “?slâm Hukukunda ve Osmanl? Tatbikat?nda Vak?f Müesseseleri”, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Bas?mevi, 1988.

22 ?nalc?k, Halil. “The Economic Mind.” In An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914, Halil Inalcik and Donald Quataert, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

23 A?manvermez, Ahmet. “Bir Vak?f Medeniyeti Olarak Osmanl?.” http://www.kalemguzeli.net/bir-vakif-medeniyeti-olarak-osmanli.html

24 Qur’an, 2:261-274.

25 Ünver, Süheyl. “Sadaka Ta?lar?.” Hayat Tarih 11, 1967.

26 Seker, Mehmet. “Osmanl? Vakfiyelerinde Çevre Bilinci.” Ekoloji 1, no.4 (1992): 26-30.

27 Hilal, Ziyaeddin. “Yabancilarin Gözüyle Osmanli’da Vakif Hizmetleri.” Sizinti 29, no. 338 (2007) http://www.sizinti.com.tr/konular.php?KONUID=3139

28 D’Ohsson, Moradjea. Tableau General del Empire Otoman.

29 Bayyigit, Mehmet. “Sosyal Yard?mla?ma ve Dayan??ma Kurumu Olarak Vak?flar.” 59-66. 1999.

30 Arsebük, Esat. Medeni Hukuk, Ba?lang?ç ve ?ah?s Hukuku. Vol. 1, 298. 1938.

31 Kuran, Timur. “The provision of public goods under Islamic law: Origins, impact, and limitations of the waqf…” Law & Society Review 35, no. 4 (2001): 841-897.

32 Hoexter, Miriam. “The Waqf and the Public Sphere.” In The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies, Miriam Hoexter Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, and Nehemia Levtzion, 119-138. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 2002.

33 Gözübenli, Be?ir. “?slam Toplumunda Vak?f Kültürünün Do?u?u.” Yeni Ümit 15, no.60 (2003) http://www.yeniumit.com.tr/konular.php?sayi_id=60&konu_id=54&yumit=bolum2

34 Kilicalp, Sevinc S. “Centralization of the Ottoman State and Modernization of the Waqf System.” 4th ed. In Master in International Studies in Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship, 1-28. Bologna: University of Bologna, February 2008. http://www.misp.it/2008/images/stories/documenti/KilicalpPaper.pdf

35 (Habitat II)

Just like the alternation of the day and the night with the succession of the light after darkness in every twenty-four hours, the rising and regression of nations have always occurred in successive turns of prosperity and hard times.

As for the leading figures of these nations, we see them swaying backward and forward with transformations and alterations, once in love with religious devotion and piety, at a different time bewitched by the things of this life, and yet at other unfortunate times captured in the web of materialism with no righteousness, morality, or character.

As a matter of fact, it would be quite wrong to conceive of any state or nation that is on the rise, taking root everywhere, as making consistent progress on a single plan and seeing it all religiously-oriented and heavenly-driven with regard to their rule and influence. Following their creation, everything enters into the process of growth, finds itself on the path of expansion and the ramp of ascension; however, only those upon whom fate smiles grow and flourish, and everything that grows is bound to die sooner or later!

To the extent of our interconnectedness with the cosmos and events, we can observe and witness all this phenomena unfolding before us every day. As we peruse the existence and events around us, if we can direct our thoughts and imagination towards historical occurrences as the consecutive projections of each other or as the overlapping pile-ups on top of each other, then we will testify that the world has turned green and blossomed, has tidied up and gathered strength, has revived and stood back on its feet as many times as it has stumbled and fallen over.

We are astounded by the moribund communities and nations, which, like the leaves caught in an abrupt gale or the ivy whose branches are torn off and yet cling to or twine about any support so as not to topple down, get back to their previous track, make great efforts with avidity, and speed towards their time of greatest power and authority. They gush out suddenly and unexpectedly, looking forward to rebirth, as if in an undeveloped shoot of plants, within the most indistinct and tiniest hollow on the stem, rooted in the past with the strength for growth after their decline; they run to grow by clinging to the points of support like ivy plants and try very hard to have springtime just once more.

Who knows how many times the roots, stem, and the branches of the society have been shaken with tempests! Who knows how many times it turned pale from the ice-cold and became ash gray under the heat of sun! Who knows how many times it has risen again in various spheres and grown rife! If the falls have taken away some part of its life and vigor, the springs have embosomed it so intimately with sparkling colors that everything else is discolored and all deceptive colors fade away one by one.

After seeing everything in an astonishing harmony, composed of teensy weensy constituents mixing up quietly and fascinatingly-seeing all these resuscitating in an unexpected manner and with an unanticipated liveliness, how can one ascribe this captivating vitality that looks like stillness and this unity that gives the impression of disorderliness to the true and eternal death and departure? Besides, even if this is temporarily so, every winter is followed by the spring and every night by the day.

From the point of recurring occurrences in history, it was nothing but such empty words heard at the beginning of the twentieth century: “Religion has been defeated by positivism” (as was formed in the mind of those with deviant thinking), “the spirit is down and out in the face of materialism”; “the atom is the essence of everything”; “the existence of all is dependent on material things”-it was such codswallop in the ears. Since the notion of energy was not fully comprehended, the atom was accepted as an unquestionable whole in those days. Before the turn of the second half of the twentieth century, however, materialism was shaken with the first surprising blow from within the circle of their own. It struggled with and got defeated by the perception of its inherent power (energy). Even if energy was not known in all its complexity at the time, it started to show its teeth, becoming more cognizable through the effects of its work. At the time, physics was aware of only its doings and not of energy itself; science considered energy as the capability of the matter or a physical system to carry out work. The science of physics had no knowledge of the real nature of this capacity, its general features, and its qualities.

The coming of energy into prominence occurred at the same time as the materialist philosophy entered into the sphere of the unknowns, chasms, and hardships. It was at this time that matter was believed to have the capability of turning into energy, journeying in the same realms with the spirits. According to the reality of the time, matter-something regarded as the proof for materialism-actually testified against materialism. If the atom is a power compressed and placed in a micro body and has the capability of not yielding to force and if all existence and incidents are created within this fountain of power and are endowed with their latent energy to full growth, those who discovered this immense power whose magnitude is accepted as not measurable in numbers and who burned down Hiroshima and Nagasaki did indeed not only put materialism to death but also trumpet forth its historic death while they were enunciating its enchanting efficacy only upon that occasion.

Everybody knows the rest of the story; we have witnessed the defeat of the forged system based on materialism-a deceiving system with its formation of the family and the society, its social and economic structure, its understanding of arts and esthetics, and its interpreting power of things and beings.

After all that bloodshed, casualties, and financial loss and all those years of life spent in vain, now we are once again ushering in the profundity of faith and spiritual thinking with the perception transcending matter and all existence. This was experienced before when we felt the universal truth in our pure conscience and had welcomed a glorious period of eight hundred years after being long exposed to such kind of chaos and disturbances a thousand years ago.

It is beyond doubt that the most influential power in the establishment of such a glory surpassing everything else belonged to faith. Thanks to faith that our society moved from the mundane to the spiritual life, from chaos to the order, from emptiness to the ideal, from narrowness of mind to the immenseness far beyond this world and the other world and became aware of the depth and extensiveness of their scope. It rediscovered its true worth and merit, its particular way of life, the refinement and grace it had lost long; it embraced and adopted faith most sincerely and had a life in a manner appropriate to heaven. It had such a pious life turning its deeds into worship, its talk into prayer, its appearance into gracefulness and mercy, and its unity into power. Thanks to faith that it found the way from emotion to soundness and sensibility, from logic to heart, and from reasoning to the insight and inspiration and thus stepped up and elevated itself. It found out the secrets of eternal subsistence all the way through feeling and thought, culture, arts, and esthetic delights.

We have every confidence in the belief that the chaos and dismay of today will be followed by the same heavenly victories and will experience a revival. We believe wholeheartedly that we will acquire once more what we have lost by means of the coming people of the heart who will find remedies for our wretchedness and sufferings, elevate our souls to the profundity of their own, and direct them from there to the real Source of everything. We can even call it our renaissance if this labeling will not be considered a fantasy.

It undoubtedly is necessary to prepare the way for this rebirth. The dynamics and potentials available in all the spheres of the society, including educational institutions, houses of prayer and worship, military quarters, and religious centers and lodges will be utilized for this purpose. All this preparation, however, will be fulfilled not by cumbrous institutions that are retired into themselves and consoled only by distinctive titles and designations, that think of nothing else except for their share of the appropriation but by the integrated institutions founded upon the concord of heart, soul, mind, and discipline as well as by those luminous scholars and intellectuals who believe in justice and have a sound character, mentality, and worldview and who blend all these with a faithful culture that has been acquired over hundreds and hundreds of years. It will be realized both by educational institutions that are represented by the lovers of knowledge and wisdom who are united with the truth in body, spirit, intellect, and zeal and by the people of truth with a sound character who get to work with the consciousness of duty, who act not just simply to save the day, and who seek ways to strive for their cause rather than trying hard for the satisfaction of the desires and pleasures of their own.

Aware of the fact that we are now at such a turn in the recurring events of history, we reexamine our conscience and smile at our fate with confidence in our auspiciousness.

Being one of the liberal arts, rhetoric can be defined in such a way that is freed from its usual literary references. Thus, rhetoric is an inquiry into the core of the problem, resulting in a “change” in the state of the subject matter from its current state to a preferred one.

Change in a rhetorical inquiry happens by discovery and invention. Discovery is about becoming aware of existence, whereas invention is about finding new connections within existence. Rhetoric is discovery and invention in a sequence of events. A rhetorician first finds a topic with a particular problem; the definition of the topic is the discovery. The rhetorician then searches for possibilities, uses his judgment about facts, questions the problem, and reaches new issues that will become subheadings of topics. Issues are at the heart of an argument. The rhetorician finds solutions to the problem by merging two contrasting issues and allowing them to work together, which results in invention. Having reached the invention, the rhetorician then uses arrangement, expression, memory, and delivery to resolve the rhetorical inquiry. So, the meaning most frequently associated with rhetoric is actually this last step that comes after discovery and invention.

To make my argument clear, I would like to give the example of Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006 “for his efforts to create economic and social development from below” (Nobel Prize Statement). From the perspective of rhetoric, Muhammad Yunus is a perfect example of rhetorical inquiry. He first identifies the problem of poverty in Bangladesh and then defines his topic as economic development. In searching for possibilities, he comes up with the issues of “financial loans” and “poverty.” Normally, financial loans are thought to be designed for people who have financial credibility, while poverty, in general is seen as being removed from economic development.

Muhammad Yunus did not think so. He took these two contrasting issues and merged them, arriving at the micro-credit idea; i.e., that if an institution gives small loans to poor people, this will result in a massive change and economic development, which can help the poor to stand on their feet, helping them to survive and recover from poverty. His idea was realized with the institution of the Grameen Bank, which has provided more than $5.1 billion US dollars to 5.3 million people. To guarantee payment, the bank developed a system called “solidarity groups,” which are small-scale unofficial groups that apply together for loans. The group members act as co-guarantors of repayment, supporting one another’s efforts in economic self-advancement.

To restate, Muhammad Yunus took a rhetorical stance and used it as a way to solve the problem of poverty in his country. His argument was based on two issues, one being poverty, the other financial loans. He merged the two issues and invented the micro-credit concept. The implementation of the idea was dependent on the facts of the situation, whereas judgments of the facts relied on objectivity. The realization of the idea of “loans for the poor” was so successful that it resulted in other activities, such as loans for housing, fisheries, etc.

Another example of a rhetorical invention is that of the Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen who took the education of individuals as his topic, and inspired people to initiate intercultural dialogue and education institutions in order to eradicate cross-cultural ignorance and misunderstandings in society. The general concept of positivist thinking which drives education is that science and moral values are two separate things that should not be considered together. And when it comes to understanding the other, it is stereotypes that control people’s opinions.

But Fethullah Gulen did not think so. He merged science and moral values, which resulted in educational institutions that teach both of these subjects to the students, while merging different cultures by emphasizing the common moral values in intercultural and interfaith dialogue activities. These educational institutions have been breaking the so-called norms and reaching people from all over the world by providing a highstandard education equal for all. Simultaneously, NGOs that focus on dialogue activities have reached people of different faiths, from Jewish rabbis to Buddhist priests, in order to spread the idea of understanding others.

To restate this example, Fethullah Gulen presents a strong rhetorical stance about the problem of ignorance. He suggests education as the topic, and comes up with sciences, culture, and common values as the issues. To reach possible solutions, he blends these issues, and his teachings provided inspiration for the establishment of the institutions that focus on education and in the NGO’s that focus on dialogue activities. The strength of the educational institutions is their emphasis on equity and brotherhood while keeping a high-level academic approach. An effort that spans the entire world, these schools not only provide modern education to poor and developing countries, but also support the solution to the problem of crosscultural ignorance in the world.

In conclusion, both Muhammed Yunus and Fethullah Gulen have triggered “change” in the world under very different circumstances, one in economics, the other in education, but by using a common tool. This common tool is rhetorical thinking, which is rooted in people’s capability to develop arguments. If we return to the question posed at the beginning it would be easier now to define rhetoric. Rhetoric is an art of invention that has its own methodology and which helps to solve the serious problems of the world over a wide spectrum.

In order to maintain the effective use of power resources to reach a target, researchers divide them into various subgroups according to different criteria. For instance, capital is categorized into such groups as material, emotional, morality and virtue, intellectual, knowledge (know-how), and consciousness of opportunity and favor. Each one is highlighted by being given a separate name. In addition, various scientific concepts are used as metaphors to imprint on people’s minds the importance of those factors that help a community or nation develop. This is done because the human brain can think more easily through metaphors and understand a fresh and novel point of view.

The definition of social capital draws attention to an important – but often ignored or underemphasized – source of wealth for national development. This concept expounds why developing countries cannot achieve Western standards of development. While financial power and knowledge (intellectual capital) constitute the fuel and mechanical parts of the car of progress, social capital functions as its lubricant and oil. An old car that lacks lubrication cannot take you very far, just as a nation whose social capital has been exhausted or broken cannot progress.

So just what is social capital? Which national riches can be seen more clearly through the lens of social capital?

Defining social capital

Social capital is defined as the individual’s capacity and ability to benefit from and take advantage of public and private institutions through membership. Social capital forms bonds between neighbors, families, individuals, and communities. The society’s civil organizations need social capital to coordinate their existing resources more effectively. The sense of belonging to a society and a nation, and the people’s ability to make use of their various capacities, are involved in social capital. At each society’s base of interpersonal relationships and institutions, all of a person’s opportunities and duties comprise social capital.

Being a member of a social group brings both responsibilities and advantages. Social capital is formed by social structures and institutional characteristics (e.g., reliability, norms, networks of relationships, and systems of facilitating coordinated actions). It facilitates some actions within the structure and makes some benefits available, such as the material gains that accrue with group membership opportunities and chances, as well as the support brought about by relationships within the organization.

If the essence of a relationship is mutual trust and reliance, a system containing expectations and responsibilities arises. This mutual trust and reliance between the members of a civil organization oils the wheels of socioeconomic interactions, reduces costs, maintains the circulation of confidential information among group members, and enhances the availability of chances offered by the group. All of the values and norms needed to erect and maintain a healthy society can be defined as social capital.

Social capital also can be defined as the existence of institutional and inter-institutional participation and cooperation that keeps the individuals grouped around a common purpose and which acts as an adhesive that makes it possible to construct a society or a team. Given that religion and moral education form such values as charity, self-sacrifice, trust, and reliability, it follows that religious and moral teachings play primary roles in constructing social capital. Social capital has yet another meaning: those norms that influence a society’s productivity and health and social networks, as well as interpersonal relationships, respect, trust and credibility. Social bonds can boost efficiency by reducing the cost of work and production and facilitating the coordination and cooperation needed for production and marketing.

Social capital, an indispensable component of society and progress on both the micro- and macrolevels, includes all of the norms that shape the quality and intensity of a society’s social interactions. In this respect, a large amount of social capital allows more resources and opportunities to be mobilized in the pursuit of common goals. Social capital, however, has both positive and negative sides. For example, social clubs exclude non-members from their services by forming an internal social capital. Thus, poor and rich social sectors have different social capitals. The social capital of poor people is built around trust and the exchange of goods or property. The critical point of social progress is making public opportunities and chances available to the poor by reducing the exclusivity of the social capital available to the rich. The Islamic institutions of zakat (the prescribed alms) and interest-free credit practices are quite significant here.

The social capital of socially harmful groups (e.g., drug cartels and corrupt people) prevent socioeconomic progress. In this respect, the social capital value of a society’s subgroups and civil organizations determines whether the net value of its social capital is positive or negative. The value of an institution’s social capital is determined by the levels and degrees of the following: the development of an institutional identity among staff members; the sense of belonging; the extent of common thoughts, visions, and goals; being informed of the chances and opportunities inside or outside the institution; staff members’ respectability in the institution and the institution’s respectability in society; its ability to offer equal opportunities without getting entangled in religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences. In addition, participation in managing a society’s institutions and establishments also strengthens social capital. Thus, we can say that social capital can be defined in many ways and represents the group of differences called capital.

We should distinguish the resources of social capital from its outcome. We can list the following among its outcomes: social control, preservation of family and kinship ties, preservation of the society’s unity and solidarity (both material and spiritual), and the capacity to put forward common ideas and targets due to the unity and harmony of society. All of these are vitally important for economic progress and sustained growth and development.

Social capital also makes an important contribution to forming a sociopolitical environment that allows certain norms and standards that shape society in order to improve it. Unlike economic capital, social capital cannot be bought from another community or nation; every society has to build it up with its own faith, tradition, and education system. Civil organizations play a major role in the rapid construction of positive social capital. The value of social capital directly affects the government’s functioning, as well as that of the justice system and the use of rights and freedoms. And, socioeconomic development is directly related to the common goals and principles determined by the social capital accumulations of subgroups

and institutions. As networks of relationships that are limited to a person’s family and neighbors have a small amount of social capital, they are deprived of chances and opportunities to improve themselves. Those with a larger network of relationships, due to their membership in civil organizations, as well as professional and social clubs, have more social capital and a better chance of enriching and making individual progress.

Social and other types of capital

Social capital is a means of investing in your future. People with a high social capital value are honest, trustworthy, possess professional honor, function as a member of a team, and are sought after in all sections of life. Individuals and institutions that maintain their social capital above a certain value can acquire knowledge, power, and opportunities of critical importance. A collective group identity that increases the capacity of collective action can be enhanced only by building up social capital. As material capital can be used for reaching various objectives, social capital can be used to access critical information or to receive sound advice. Certainly, the advantages of a person’s position within society or a group can be transformed into economic gain. Material capital, the most fluid and that with the highest value of convertibility among all types of capital, can be used to improve men and women, culture, and social capital. However, the convertibility of social capital to economic capital is lower, for social capital, which keeps the common values that make up the society together, is less transferable.

When necessary, social capital can function as other types of capital or can compensate for their absence. For instance, the lack of financial or human capital can be eliminated by introducing strong social relationships and connections. Furthermore, the efficiency of social capital can be raised by reducing operation costs. Research reveals that people with a lower social capital value are less reliable and less receptive to institutionalizing and organizing.

Social capital needs protection and continuity, just like physical (e.g., clean air, water, and environment) and human capital do. In other words, existing social ties among people need to be refreshed and confirmed periodically to maintain their efficiency. The value of social capital increases, instead of decreases, as we use it. For example, the social capital of people who rely on each other and inspire mutual trust increases daily. Thus, dialogues and interactions between different civil organizations and cultures, as well as interfaith dialogues, are important infrastructural activities that enable the construction of social capital.

Social capital, like physical capital, is advantageous for the public and requires that all people work to save and improve it. Such an understanding allows us to comprehend the wisdom of the Divine Order, which wills that every society contains a group that calls for good and prohibits evil. Fresh air and water decrease in proportion with their usage; social capital increases in proportion to its usage. Individuals equally run the risk of not making use of social capital’s potential in an equal manner. Social capital is usually constructed by its relationship to a club or a community. Thus, people who are not members cannot benefit from the opportunities.

Social capital is not held by a person or an institution, but emerges within the network of interpersonal or inter-institutional relationships, and continues to grow as long as the relationship lasts. In other words, the construction of social capital depends upon mutual trust, dialogue, and cooperation. Since social capital emerges within the network of social relationships, it cannot be transferred. Each society has its own methods of operating and achieving success.

All of the cultural elements that motivate a person, generate opportunities, or facilitate the utility of talents and capacities play a role in the construction of social capital.

Measuring social capital

Several criteria are used to measure the value of social capital: the degree of trust and respect for the state and its institutions, the level of people’s participation in making those decisions in which they have a role to play, the extent of their presence in civil organizations, and the average of monthly voluntary service hours, as well as the level of help, support, and self-sacrifice between individuals and neighbors. For example, social capital strengthened by the active support of local citizens and families enhances the quality of education, for students are more successful when teachers improve themselves, take their jobs seriously, and establish a good relationship with the students. Doctors and nurses who work in citizen-monitored and supported health institutions are sure to be more attentive in their jobs. Building a healthy society depends on social capital being rooted in interpersonal trust and assistance.

Social capital and social progress

Researchers have discovered that a nation’s ability to achieve healthy progress does not depend only on financial, structural and legal regulations. For example, the failure of the financial aid offered by the World Bank, as well as its advised structural reforms, to the developing countries raises the following question: What did we miss or undervalue? The resulting analyses and research so far have revealed that the interaction between labor and capital for progress is far more complicated than originally expected. Various types of capital were acknowledged (e.g., physical, geographical, human, cultural, moral, emotional, and social) and held to be significant for progress. Social capital was recognized as the primary prompter and sustainer of development and progress.

Recently, researchers have begun to focus on the need for developing countries to have social, rather than financial and labor, capital. They underline that existing corruption, bribery, and monopolies can be dealt with only by enhancing social capital. We hope that this article helps administrators, who are at the steering wheel of national ships, realize the contribution of our religious, moral, and cultural inheritance to establishing a high-quality social capital, and encourages them to consider social capital in their projects.

References

– Hwe P., and A. Shiell. “Social Capital and Health Promotion: Review.” Social Science and Medicine, no. 51 (2000): 855-871.

– www.worldbank.org./poverty/scapital/whatsc.htm.

Social capital has a long intellectual history in the social sciences. In this paper, social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society’s social interactions. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions underpinning a society; rather, it is the glue that holds them together.

Lyda Hanifan, a West Virginia school reformer (1916), was the first to use the term social capital. Jane Jacobs reinvented it during the late 1960s, Glenn Loury elaborated upon it during the late 1970s, and James Coleman used it to examine Chicago schools in the 1980s. Coleman and Loury prefer to view social capital as a bottom-up phenomenon that is not directly amenable to public policy intervention. French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu developed a contemporary approach, though Anglo-American scholars remained unaware of it until the late 1980s.

The major momentum for scholarship on social capital, however, came with Robert Putnam’s seminal work on democratic governance in contemporary Italy (1993) and his subsequent challenging thesis that late twentieth-century Americans were bowling alone, by which he meant that they were becoming increasingly disengaged from active participation in public life, a trend with disconcerting implications for active democratic participation. He developed his thesis with his bowling alone article (1995), which led to scores of active research projects around the world on social capital.

Organizational-level social capital cannot be measured merely as an aggregation of individual networks, for attention has to be given to inter-organizational networks as well as to the study of this network’s nature. Community-level social capital resides in groups and in the networks among these organizations/groups. Strong society-/community-level social capital creates a civic infrastructure that supports formal and informal processes of decision-making and public involvement. The idea of social capital has coalesced around several fields: families and youth behavior problems, schooling and education, community life, work and organizations, democratic governance, collective action problems, and economic development. Building and maintaining networks is not a natural given; rather, it requires investments that yield a return.

Since Putnam’s identification of the social capital in regional governance and economic development in Italy (1993) and his latest suggestion in the U.S. (1995, 2000), a virtual industry of interest and action has been created around the implications of his findings for the development of low-income communities. Putnam attributes a significant portion of differences in government effectiveness, economic health, and community well-being to the presence (versus absence) of social capital. Stated simply, he considers the main elements of social capital to be trust and cooperation. Social capital consists of networks and norms that enable participants to act together effectively to pursue shared objectives. There is a strong collective aspect of social capital, as the social and economic system as a whole functions better because of the ties among the actors that make it up.

State-Nonprofit Partnerships

Government partnership includes partnering with for-profit corporations and nonprofit organizations, such as social service agencies, cultural groups, neighborhood organizations, hospitals, and health organizations. Alexis de Tocqueville, while touring America in 1831-32, noticed how different Americans were from Europeans in their enthusiasm for banding together to support a good cause. We see the result of this cultural characteristic today, for America did not follow the model of a European welfare state. American policymakers used taxes and direct subsidies to deliver services. America has created a welfare state through nonprofit organizations, the vast majority created since 1959.

State-nonprofit collaborations involve nonprofit organizations addressing local, state, and national problems through negotiated efforts or partnerships with business, government, colleges and universities, or other public or social institutions. Public organizations should look for opportunities to work with other nonprofit organizations-even with their competitors-in solving growing public problems in a timely and efficient manner. These efforts encompass several categories: governments often seek to execute their efforts via structures of interagency collaboration; the role of not-for-profit organizations is large and growing; and the frequency and variety of links with for-profit firms is impressive and government contracting remains a growth industry.

Generating social capital

Putnam (2000) states that civic engagement and social connectedness are practical preconditions for better schools, safer streets, faster economic growth, more effective government, and even healthier and longer lives. Without an adequate supply of social capital, meaning civic engagement, healthy community institutions, norms of mutual reciprocity, and trust, social institutions falter.

The value creation process of public and nonprofit partnerships generates incremental social capital to the partners, members, and to society as a whole. Benefits generated by an effective partnership often exceed the partnership’s purpose and enable the social mission to be accomplished more effectively. Public-nonprofit partnerships focused on social problems can also serve as motivating informative models for others to follow. As a partnership evolves, the value of the benefits can erode. Skills acquired by one partner from another, for example, may no longer be a transferable benefit. Relationships are dynamic and subject to alteration due to changes in the external environment. Also, partners’ need and priorities can change.

Public-nonprofit partnerships can be seen as vehicles for generating social capital by creating and strengthen organizations and collaborations within the community. For example, they enable community members to participate in those aspects of community life that concern them by setting priorities, developing programs, and participating in them. Creative action by public organizations can foster social capital, and linking mobilized nonprofit organizations and citizens can enhance governmental efficacy.

The role of nonprofits

According to Putnam: By almost every measure, Americans’ direct engagement in politics and government has fallen steadily and sharply over the last generation, despite the fact that average levels of education-the best individual-level predictor of political participation-have risen sharply throughout this period. At the same time, membership in and the number of nonprofits has increased (although there has been increased competition among nonprofits for this membership). This would seem to contradict de Tocqueville’s thesis. But, as Putnam points out, contributing to a nonprofit organization or joining an association and reading its newsletter does not necessarily translate into greater civic participation.

Nonprofit organizations play a vital role in creating and sustaining social capital, namely, those bonds of trust and reciprocity that seem to be pivotal for a democratic society and market economy to function effectively. But one would expect American individualism to make it difficult to sustain such organizations. De Tocqueville understood this point well when he wrote in Democracy in America in 1835: Feelings and opinions are recruited, the heart is enlarged, and the human mind is developed, only by the reciprocal influence of men upon one another these influences are almost null in democratic countries; they must therefore be artificially created and this can only be accomplished by associations.

Thus the perpetuation of a vital nonprofit sector is essential to developing and sustaining a sense of community, which is required to uphold contracts and enable both a market system and a democratic policy to operate.

Investing in social capital by attempting to increase civic participation therefore will strengthen democracy. Since nonprofits reach so many people, and because some nonprofits are powerful secondary associations, we are targeting nonprofits. They are an important source, if not the main source, for discussing critical public policy issues. Thus, nonprofits may play a unique intermediary role in helping to stimulate civic participation through a series of actions aimed at public education, research, advocacy, mobilizing, and so on. Public-nonprofit partnerships have emerged as an important institutional arrangement for addressing important societal concerns through the collaborative efforts and, as a result, the combined strengths of organizations from the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Education is a very important field in which states can have a direct influence upon the generation of social capital. Educational institutions do not simply contribute human capital; they also contribute to social capital in the form of social rules and norms. States can foster the formation and creation of social capital directly or indirectly by providing public goods and public safety. They also can hinder its formation and creation by undertaking activities that are better left to nonprofits. If the state organizes everything, people will become dependent and lose their interest in and ability to work together. If states cannot contribute directly to the creation of social capital, they should create an environment in which nonprofits can do so.

References

• Briggs, S. Brown Kids in White Suburbs: Housing Mobility and the Many Faces of Social Capital. Housing Policy Debate. volume 9, no. 1 (1998): 177-221.
• Coleman, James. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
• De Tocqueville, A. Democracy in America. Edited by J. P. Mater. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1994.
• Evans, P. Government Action, Social Capital and Development: Reviewing the Evidence on Synergy. World Development 24, no. 6 (1996): 1119-32.
• Hall, P. Historical Perspective on Nonprofit Organizations. In The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, edited by Robert D. Herman. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994.
• Huntoon, L. Government Use of Nonprofit Organizations To Build Social Capital. Journal of Socio-Economics 30 (2001).
• Kanter, R. Collaborative Advantage: The Art of Alliances. Harvard Business Review (Jul.-Aug. 1994): 96-108.
• Light, P. Making Nonprofits Work: A Report on the Tides of Nonprofit Management Reform. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, Brookings Institution Press, 2000.
• Putnam, R. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
• Salamon, L. America’s Nonprofit Sector: A Primer. New York: The Foundation Center, 1999.
• Young, D. Complementary, Supplementary, or Adversarial? A Theoretical and Historical Examination of Nonprofit-Government Relations in the United States. In Nonprofits and Government: Collaboration and Conflict, edited by Elisabeth T Boris and C. Eugene Steuerle. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 1999.

This fundamental teaching of brotherhood and sisterhood regardless of religious affiliation is being overshadowed by suspicion, anger, mistrust, and other negative trends and emotions that continue to arise from our pursuit of ever-more comfort and possessions and our refusal to realize that such things are finite. As we continue to gather them into our hands, others are deprived of what they regard as their fair share and become fertile ground for resentment and either passive or active resistance. Their negative worldview is only strengthened and expanded by the continued lack of modern education, meaningful employment, adequate health care, freedom from fear, and many other things that those of us who are more fortunate take for granted.

Underlying the above quotations is the need to understand others, for there can be no love among people without mutual respect and acceptance of one’s right to be different. Calls to celebrate diversity and accept multiculturalism abound, but many individuals and institutions have yet to go beyond mouthing the words while doing nothing to make them a reality. This is the true challenge of the new millennium.

In this issue, we present several articles on what we should expect from believers; certain similarities among the monotheistic religions; the roles of men and women, parents and children, and how they should work together to create a better society; the place of prayer in one’s life; and the need for joining scientific and spiritual knowledge to improve the quality of life for everyone. In addition, we present several short articles on the values of introspection and self-reflection, self-reliance and the need to stop blaming others for what happens to us, and how we should view other people.

We analyze one nation’s successful quest for development to see if its methods can be applied by other nations. Also discussed is the potential of e-learning to spread relevant knowledge in areas that previously had no access to it, and the hope that they will be able to benefit from it. Two of our authors explain how democratic governing institutions prevent wars between democratic nations and civil wars within those same nations, and how the formation of social capital increases society’s overall well-being.

Our scientific articles discuss the benefits of lightning on our health and even our moods, and how the existence of what scientists call ‘dark matter’ could signal a change in how we perceive ourselves and our place in the universe.

We hope that you enjoy this issue and, as always, look forward to your comments.

According to statistics, there were as many as 123,759 overseas students in publicly financed British higher education institutions in the academic year 1977/78 (BCSOS, 1977-78, pp.6-7). Following the introduction of full-cost fees, the number fell to 88,037 in 1979 and then to 56,121 in 1984 (OST, 1987, p.17).

Since the mid-1980s the number of overseas students has been rising gradually (see table below). According to the latest available detailed statistics, the total number of overseas students in publicly financed British higher education stood at 92,100 in 1991, an increase of 9 percent on the figure for 1990 (DFE, 1993, Tables 1 and 6). It must be noted that these figures do not cover private sector colleges, whose overseas students are almost as numerous as those in publicly-financed institutions. According to a 1985 study, the full-time equivalent number of overseas students was 86,500. The fact that the number of first-year higher education student numbers in 1991 rose by 16 per cent indicates that the growth in total numbers may have continued over the following years (DFE, 1993, Tables 2 and 3).

The majority of undergraduate students are privately financed, mainly by their parents. The post-graduate students are mostly financed by public bodies, such as overseas governments, as well as by international institutions, such as the British Council. The number of British government- funded overseas students and trainees in the UK was 17,400 in 1985. As well as regular higher education, a considerable number come to Britain for language courses, mainly private, and for other courses of which details are not available.

The status of English as the international language, combined with other comparative advantages of Britain (relatively to other student recruiting countries), such as its being technologically advanced and its extensive counselling programmes for overseas students, have helped it to draw sizeable numbers of talented post- graduates as well as undergraduates into its educational system. It seems that Britain is increasingly moving towards the idea of importing the ‘best and brightest brains’ as an energy source for its educational and other institutions (Chandler, 1989, p.7). This policy resulted in the doubling between 1980 and 1986 of the number of awards under the Overseas Research Students Awards Program (ORSAS). The holders of an ORSAS award, which covers the difference between home cost’ and ‘full-cost’ fees for a particular course of study, constitute approximately 20 percent of the post-graduate research students in British universities (Chandler, 1989, ph). The administration of foreign student policy in Britain, within the broad framework set up by the government, rests with the higher educational institutions and with the British Council as the ‘marketing arm’ of British higher education and culture abroad (Chandler, 1989, p.7).

Growing emphasis has been placed on the short-term economic benefits foreign students confer as ‘tourists’ bringing in foreign currency. British sources estimated the income earned from foreign students through the fees they pay and through their own and their families’ expenditures for food, clothing, accommodation etc., at more than 1 billion a year – one-sixth of total tourist expenditures (OST, 1987, p.78). The profit comes from the difference between the full-cost fees that foreign students pay and the marginal costs they represent. The figure is likely to rise as a result of the increase in fee levels and the increase in the expenditure.

In British educational institutions, overseas students have come to be viewed as an important source of income, and as ‘cheap postgraduate labour’ (Williams et al, 1987, p.9). Apart from the educational and foreign policy benefits that overseas students provide (see below), it is interesting to note that overseas students, particularly in technical and scientific fields, constitute a double financial benefit for the British institutions: firstly, because of the high level of fees they pay (around 8- 10,000), and secondly, by providing cheap post-graduate labour for research carried out by the universities. Otherwise, universities would have to employ or recruit from abroad research assistants, at salaries of around 15-20,000 annually. It is increasingly spelt out that a university or a polytechnic is the poorer if it does not have at least 5 percent of its students from overseas (OST, 1987, p.5).

The Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 allowed polytechnics and colleges to attain university status on the condition that their educational provision met specified standards. Following this, some 40 polytechnics and colleges have been granted university status recently (DPE, 1993, point 34). In addition to other educational considerations, it is likely that one of the underlying reasons for Parliament’s allowing this to happen is to attract more overseas students to institutions which they had once regarded as inferior to universities.

In addition to direct benefits, the eventual cost-benefits of overseas students in trade and diplomatic relations have become increasingly important. This was frankly stated by Sir Anthony Parsons as follows: ‘If you are thoroughly familiar with someone else’s language and literature, if you know and love the country, the arts, the people, you will be instinctively disposed to buy goods from them rather than from a less well-known source, to support them actively when you consider them to be right, and to avoid criticizing them too fiercely when you regard them as wrong’ (Parsons, 1984). With the realization that Britain is no longer a major economic and military power, emphasis has been put on a reassessment of national assets and a greater awareness of the influence which British cultural patrimony can exercise (Malcolm, 1987, p.38). The policy debate, both nationally and in educational institutions, has focused primarily on the financial as well as on the educational benefits of the presence of overseas students.

Among the educational benefits which overseas students bring are (OST, 1990):

a) contributing to cultural enrichment;

b) testing general intellectual assumptions;

c) contributing knowledge and experience to specific courses;

d) improving pedagogical provision and contributing to staff development;

e) raising academic standards among home students;

f) helping to maintain course viability;

g) helping to maintain research capability.

In particular, there are courses in many institutions which would not be viable due to low demand from home students. Sometimes whole departments depend on overseas students for this reason. Thus, overseas students can allow an institution to offer a range of courses, a variety of academic provision, to the benefit of home students whose choice might otherwise be limited. The proportion of post-graduate overseas students in publicly-funded higher education institutions in Britain was 33 percent in 1981 and 36 percent in both 1990 and 1991 (DFB, 1993, Table 1).

Secondly, the strength of British universities in research often determines the success of their links with commerce and industry, which in turn largely depends on their international reputation in the field. The severe shortage of British research postgraduates poses a threat to many research projects, particularly in laboratory subjects. Consequently, overseas research students, who are usually of very high quality, are a valued asset, as they often maintain an institution’s research capability, its academic reputation and financial security.

The level of human resources will undoubtedly become an issue of increasing importance for the UK as well as other student recruiting countries, as highly trained scientific and technical personnel continue to affect worldwide economic and scientific growth. Human resource needs will have to be met across national boundaries. Developed countries, also, require increasing numbers of highly trained and specialized researchers and technologists, who can originate new products and services.

In the discussion of overseas students policy, various idealistic and pragmatic arguments have been put forward. These arguments for the import of foreign students are closely interconnected in a way that reflects the reality. Phrases like ‘cultural diversity’, ‘internationalism’, ‘cultural diplomacy’, technology transfer’, ‘cultural transfer’, ‘money-making’, etc., are some of the symbolic explanations of that reality. One observer has commented: ‘The relations between North and South are not primarily those of obligation or charity, but of mutuality of interest and of interdependence. Britain has her own interest in ensuring that development takes place in a peaceful and orderly manner. As a nation living by trade and the selling of services, and as the holder of considerable investment overseas, Britain… has a stake in political stability abroad and the fostering of international understanding’ (Williams, 1982, p.16).

The mutuality of need, rather than any other single factor, and rather than concepts of either obligation or opportunity, determines the continued importance of foreign students and of constructive and realistic foreign student policies (Chandler, 1989, pp. ix-x).

This ‘mutuality’ is a fairly one-sided benefit fully exploited by the receiving countries. Despite the fact that each individual student, more or less, pursues his or her aim and achieves the qualifications necessary, this success is, nevertheless, bound to remain on a micro level. The governments of the sending countries, in general, lack policies to channel and co-ordinate these endeavours into a single, sound, overall mechanism at a macro level in their own countries. The sending countries must, therefore, formulate appropriate policies and implement them. How that’s to be done is a separate question beyond the scope of the present discussion.