AGBInteractive

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Peering over the horizon: The emerging world of international education

The 2006 film, “Babel,” follows the story of an Italian rifle given to a Moroccan peasant by a wealthy Japanese businessman. The rifle is used by a child to shoot and wound an American tourist whose own children are being tended by a Mexican woman. A scene in the film includes the following dialogue between one of the American children, Tom, speaking in English to a Mexican, Santiago:Tom: My mom said Mexico is dangerous.
Santiago: [in Spanish] Yes, it’s full of Mexicans.

International education a highlight at “The Nick of Time”

“The Nick of Time,” AGB’s 2008 National Conference on Trusteeship sought to provide attendees with an international perspective on American higher education. A plenary session entitled “National Interests and Engagement in International Education” included presentations by:

• Jamil Salil, a senior official of the World Bank, himself a Moroccan, who earned degrees in France, the U.S. and the U.K.;
• Supachai Yavaprabhas, the Thai director of the South East Asian Ministers of Education Regional Center for Higher Education and Development who was educated in Thailand and in the United States; and
• Philip Fine, a Canadian journalist from a timely new online publication, World University News.

A concurrent session addressed “The Growing Importance of International Students and Faculty for American Higher Education” and brought together a trio of American scholars and administrators who offered practical advice and significant data bearing on how international education is becoming a much more prominent aspect of U.S. colleges and universitiesóand the nation’s competitive position in the world economy. Both the plenary and concurrent sessions distilled some critical points for trustees and presidents to consider, including:

The “inexorable force” of change and globalization

Post-secondary education and post-education policy are increasingly important for all nations’ agendas, reflecting the acceptance that an increasingly inter-related global economy is and will continue to be driven by knowledge production dissemination, and the innovation that often results. Native students often are encouraged to pursue studies abroad and foreign students are recruited to native institutions.

The scope of international education, whatever the metrics used to measure, is growing as both a consequence and a driver of globalization, with the United States continuing to attract more foreign students, but several other countries, including Australia, Canada and most countries of Europe, making the recruitment of international students and faculty a national priority.

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The importance of international students and faculty for American colleges and universities is significant and changing. More than one-third of all U.S. Nobel laureates are foreign-born, nearly 40 percent of doctorate-level employees in science and engineering in the U.S. are foreign-born, and temporary visa holders made up nearly 60 percent of engineering doctorates awarded by American universities and nearly half of all physical science PhDs.

Historically, the U.S. could rely on attracting the “best and brightest” of international students, but other countries, including small ones such as Taiwan, are beginning to compete successfully against American institutions.

Governments struggle to fund their colleges and universities in order to expand access to post-secondary education, but are often hard-pressed to maintain existing levels of access, at least in part because improvements in primary and secondary education have increased the numbers of students seeking further education.

Privatization, citizen trusteeship,
internationalization and other questions

Partly as a result of governments’ inability to fund fully post-secondary education, “privatization” has grown significantly and in a variety of ways, including increases in private providers, higher tuition, and fees charged to and paid by students and their families, and direct ties between business and institutions of post-secondary education for the provision of “tailored” programs of study for employees.

For political and financial reasons, many countries are attracted to the American-Canadian model of “citizen trusteeship” and autonomous or semi-autonomous governing boards appointed by governments who assume responsibility and authority for decisions (for example, setting tuition) previously carried out by government.

For many, if not most, American colleges and universities, international education in the form of study abroad and intensive international internships are becoming standard elements in the repertoire of assets institutions offer in order to attract enrollments. In some instances, “internationalization” of the curriculum or the student experience has become a strategic part of long-term plans of institutional development.

By contrast, some international activities are more akin to “cottage industries” managed by enterprising faculty members and operating more or less independently of the institution. These sorts of efforts, however laudable, carry some risk and would benefit from better integration within the college or university.

One strand that wove its way through most of the commentary on international education is the inexorable force of change at work on post-secondary education throughout the world. Commenting in another setting, the Greek Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs (an unusual pairing of institutions that the late-George Keller once noted were the only such ones to survive intact since the Middle Ages) proclaimed:

We all agreed that higher education cannot escape major change. Sometimes change will be difficult. [But] our meeting here, and these conclusions represent a clear signal of our determination to lead the necessary changes rather than be driven by them.

—Marietta Giannakou
Minister of National Education & Religious Affairs
2006

The signs are not yet clear whether American higher education leaders are as assured of their capacity to deal with change, even or especially change that is global in scope.

This article is drawn from the presentations and remarks of Philip Altbach, Urban “Ben” DeWinter, Philip Fine, Jamil Samil, Supachai Yavaprabhas, and Bernd Widdig, but the views expressed here are solely those of the author.