W9: Lack of Interest from Domestic Students

This week’s readings included global strategic plans of a U.S. state public research university and a community college, as well as the article that examines the higher education system of 4 BRIC countries and comparing the political influences that drive the policies and reforms in their country’s respective higher education systems.

What stuck out to me the most was in Ohio’s global strategic plan and how they mentioned that “few [students] have an understanding of the state of the world within which we live nor an appreciation of the extent to which global forces are impacting on national and local development and vice versa”. This also made me think about how while many of the global strategic plans we have read in class definitely cover how they plan to globalize the curriculum and get more faculty and staff on board, but other than getting more students to study abroad, there seems to be little mention of getting the students on board with the internationalization strategies. And with the increase in fear of international students taking away jobs and also even spots at the universities, it is ever more important to also get the local students on board with the plans the institution has to globalize their campus, because the students are a large group of stakeholders at play.

When mass media consistently spreads fear of the influx of foreigners on college campuses and in job markets, it is not surprising that it causes increasingly resistant local students to the inclusion of international students and the potential benefits the international students bring. As mentioned in class discussions before, reaping the benefits of a more diverse student body requires work on the part of the institution. The institution needs to be able to not only successfully mesh the international students into the local environment and culture, but also to get the local students to be receptive of the international students and the cultures and perspectives they bring.

While this issue of resistance does not seem to be something that can be changed on the policy level, since policy cannot directly dictate what the students should do and how they should react to the situation, there are things that can be changed in the primary and secondary schools to expose students early on about the benefits of have a more globalized curriculum and be more accepting of other cultures and traditions. All in all, it is great that both strategic plans read this week show a great amount of support on the administrative and faculty side, but there is still the question of how the students will receive it and how to better include the students in the plan.

W4 – Comprehensive National Policy of Internationalization of US Higher Education

For this week’s reading, this issue of whether or not there should be a comprehensive national policy on internationalization in the United States was examined. Given the structure of the U.S. government and our higher education system, a national policy might not be as effective as in other countries. As mentioned in the reading, the diversity of different types of higher education institutions in the United States makes it difficult to have a national policy that would be general enough to cover all the different institutions but specific enough to to actually be effective. I agree that there should be more collaboration and more effort put into working together with the various governmental agencies and non-governmental agencies to ensure sufficient funding of the various programs that attempt to better the internationalization of the United States higher education system.

Hans de Wit mentioned at the Association of International Education Administrators conference that funding is one of the frequently mentioned challenges of internationalization of higher education. This has caused institutions to view international students as “cash cows”, because more international students means more revenue. The reading also mentions how institutions justify the increase of international students can help balance out the limited number of domestic students that are able to go abroad by bringing the diversity and culture to the home campus. But as the reading also mentions, there seems to be a lack of support for the international students to properly infused their diverse backgrounds into the local culture and benefit the local students. The benefits of the diversity from having international students do not magically manifest themselves without the support from the institution. Institutions need to provide adequate support both for the international students and their own students and faculty to be able to take advantage of the benefits of a diverse community.

De Wit goes on to mention how mobility has been at the forefront of internationalization. Global competitiveness is increasing and causing tension between quantity and quality as more students and scholars go abroad. But there is little focus on the vast majority of students that do not go abroad in the United States. To improve internationalization at the home campus, curriculum and programs can be globalized to increase exposure of all the students to different cultures and languages to allow them to be more globally competent. In the article, de Wit also mentions how there is missing a “more comprehensive approach to internationalization and a focus on internationalization of the curriculum and learning outcomes to enhance the quality of education and research”. Especially when the majority of U.S. college students do not study abroad or research abroad, there needs to be more efforts to globalize the environment at home in order to make all the students more globally competent and open to learning about other cultures.

W4- International Students and Scholar Mobility

For this week’s reading, there are two subjects I would like to discuss. While the professor suggests that we use outside sources, such as articles or journals, to supplement our perspectives, I don’t think we should overlook word of mouth as a source. Sure, it may not be as formal, but not everyone involved with the topic writes his or her ideas or experiences so they can be read by the public.

The first subject is international students. Students from other countries come here to study, and while they are in school they must remain full-time students, have limited work opportunities, and almost always pay way more than the average student. Some of the information I am about to convey comes directly from an interview I conducted with the DSO (designated school official) for international students at my college of employment. While it is easy to criticize the model for international study because of the strict limitations the students experience, the conversation I had with the DSO gradually veered to something more abstract. The international student office at my college is essentially just this one man (who primarily works in the Registrar’s Office); the total number of international students enrolled doesn’t even exceed one hundred, so the college hasn’t spent much time, energy, or resources into providing a permanent office. That being said, the DSO doesn’t have a strenuous responsibilities for these students, but he has been doing it for a long time and has worked extensively with the demographic. The thing that struck me most during our interview was his perspective on the attitude of international students, which I will discuss briefly in the next paragraph.

From the DSO’s point of view, international students have a lot of adversity to face, not including the restrictions listed above. There seems to be, according to the DSO, an inequality between native and international students that the former don’t realize, but of which the latter are quite aware. Over time, international students may experience a form of alienation; native students complain about financial aid and their jobs, while those from abroad pay an exorbitant amount of money for school and cannot work many hours. While this alienation may not cause them to fail academically, it could potentially create a feeling of disdain towards education, the institution, as well as the American people and country as a whole. This may be an extreme example, but it goes to show that internationalization isn’t always rainbows and lollipops.

Another subject I would like to quickly cover is that of scholar mobility. Again, my source for my developing opinion on this matter is word of mouth. My cousin’s friend is teaching in China for an indefinite amount of time, and so my cousin has decided to go visit her (come on Ben, take a deep breath, be happy for him, wash away the jealousy). After finding this all out, I asked him a bunch of questions about his friend and her experiences, since you know, we’re in an international higher education class. Apparently this is all my cousin could glean from his friend: the college at which she taught asked her to teach abroad, and who could say no to China? Yup, that was it. Based on this brief exchange, I found it all a little sketchy. Why did her college ask her to go? Do colleges ask their best or worst professors to teach abroad? How long do they expect her to be there? Who pays for her expenses? What kind of research opportunities does she have in a different country?

I can totally relate to her friend wanting to go to China. Many people would love to have an opportunity like that. The only traveling I do for my job is walking to the campus cafeteria during my lunch break. In any case, hearing a story like hers just makes me very curious, and this skepticism quickly takes over the envy I feel (not quickly enough though, I’m still pretty jealous).