Globalization and the Internationalization of Graduate Education: A Macro and Micro View

Since the 1990s, globalization has become a central phenomenon for all of society, including graduate education and particularly doctoral education. Globalization takes place in a context where doctoral education and research capacity are unevenly distributed and where a few research universities, mainly in wealthy countries, have become powerful social institutions. This article presents ideas that are a synthesis of published and in-process research on the impact of globalization and graduate education, which was mainly inspired by two international research workshops that focused on globalization's forces and trends in graduate education and its promising practices, rather than its best practices. Three major arguments are presented here. First, globalization has brought a number of common trends, or "converging practices," to graduate education worldwide. Second, due to globalization, institutions responsible for graduate education today must fulfill a dual mission: (1) building a nation's infrastructure by preparing the next generation of professionals and scholars for the local and national economy, both inside and outside academia; and (2) educating their domestic and international graduate students to participate in a global economy and an international scholarly community. Lastly, although globalization cannot be avoided, institutions of higher education can respond proactively by preparing doctoral students adequately to meet the challenges of globalization and the challenges of an increasing national interest in the role of doctoral education for the knowledge economy. (Contains 2 notes.)