International Higher Education

China: A Follower or Leader in Global Higher Education? By Marijk van der Wende and Jiabin Zhu

Marijk van der Wende
Jiabin Zhu
2016

This paper focuses on China both as an object and a subject in the globalization of higher education and the sometimes paradoxical nature of the country’s policies in this respect. How is the Chinese perspective on globalization shaping its agenda for higher education, the development of world-class universities, and cooperation with Europe and the West? What is China’s role in the globalization of higher education, its global agency in higher education, and the impact of its diaspora, soft power, and its new Silk Routes policies? What is its capacity to become a global leader in...

International Academic Mobility: Towards a Concentration of the Minds in Europe, by Marijk van der Wende

Marijk van der Wende
2015

The global competition and related international academic mobility in science and research is rising. Within this context, Europe faces quantitative skills shortages, including an estimate of between 800,000 and one million researchers. Within Europe skills imbalances and mismatches increase, with a growing divergence between countries and regions, in particular between the North and South, in terms of their ability to invest and attract human and financial capital for R&D. As a result intra-European mobility is not only on the rise, but may easily turn from an intended brain...

Globalization and Student Learning: A Literature Review and Call for Greater Conceptual Rigor and Cross-Institutional Studies, by Richard J. Edelstein

Richard J. Edelstein
2014

University learning objectives and the curriculum have evolved to include more knowledge, skills and aptitudes related to the increasingly international nature of a broad range of professions and occupations. More broadly, graduates are expected to know more about the world outside their home country in order to be informed and responsible citizens and to function personally and professionally in international contexts. There is, however, very little systematic assessment of international learning and programming A review of the literature indicates that studies of...

Seeking a Roadmap to Becoming World Class: Strategic Planning at Peking University, by Xie Guangkuan

Xie Guangkuan
2013

Strategic planning plays an important but sometimes controversial role in higher education. This paper examines how strategic planning works in Chinese universities, using Peking University as a case study. This essay discusses the rationale for why Peking University (PKU) decided to pursue status as a world-class university along with objectives and value of its various strategic plans beginning in the 1990s. These plans have had four main roles at Peking University: as a means to periodically alter the development path or "roadmap" of the university; as a method to gain or "...

The Trajectory of Chinese Doctoral Education and Scientific Research

Wanhua Ma
2007

Dramatic enrollment expansion at the undergraduate level and institutional diversification are characteristics frequently used to describe major trends in China's massive higher education system. A less understood phenomenon is the relatively new and rapid establishment of graduate level programs that have implications for national economic development. As described in this study, beginning in the early 1980s, the Chinese government launched the first of a number of reforms meant to encourage the development of graduate programs and to change the face of China's higher education...

Universities, the US High Tech Advantage, and the Process of Globalization, by John Aubrey Douglass

John Aubrey Douglass
2008

Research universities throughout the world are part of a larger effort by nation-states to bolster science and technological innovation and compete economically. The US remains highly competitive as a source of High Tech (HT) innovation because of a number of market positions, many the result of long term investments in institutions such as research universities and in R&D funding, and more broadly influenced by a political culture that has tended to support entrepreneurs and risk taking. In essence, the US was the first mover in pursuing the nexus of science and economic policy. The...

Fostering Global Competence Through Internationalization at American Research Universities, by I. Shcheglova, G. Thomson and Martha​ ​C.​ ​Merrill

Irina Shcheglova
Gregg Thomson
Martha​ ​C.​ ​Merrill
2017

American research universities have recently joined the march for internationalization and now are putting explicit efforts into finding ways to create an international focus. Within a short number of years, missions have been transformed, incorporating elements of globalization. Universities now declare the importance of preparing students to live and work in a multicultural and global world. They document the increased numbers of international students and faculty on campus and their support for Study Abroad programs that provide first-hand international experience as well as for...

The Goals of Transnational Education: Reflections of a True Believer, by Jeffrey S. Lehman

Jeffrey S. Lehman
2012

Transnational education can both improve the lives of the students who experience it and also increase cooperation and reduce conflict across cultural lines. The value of transnational education is more apparent when one considers how, in a radically transformed twenty-first century, students need to develop a special set of nine essential qualities: curiosity, empathy, skepticism, logical thinking, patience, creativity, scientific literacy, effectiveness across cultural boundaries and multilingualism. The need to develop these qualities is framing the design of the educational...

A GLOBAL TALENT MAGNET: How a San Francisco/Bay Area Higher Education Hub Could Advance California's Comparative Advantage In Attracting International Talent and Further Build US Economic Competitiveness

John Aubrey Douglass
Richard Edelstein
Cécile Hoareau
2011

During the 2009-10 academic year international students generated more than $18.8 billion in net income into the US economy. California alone had nearly 100,000 international students with an economic impact of nearly $3.0 billion. In this paper, we outline a strategy for the San Francisco/Bay Area to double the number of international students enrolled in local colleges and universities in ten years or less, generating a total direct economic impact of an additional $1 billion a year into the regional economy. The US retains a huge market advantage for attracting foreign students....

THE GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR TALENT The Rapidly Changing Market for InternationalStudents and the Need for a Strategic Approach in the US

John Aubrey Douglass
Richard Edelstein
2009

There is growing evidence that students throughout the world no longer see the US as the primary place to study; that in some form this correlates with a rise in perceived quality and prestige in the EU and elsewhere; and further, that this may mean a continued decline in the US’s market share of international students. There clearly are a complex set of variables that will influence international education and global labor markets, including the current global economic recession. Ultimately, however, we think these factors will not alter the fundamental dynamics of the new global...