Comments on Not So International After All?

• Internationalizing Our Campuses
• Posted by Riall W. Nolan , Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs at Purdue University on May 22, 2008 at 9:40am EDT

• None of this comes as much of a surprise to those of us in the business. Most of US higher education has deliberately avoided susstantive engagement with the world beyond the shoreline for decades, and in a few years, we'll all start hearing the soft whirring of wings as those particular chickens come home to roost. Blame the faculty and the administration alike; everyone's dirty on this one.

  It's bad enough that so few of our institutions take international education seriously. But here's the really scary part: the skills needed to properly lead and manage internationalization on a college campus are in extremely short supply. When our colleges and universities finally do decide to go global, they're going to need to look for people with expertise far beyond that of the average faculty member or administrator. Search committees would do well to get in touch with international education associations such as AIEA, NAFSA, and CBIE before they start to write the job ads.

  If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

• Another missing piece
• Posted by MB on May 22, 2008 at 11:00am EDT

• When I was in graduate school a few years ago, I noticed a dearth of information about other countries in my courses. Despite being recognized as one of the top social work schools in the nation, there were no outlets or classes that dealt with social work in other nations. As someone who is very interested in developing economies, I was extremely disappointed that there were no courses that taught me about these countries. So, I did the best I could to focus my paper topics on those that interested me, but this was no subsitute for learning from a well-informed professor. In fact, I never even found rich sources for research from other regions of the world, a fact that could have been remedied by a knowledgeable teacher.

• International Education
• Posted by econmavin , Adjunct Faculty on May 22, 2008 at 11:20am EDT

• When I was in private industry I found that mistakes were often made because our business leaders assumed that foreign business leaders thought the same way they did.

  Once I stared teaching I found tremendous resistence, from american students, to learning that the world was not cast in our image. In a course in Multi-national Financial Management half of my students weere from abroad and half were from the USA. The American students refused to even listen to alternative ideas even when the foreign students reinforced them .

  I fear or the future of America in a Globalized society

• Sad but no surprise
• Posted by Beatrice on May 22, 2008 at 2:25pm EDT

• The basic problem is that most people in the US, including most educators, don't have any meaningful foreign experience and -- as a result? -- don't really believe that we have anything to learn from other countries.

  As a professor of foreign language I have always supported study abroad, and on campus my department provided many opportunities for students to not merely learn a foreign language but USE it: in their research, in their internships, and in their co-curricular lives.

  But my department and I were up against a host of resisters. Sure, there were apathetic and close-minded students. But they were reinforced by faculty who actively counselled students against spending time abroad, ignored research beyond US borders, and focused in their courses on US issues and examples. And then there was an indifferent administration that talked "internationalization" but meant by that mainly recruiting foreign students who'd pay full tuition.

  I once spent an afternoon reading the essays of students from 2-year and 4-year colleges who had spent a summer in Madrid. The essays mainly reflected surprise at what a good time they had had with their Spanish peers; and utter amazement that one could live very well in an environment very different from what they were accustomed to.

  I wish more US citizens could experience that kind of surprise and amazement. It might pave the way to genuine intellectual curiosity and cross-cultural respect -- two things sadly lacking on campuses now.

• Students say it best!
• Posted by Christie at University of New Haven on May 22, 2008 at 9:20pm EDT

• Students express the value of Study Abroad best. This is a recent video of University of New Haven Students talking about the their study abroad and study away experiences. Our community partners in business and industry are great supporters of the initiatives. UNH is successfully internationalizing our institution by engaging faculty in creating academic based international experiences and moving away from academic tourism. 5 minutes - enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l5NcLAZsRU&feature=PlayList&p=5EEBCF44C2D02AA4&index=5

• Got It In One
• Posted by Scrawed on May 27, 2008 at 4:40am EDT

• "And then there was an indifferent administration that talked “internationalization” but meant by that mainly recruiting foreign students..."

  And that, folks, is what it's all about. We all know that the opportunities for domestic growth in education are few, and frankly American business will only hire American workers (even in America) if they're absolutely forced to. Let's face it, we really aren't even remotely interested in teaching smart American kids - sometimes even if they're paying through the nose for our tutelage.

  This strategy has already cost America trillions. Soon it will cost America its businesses, its property, its ability to compete, and its resources. Emigrate while you still can.