Monday, June 27, 2011
Globalizing Education is a business
I found this article on USA Today and found it very interesting. Its a concept that has never occurred to me. The article talks about the process foreign students are challenged with when applying for colleges. Some universities and parents use agents to help with the process. Agents can do a variety of tasks from anything like matching the student with the proper college to helping out with the unfamiliar application process. The agents are often incentivized, receiving bonuses for sending foreign students to a certain college or university. However in the post 9/11 world, US has seen a decline in numbers of foreign students enrolling in its universities and colleges. On the other hand countries like Australia are seeing a large influx in enrollment. The article sites that since the market is relatively new, there are few restrictions on agents with what they can do and how they can recruit students. As the waves of agent-recruited students complete their education, those agents who do poorly will be no longer used by colleges and universities. This is corrected by the fact that foreign students who drop out after one year of college due to lack of overall happiness or poorly matched with a university are connected with the agent who recruited them. Those colleges who lose students like this will then stop using the services of specific agents. So it will be in best interest for agents to make as perfect as a match between foreign students and universities as possible, instead of just sending students to certain colleges because of commissions and perks. This article makes me wonder about the gap between the US primary and secondary educational systems. On the hand, on a global scale US primary education is less than desirable. However, secondary education such as college and universities is extremely desirable and appealing for foreign cultures. Where does it go wrong? Will the US continue to lead the world in post secondary education or will countries like Australia pulled ahead? With the rising costs in education will it hurt our economy and the number of foreign students looking to come stateside?
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I thank you for pointing this interesting fact out, but it seems to me that this has more to do with bureaucratic paperwork and terrorism fears than education. I do believe that the US has much to offer in college education and that foreign students will continue to want to come to the US. The reason they are going elsewhere is probably due to the hassle of US paperwork in arriving and living in this country through extended student visas.
ReplyDeleteA seminary student that was just ordained to the priesthood, spending 4 years in graduate school in Cleveland, was just denied entrance back into the US from Korea, simply because of paperwork. He had an exemplary record here in the US and was just taking a trip back for three weeks before returning to the US for a six year parish working assignment. Now he is stuck in Korea until things can be ironed out. Unbelievable!!!
What also concerns me is that the US had better concern itself with US citizens before it deals with foreign students as far as education is concerned. The expectations and support systems in families need to be addressed by our nation if we are to be competitive with foreign countries in so many ways. Chapter 4 of the Spring text spoke of early education in this country focused on values and a hard work ethic. Where has this gone? Many students and parents today want the most for the least effort. This is not what our foreign students coming to this country think. They are hard-working and will do whatever they can to succeed. More of this ethic must be seen in our American students so that the nation can be as strong as possible within, so that it can take (or maintain) a lead in the world in the many ways that we have excelled.
Before I decided to come back to school I lived in Virginia and I coached lacrosse at a small division III school and we had a large number of students from China and a few from Africa. I know in the admissions department they had one counselor dedicated to recruiting students from abroad. I had a one girl as a student and was majoring in business, she adjusted very well to life in America and had a wonderful transition to college life. She also had friends from China that also attended the university, so that probably helped. I was surprised how many student were from abroad at such a small school, so maybe on top of the admissions counselor the school had a relationship with an agent to help boost enrollment.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, higher education is a business. Colleges and universities must have financial stability in order to survive. This is a fact. For example, in the Weatherhead School of Management, the number of students studying from the foreign countries raised drastically in the past 10 years. (I am sure that this picture is seen in other schools throughout the US). Most of the students come from Asia or Middle East. The answer is very simple, since foreign students have the necessary money for tuition. Colleges and universities make money on them, since the tuition for out of state students or foreign students is at least twice as the tuition fee of the students, who live in the same region. In addition, schools rise tuition fee, so as the result, less Americans can effort to go to college.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite interesting. Many people in the world still see the United States as the land of opportunity. That's why we still have so many people coming into this country. I cannot really say how universities outside of the United States operate, but most, if not all professors that I have had understand how to make students learn; there has to be some incentive to want to study in the United States. Perhaps it is the standard of living that we've maintained over the years. It's hard to say. One of these is likely to diminish in the next 20 years, so it may be easier to tell in the near future.
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