Hi All!
My name is Zeline Santana and this is my final semester in the Higher Education Administration program. My experience in higher education falls under the Enrollment Management division and Financial Aid. My professional interest at the moment is to excel within my division. I am not very familiar with the history of international higher education, but as a student that was exposed to study aboard opportunities during my undergraduate degree I understand the important of Internationalization.
This weeks reading touched many concerns I had after the Paris 2015 attacks and IHE. Altbach and Wit’s reading “Internalization and Global Tensions” validated my concerns that political forces and peace building wars affect international higher education globally. The reading helped in understanding the importance in how past wars and future global tension mold international education on a global scale.
Overall, in the higher education program we have also learned that U.S faculty members have pushed back on Internationalization and distant learning because of its quality. There are multiple reasons why faculty members may or may not agree with Internationalization, but it is evident that quality is their main concern. Green concluded that the study performed by IAU found the level of importance U.S gives Internationalization is low. I believe this is because the United States feels they are the best in the world, however, I also believe the under development of Internationalization in the United States is caused by political forces that stress graduation rates, low completion rates for different ethnic backgrounds, retention rates, and many other factors that place pressure on the U.S higher ed system. This can also be the reason why Internationalization in the U.S has received low importance due to other factors affecting the system even though they may place a small level of importance in strategic planning.
What caught my attention the most in the Oxford article “International Trends in Higher Education” was the implementation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). I agree that MOOCs do provide a wide access to learning on a global scale, but I do not feel it enforces Internationalization. A 2013 study on MOOCs found that students do not complete the MOOCs programs. I believe this is due to low quality. Free courses at times in my personal opinion can lead students to think that the quality of a course is low or if difficult an easy way out. It will be interesting to see if anyone agrees with me, but I do feel that a leading cause of MOOCs low enrollment is that there is no ramification for students who do not complete the courses. In hopes to find more research that validates my thoughts I found that Welsh and Dragusin article “The New Generation of Massive Open Online Course (MOOCS) and Entrepreneurship Education” agrees that obstacles that face MOOCs are weaknesses in providing assistance to different learning styles, low revenue production, and quality of student learning (Welsh and Dragusin, 2013). To conclude, I feel these obstacles are essential for any program that wishes to have a great level of completion and impact on a global scale.
Outside References:
Welsh, D. H., & Dragusin, M. (2013). The New Generation of Massive Open Online
Course (MOOCS) and Entrepreneurship Education. Small Business Institute, 9(1), 51-65.
Hi Zeline,
I find it interesting that you mention how faculty members in the United States are a little resentful of the push for international education. Both faculty and students alike have legitimate concerns when it comes to the quality of education overseas, and even the affects it has here. Looking past simple study abroad programs, many higher education institutions are promoting their branch campuses in foreign nations. NYU, for example, has a campus in the Middle East. Professors and students are opposed to the college focusing so much on its international ventures because the home campus has so many problems of its own. Sure, the quality of its satellite campus is of high importance, but it shouldn’t replace the quality of the NYC campus in the eyes of the NYU president and the board. NYU may have unique issues, but as you said, there are way too many problems in higher education in this country to place international education at the forefront. Perhaps that is not your personal opinion, but it certainly lends itself to an engaging debate.
I too find it interesting that you touch on the resentment that faculty are a bit resentful in the push for international education. While America is melting pot, and loves to boast that we are the land of the free, and with the quote “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” Written by Emma Lazarus, on the Statue of Liberty, the American people have not been forthcoming to immigrants in this country. How can we legitimately expect to attract internal students, if the immigrants that reside on our soil get treated the way they do.
Zeline, your take on MOOCs is an interesting one. Who doesn’t like free right? We all do, but not when it comes to education unfortunately. Education is on the highest money making industries in the US, if not the world, people here think the higher the cost, the better the education, which oftentimes couldn’t be further away from the truth. If something is free, we have nothing to lose, only everything to gain, so as stated in your write-up of the article, with no real “ramification for students who do not complete the courses” it is no surprise there are low enrollment rates and low completion rates.