Hello everyone, my name is Natallia Kolbun. I received my bachelor’s degree in Finance and currently still work in the industry. I started HEA program as a result of my personal interests. In 2015 I co-founded a non-profit organization that provides scholarships, mentoring and eventually educational and support services to college students whose families have been affected by cancer. I believe that this program can help me understand higher education and the needs of the students in more depth. I’m five classes into the program, yet I am already considering leaving finance to pursue a career in Higher Education.
I really enjoyed the readings for today’s class, as they touched upon several important topics of international higher education, which I am sure will come up throughout the semester. The two topics that I personally was intrigued and simultaneously concerned about were Green’s article on US and internationalization and the role of politics in higher education.
I find Green’s article somewhat controversial. It could partially be due to the lack of details on the IAU Study that Green uses to make his point. According to the study, US provided lower indicators in the interest and implementation of internationalization within participated US colleges and universities versus all participated institutions around the world. Yet, there are no details in regards to the size, mission and location of those institutions. The United States has over 5,000 colleges and universities throughout the country, some of which are small, specialized, or have a unique mission to accomplish, which is not a representation of the majority of the large US Higher Ed Institutions. The United States is also a number one country that takes/welcomes the largest number of immigrants every year. Both of the above facts, in my opinion, are very important when discussing internationalization of higher education, yet it does not seem to be considered in the study. It is also important to keep in mind that the United States is the most diverse country in the world and has already a great base of internationalization within the institutions without study aboard programs or other international relations. In addition, the location of the institutions in the survey is also very important. Colleges and Universities located in New York and California, for example, would be more interested in international relations than institutions in the Midwest, simply because New York and California are the states with most diversity and international relations in general. Therefore, it seems as if politics still play a large role in the choice of the geographical areas institutions pick as their top priority. Asia is the top choice for the US, since the US has a tremendous portion of their trade, manufacturing, and outsourcing relationship with Asia, which seems to benefit both areas over the last decade. On the other hand, the US relationships with Russia and Europe have become more competitive (it feels like the Cold War between Russia and the US has never ended), rather than collaborative, which might be directing European interests to Latin America and Middle East instead.
I am interested to see what others think about this topic, as well as to see the actual implementation of internationalization strategies within institutions here in the US and abroad in the next couple of decades.
Hi Natallia,
I loved what you wrote in your response to this week’s readings. You bring up many important faults of Green’s article, including the lack of details and somewhat biased viewpoint presented, based on minimal research. I, too, noticed a red flag when the Oxford article mentions the U.S as the #1 study abroad destination, while the other article states that the U.S has much work to do in promoting internationalization. I also find it extremely important to acknowledge the U.S’s own diversity and relationship to Asia. Although I know that the U.S has strong ties there, it truly never occurred to me that this could motivate our international education to lean in that direction. I agree that politics plays a large role and would be interested to see if any of our classmates find supporting articles which further discuss the relationship between the US and abroad.
Looking forward to taking another course with you this semester!
Best regards,
Melissa Parsowith
I do agree that the Green article may over generalize in not acknowledging the huge diversity of US higher education institutions in terms of size, location, and student body composition. In my experience, small non-profit, private colleges are very much turning to the international market to increase enrollment and diversify student body composition which are critical goals for many small colleges that tend to cater to a specific demographic or socio-economic group. I believe opportunities to partner with overseas educational institutions also allows for cross-marketing of small colleges and the trend for these types of schools may be overlooked by Green.
Hey Natallia,
I totally appreciate your response to this week’s readings. I found Green’s article to be a bit bland and redundant. The article kept repeating USA was fairly low at incorporating internationalization into their plans, however it didn’t provide causes as to why this was the case. You are absolutely right, the size of the student body at an institution and varying missions play a part in whether or not an institution may decide to implement internalization. Another item the article failed to address is the cost of tuition amongst the countries. However, I do not agree that location holds any weight (Within the USA). I understand that colleges and universities in locations such as New York and California are already more diverse and have a heavy interest in internalization. But I also believe that institutions in the Midwest can attract international students because the location and culture is still a vast difference from their current geographical location. My previous supervisor and her husband (not at the time) moved from Belaruse to the USA and the first state they chose to inhabit was Kansas.
Adia Johnson