Building from the last reading, this week’s topic covered “Cross-border education”, this type of education is geared towards “establishing partnerships among institutions on national, regional and international levels, creating educational hubs, encouraging domestic institutions to create campuses and programs abroad, and regulating cross-border educational activities”. Cross-border education seems to be a vital aspect of internationalization. It uses online and hybrid courses also with other programs and research projects that are spread globally which furthers the rate and accessibility of higher education on a global scale (P38-39), this improves the quality of education on the home front as well. Remembering that internationalization pushes for peaceful times, it is refreshing to learn that the United States wants to start cross-border initiatives with the Middle East, this more than likely will not be met with open arms from the general population, but it is a step in the right direction.
As the world changes and advances many countries are growing to become “interdependent”, leading the University of the Philippines (UP) system to look to internationalization. UP takes aspects of academic culture and pedagogy (ethos and value systems) from different universities to mold their own. This allows for the strengthening of resources, but the institution is able to keep its sense of self. The 2008 Charter of the University of the Philippines mandated the national university to “serve as a regional and global university in cooperation with international and scientific unions, network universities, scholarly and professional associations in the Asia Pacific region and around the world”. This system has internationalization written right into their mandate, something that may become the norm for many other institutions in the not so distant future.
Although America feels as though it is the educational capitol of the world, it is important that our students are well-versed in most if not all matters of the world and can relate to others outside of our country, to achieve this, schools have been implementing internationalization initiatives in K-12 as a way to implement culture, linguistics and other foreign matters under policies geared toward internationalization. It can be hypothesized that having students like this who ultimately go on to furthering their education or pursuing careers in different job markets, has many benefits. One such benefit would be if any of these students become educators, they already have the tools of internationalization, or some kind of base understanding, these educators reach out to 100s if not 1,000s of students while perfecting their craft, and these students can go on to do the same, sort of like the domino effect.
References
Azanza, R. (2014, February 21). “Symbiosis”/”Mutualism” and the University of the Philippines’ Enhanced and Strategic Internationalization Agenda. Retrieved February, 2016, from http://www.up.edu.ph/symbiosismutualism-and-the-university-of-the-philippines-enhanced-and-strategic-internationalization-agenda/
Good Afternoon,
Thanks for your post! When I read for this week, I found myself coming to many of the same conclusions about cross-border initiatives. Although in the U.S we do feel that we are “international,” I think it is very interesting that other countries make more of an effort to broaden their programs/send students abroad than we do. I also agree that going abroad provides many benefits, and that exposure to global markets is just one of many advantages a student will receive through international education. I also believe that when students partake in cross-border education, this may be seen as more desirable to employers. For instance, if two candidates have similar qualifications but one has studied abroad and the other has not, I think that many places of business will find the international experience appealing! In a competitive job market, this is but another great reason to pursue education internationally.
Warm Regards,
Melissa Parsowith
Thank you for your article.
Your assessment of cross-border education through a pursuance of peace lens was refreshing. It led me to wonder whether or not some of this work to strengthen ties between the U.S and the Middle East has started already. I came across the Middle East Institute (MEI), which is the oldest Washington D.C. based institution that solely dedicates its instruction to that of Middle Eastern studies. Its mandate is as follows: “to increase knowledge of the Middle East among the citizens of the United States and to promote a better understanding between the people of these two areas.” MEI regards itself as a respected, non-partisan voice in the field of Middle East studies. In navigating through the website the range of topics explored are current events in China, Afgan, Syria, Turkey, Iran and women’s issues. This institute seems to stimulate creativity and foster cross-cultural harmony through their acquisition of international educators.
http://www.mei.edu
Cross-boarder education is so important and I really enjoyed reading your post about these types of initiatives. The University of the Philippines is an amazing example of how they take techniques from other institutions and incorporate them into the development of their own unique university. I agree with your statement that: “This system has internationalization written right into their mandate, something that may become the norm for many other institutions in the not so distant future.” I believe in order to truly move forward in this field, colleges and universities globally need to build these policies into the very foundation/core of the university for internationalization to truly take hold on the campus but in addition as you mentioned, the United States must embrace these initiatives at an earlier educational age, as many other countries do.