This week’s reading highlights the current policies and future directions of internationalization in higher education. It outlines prominent policy actors and discusses current policies (using the 4 typology subcategories previously discussed: student mobility, scholar mobility & research collaboration, cross-border education, and IaH.) The reading begins by defining key policy players in the United States, such as the U.S Department of State, Education, Defense, as well as the National Science Foundation. Together, these agencies (and others) can be analyzed using the 4 typologies listed above to help develop comparisons on a global scale. In the Executive Summary, it is highlighted that while the U.S does many things well, what we lack as a nation is a comprehensive national policy which links multiple initiatives together in order to further promote the internationalization of higher education in our country. The reading suggests that in order to address this issue, the U.S must promote higher levels of engagement between the world of Higher Education and these agencies. It also suggests that we coordinate more well-funded initiatives which support global internationalization.

Something that I found very interesting was the nod towards the United States’ decentralized structure of government. Because of this, as well as the current state of Higher Education in our country, the author states that they do not foresee one national policy proving to be effective on a global scale. Instead, they believe that the U.S would need to target federal policies and programs individually, in order to best support the internationalization effort as a whole. I agree with this train of thought and also find it very interesting to see how different our country is from others discussed later on in the article. Speaking from personal experience, I have traveled abroad to many Caribbean countries where I have been lucky enough to tour their Ministry of Education building. The United States is so different because we lack an educational structure defined by a single governing agency. In an article titled, “The Three Great Strengths of U.S Higher Education,” the author explains “This is the defining feature of U.S. higher education. It is why we have the best universities in the world (by pretty much any measure), and it is also why applying to U.S. colleges and universities can be so confusing. We do have a Department of Education, but it is by far the smallest federal department. It doesn’t run schools or universities. It doesn’t issue diplomas. It doesn’t write or choose curricula. So each college or university decides for itself how best to teach its students. This leads to the first great strength of U.S. higher education—diversity” (Gorski, p.1).

It is an undeniable fact that while the U.S has work to do regarding Internationalization at Home, among pursuing other global policy initiatives, we have already succeeded in promoting a vastly diverse realm of education for our citizens as well as visiting scholars. As the article concludes, I agree that it will be of the utmost importance to support policies which promote “preparedness for a global era” because that is absolutely the direction which our world is headed.

Reference: http://www.internationalstudentguidetotheusa.com/articles/three-great-strengths-of-us-higher-education.htm