This week’s readings, “Bridges to the Future” and “IHE at Twenty: Higher Education’s Future” both provided lots of thoughtful analysis regarding the future of global Higher Education. As we have previously discussed in this course, there are many moving parts which play a role in the internationalization of Higher Education. As mentioned in “Bridges to the Future,” there are several emerging themes to consider for the field of global Higher Education. As the world around us changes politically and economically, so does the capability for providing educational services, both at home and overseas. We must consider many things when discussing higher education and its future as a global entity. We must dissect the concept of internationalization itself, the impacts of emerging technologies, the changes in the study abroad field, as well as the broad notion of global citizenship just to name a few of several important topics. On top of all of these things, one must also consider potential limitations like financial constraints, policy hurdles, governmental involvement and support (or lack thereof) as well as competency and assessment challenges. As both articles reiterate, the future of international higher education seems bright, but those in the field are not without reservations.

Something that I found most interesting about both of these articles was that they prompted the reader to think critically and to ask the important questions. For instance, in “Bridges to the Future,” the author writes “Key questions emerge in this area: Will institutions remain institution-centric or move to global-centric? How do global efforts align with the institutional mission? What competencies are needed for institutions to engage as global citizens in the world?” (p.458) In IHE at Twenty, they add “There is a dichotomy between the necessity of education and supporting elite research institutions.” (p.4) How will we ensure that both aspects of Higher Education are appropriately supported? Although the articles do not have direct solutions to all of these questions, I think it is wonderful that these concepts are being introduced in a way which forces the reader to make their own interpretations of the information.

In a similar article titled, “Global: The big challenges for higher education” the author continues on the same train of thought by bringing up another concerning and thought-provoking issue: the fairness involved in the accessibility of higher education, especially globally. She writes, “”It is still the case for most systems that despite massification, access is primarily for people from advanced socio-economic groups. So the issue of fairness in access to higher education remains.” (MacGregor, 2010, p.1) I find the question of fairness to be one which requires much more thought and research, but wanted to bring it up to show the evolution of the questions involved here, and how complex the topic can be.