OECD reports regarding changing reforms as well as the current state of higher education shows yet another informative view of the higher education sphere and how current policies, as well as changes that are needed to be able to have the higher education move forward and comply with the changing world.

The report starts off by mentioning that to have effective policies there must be a correct implementation that drives it. Furthermore, it shows that once policies are actually implemented there is no follow up to see if those policies are indeed working or need any changes to help them work better . Then the report goes on to discuss what policies are currently on the top of the list that higher education system is in need of. With the change of the student landscape, it has become a very important time to implement significant changes. State of higher education report states that higher education has become more flexible in order to meet new demands of emerging student populations. Even international students can study from the safety of their own home.

With the change in students higher education has also been raising tuition and with paying the higher amount the students demand and expect better experiences. Hence, the need for quality assessment is needed. Higher education systems are experiencing great weight on becoming more effective and efficient. However, for things to actually be implemented and sought through funds have become a scarce resource. As mentioned in previous blogs the influence of the government funding  is low and rapidly declining. While the government is engaged in helping implement performance-based programs this may be very difficult data to collect which does not coincide with quaintly only account for the quantity. Hence, the need for private funds has become a pivotal role for institutions. The US has received a 5% raise in philanthropic giving for higher education to raise a good portion of its money to support many institutions. Yet not all countries have substantial knowledge of raising money. According to the OECD report, Europe has had problems raising enough funds since it was not necessary in their country while starting colleges. In this scenario the US does have an advantage due to its long history of receiving private funds. However funds are only half of the problem allocation of them as well as policy making is yet another issue that needs to be set in place to have a more constant higher education growth.

International Higher education partnerships report discusses some identifying themes that address strategies for program administration. The main ones include transparency and accountability, faculty and staff engagement, and quality assurance. Cultural and contextual issues also come into play with program administration. Which include cultural awareness as well as ethical dilemmas.

Identifying the issues is only half of the struggle. Considering international higher education is a focus of current growth a report by Rice University discusses the availability of dual and joint degrees. A Dual degree is when a student receives two different diploma’s one from each institution. A joint degree on the other hand  is when a student receives a single diploma from completing coursework in 2 separate institutions. Of course, this type of program is difficult to implement and keep. Starting with the implementation this type of  program would need to have majority of consensus on different strategies to be able to have the student receive this diploma since institutions across seas function differently in terms of language and curriculum.

Personally cultural awareness that includes language considerations and learning outcomes seems to be on the top of the list to make partnerships work. According to Global Higher Education, Such collaborative degrees have the potential to alter relationships with worldwide universities as well as their missions. Which the IHE report also touches on. Many universities do not include internationalization as a part of their mission statements and that becomes a very highly needed type of strategy to be able to help internationalization grow as well as help programs such as dual degrees become more spread and much more thoroughly defined as time goes by.

With a higher  focus on quality assurance, it would be much more telling of how the programs, as well as certain policies, are doing in terms of numbers. This would help tweak any problem areas that arise and help give a much better visual on what is working or not on international level programs. Bearing in mind cultural and ethical differences that may present along the way.

Internationalization in many colleges as well as countries is lagging due to nonuniform type of strategies in terms of  curriculum. Even colleges within the same country are not able to come to a consensus on identifying classes as the same which creates more issues for the students.  Connection on a international level would also need to be able to work on some curriculum problems within the country first to be able to move to an international level with more colleges dealing with dual and joint degrees.

The OECD report discusses strategic policies that should be both initiated as well as kept up by the government and the institutions. The most up to date policies are focused on student mobility, international research and education as an import industry. The report also discusses how issues may arise when trying to implement and upkeep  these policies  things to do to be prepared for challenges. An eye-catching part of the report is the mentioning of the ICT implementation due to the rapid growth of the internet and web-based sharing. It is displayed as a positive as well as a negative aspect of international higher education model. It ties in very closely to ethics and values of information sharing as well as regulating ownership of ideas. Hence further displaying that it is important to have governments all over the world to come together on certain issues to make a global policy. Furthermore, the report also shines a light on how important it is to sustain the right professors with changing rules being moving the schools to another country and or ICT learning because they are the ones that will be providing knowledge for the new class of graduates.

Another reading suggests changes in higher education governance in Europe. This allows seeing changes that European higher education policies are facing. Discussing how higher education has shifted to a more buissness like managerial structure. There have been three identified models. The “market-oriented” model, “state-centered model” and “academic self-rule model”. Each model displays their own self intrests. All this just seems to show that higher education, as well as internationalization, is skewing to a more business perspective. At the end of the day the OECD report as well as cross- country comparison of higher education is showing that the higher education system is becoming more business-like. According to Times magazine, this is not a new phenomenon. Dating back to the 1970s policy’s makers began to view higher education as a private good than a public good that will help the nation as a whole. Hence, the report for education showing a more managerial structure is not new because the education system is being treated as well as run technically like a corporation.

The American Council on Education discusses current initiatives and policies to promote internationalization at the higher education level. The article discusses four key aspects including student mobility, scholar mobility, cross-border education and internationalization at home. It appears that funding for higher education in the U.S is a top issue to keep any program afloat. The major agencies that are involved funding internationalizing U.S higher education include the federal government, state government, accrediting agencies and higher education institutions.

The White house and the state department initiated a few programs that will assist with student mobility from other countries, yet this has not really proven to be much of success because there is no federal funding to sustain these programs.

On multiple occasions, the article addresses how federal funding, as well as a general contribution to internationalization, is something that is vastly important to internationalization policies in U.S.  Majority of the funding for higher education, of course, comes at a state level, which is not substantial towards meeting the goals that other countries have achieved. Non-governmental agencies, accrediting agencies and institutions themselves  all continue to help fund policies as well but at a much lower rate then desired to sustain certain policies as well as  kick start any new ones .

However, what federal government is wholeheartedly supporting is the mobility of scholars and research collaboration policies. That is due to the internal interest that the federal government has to be more competitive in the global market. This is only showing true for mainly America. Canada, for example, received about 60 percent of international funding from the federal government for the past couple of years.

Cross-Border education as mentioned in international ACE report is also is a low priority to receive and or maintain federal regulation or funding.

Internationalization at home is focused mainly at the institutional level. Development and foreign language programs are not funded regularly, causing more program cuts. Furthermore, the U.S government does not have a specific target for a number of outbound mobility.Overall there seems to be a lack of broadly inclusive policies and a goals that the US is looking to further international education .

However, according to U.S Department of education federal government only contributes a small amount of funds towards education . The Policy-making mainly comes at a state level. According to recent news  Obama has been looking to promote more involvement of federal government in higher education sphere, however, with more funding from the Federal government there would also be more strict regulation. Hence, the problems raised by the ACE report might not be solved as swiftly, if federal involvement comes with the funds that they are needing to keep internationalization thriving in the U.S.

The Boston College center for international higher education further discusses efforts in the global attempt to internationalize higher education. The analysis goes on to discuss the last 3 categories of different policies and programs worldwide that focus on enriching internationalization. The policy categories include Cross-border education, internationalization at home, and comprehensive internationalization strategies. Most noteworthy category seems to be the Cross-border education. This type of education provides a more flexible movement of people and services across borders. While internationalization at home brings the services to the country which enables  international learning experience at the comfort of their home university.

The article goes on to discuss that aside from the seemingly positive attitude towards implementing and carrying out international policies there can be various challenges . ACE suggest there are a few external factors that may cause some problems . The focal eternal factor being financial support. As the article mentioned other factors can be groups of people as well as dedication to carrying out such policies can also hinder the processes. I find it that there can be the carefully selected group of people and much dedication put towards policy changes for international education, but personally what generally most hindering of internationalization prospering is the lack of funds that are placed into higher education.

According to College statistics, students all over the world  leave college with large amounts of student loan debt. Which in turn poses a financial challenge for students to be able to attend college let alone travel abroad  with such high sticker prices for tuition. However, there may be hope yet. Cross-border education involving e-learning may become a very beneficial and cost effective form of higher education internationalization. According to a recent analysis conducted by the University of Geneva for cross-border education suggests there is a more inclusive and much more achievable way for internationalization via web-based learning from international universities. This method can be very cost efficient. Then it will all come down to the implementation of correct policies to make e-learning a reliable qualification that will carry the same weight as a traditional diploma.

Lastly ACE discusses  that internationalization has not  been promoted in longitudinal studies on a more grand scale. Although international learning dates back to the 1920’s in the US alone, and much further in other countries . There is yet time to see what type of  roads policymakers will take to help internationalization prosper.