Posted on by t.bailey · 5 Comments

W1 – Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Tiffany Bailey and I have three classes to complete in the MS-Ed HEA program. I have worked at two CUNY community colleges and I currently work at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College – the newest CUNY College – where I serve as Academic Internship Specialist in the Office of Partnerships & Community Engagement. I have been at Guttman for almost three years now. After graduation, my next step would be to secure a management role in CUNY or at another higher education institution. I am really excited to take this course and take my first real stab at blogging. I look forward to meeting everyone.

I am extremely passionate about the benefits of study abroad for students and often reflect upon my own college experiences and inability (or so I thought) to travel abroad due to financial constrictions, and lack of knowledge as a first-generation college student. In adulthood, I have become a traveler and in numerous ways I have strategically aligned myself with study abroad initiatives in higher education. I constantly promote the benefits of studying abroad to any student who will listen! I want my students to understand the value of study abroad experiences and how phenomenal it is that Guttman now provides these opportunities.

I found it interesting that in the University of Oxford’s report (2015) which speaks to the trends in higher education associated with studying abroad, that the governments of Germany and Russia are so invested driving up international experiences for students. I think that it was quite brilliant of Russia to make a prerequisite for university entrance Russian language and literature courses. At first I thought it would lead to foreign student not wanting to study abroad in Russia, but I think it may actually have the opposite effect. Knowing that your university of interest is raising its standards and invested in knowing that you understand the language is a great thing. I would like to think international students would want to embrace a new language in a structured non-reactionary, process.

I never knew that in the United States, a private, not-for-profit organization, the IIE, is responsible for our country’s goal of doubling the number of students obtaining international experiences during their degree. It is concerning that in my years of being around study abroad at CUNY, I’ve never heard their name or initiatives mentioned as drivers for study abroad. Is it really a priority? Madeline Green, in her article says it is not. According to the survey she highlighted, US institutions do not mention internationalization as often as others nor did they indicate strategic plans for internationalization.

In Altbach’s article, I was captivated by the role of war and global tension in international education. It seems that scholars tend to take the high road after the unrest of war with ideals of rebuilding solidarity and peace – it is unfortunate that these people are not political decision makers – but their ideological efforts are often over shadowed by insurmountable obstacles. The current global conflicts (I would like to add disease) may negatively affect international higher education advances as Altbach suggests, but that all remains to be seen.

 

Posted on by J.Gulston · 7 Comments

W1- Introduction and Responses

Good Morning, my name is Jonelle Gulston. This is my 5th semester in the HEA program and I plan on finishing up at the end of this year. Currently I am an academic advisor for the ASAP program at KBCC, I have been with the program for 5 years. I majored in History as an undergrad at Brooklyn College and then continued there for my Masters; I majored in Political Science with a focus on International Relations. I completed that program in 2010. I am currently interested in moving on from KBCC to broaden my work experience but staying involved with student/academic affairs on some level. I look forward to working and meeting everyone this semester.

 

During my last semester as an undergrad, I was able to study abroad, I attended the University of Westminster in London.  I still talk about how much impact studying abroad had on me. The University of Oxford’s report on “International Trends in Higher Education, 2015” touches on the current trends in higher education associated with  studying abroad.  Something that struck me as interesting in the reading was that the governments of Germany and Russia are actively involved with pursing way to increase international experiences for students but in the United States a private, not-for-profit organization is spearheading our country’s push to double the number of students studying abroad. The IIE is working with the government for help with their initiative but it isn’t a major priority for our government it seems.

This can be seen as a connection with the Madeleine Green article, based on the results of the survey conducted it is clear that higher education institutions in America are not the best in the world in terms of policies related to internationalization. According to the survey, universities in America do not mention internationalization in their mission statements or strategic plans. As we know strategic plans for a college, show what areas the institutions plans to focus on in the upcoming years. If higher education institutions do not start to include new ways to incorporate internationalization policies then they will continue to fall behind other parts of the world. I would have liked to for the article to explain the importance of internationalization for higher education institutions. An explanation would have connected everything a little better.  According to the survey conducted by the IAU European countries have solid strategies sand policies in place in regards to internationalization and I wonder if that is due to the how involved the countries are with each other i.e. the European Union.

The article by Philip Altbach and Hans De Wit, touches on  how the countries in Europe have been connected through higher education. The authors point out that academic cooperation between countries will always been need especially with the increase in political and military tension. Having higher education institutions be a vehicle of continued contact between countries that may not be align politically is clearly important, but it shouldn’t be used as a way to push political agendas.

 

Posted on by a.johnson1 · 6 Comments

W1: Introduction and Reflection on Readings

Hello Everyone, My name is Adia Johnson and I am in my last semester in the MS-Ed HEA program. I went to Daemen College for my undergraduate degree where I majored in Psychology and minored in Theatre. I currently work for an investment company. I am interested in working in Student Life working with student groups and organizations.
I was really excited about enrolling for this course for my last semester here at Baruch. Throughout my undergraduate college experience, study abroad was appealing but I didn’t have the resources to travel out of the country for a semester. I always knew students that were fortunate enough to partake in the opportunity would return with an open mind and an advantage. The reading for this week happened to be a good introduction for internationalization and presented a broad overview of its history, purpose, and growth/setbacks. The adoption of Internationalization, unsurprisingly, occurred after war. Typically after wars or conflict, people attempt to find a peaceful attempt at co-existing to avoid future confrontation. The United Nations is an organization that strives to stimulate peace and mutual understanding, and serve as a beacon for global security and development.
Although keeping open communication is beneficial, Albatch and De Wit (2015) suggest recent and future global conflicts revolving around religion and nationalism can hinder the advances of internationalization within higher education. However, I do not believe the advancements will falter. Students with international experience develop soft-skills that employers desire, such as openness to new challenges, adaptability, problem-solving, and the ability to communicate in another language. Based on the readings, an increasing number of students are expected to study abroad. In turn, colleges and universities are making solid decisions to incorporate internationalization into their strategic plans and are restructuring their infrastructure to include necessary tools to successfully accommodate foreign students. In keeping with the University of Oxford (2015), Russian universities require foreign students to complete Russian language and literature before enrolling in a degree program. Students are also given the opportunity to win a scholarship and would be expected to stay and work for an organization for 3 years after graduation. This plan seems really rewarding for students since the main purpose for obtaining a degree is to get a job and the scholarship guarantees free tuition and a future job.
It was mentioned that higher education institutions in The U.S.A. lack the internationalization in their strategic plans. I suppose this is part of the reason why there has been a decline in the number of international students applying to American colleges and universities. However there is another factor that may explain why there has been a decrease: lack of incentives. Other countries are offering international students more resources during their education and employment within their chosen career paths, USA simply cannot compete with that. Sure, we can offer students the same scholarship plan, but we are not economically stable enough to provide those resources. Our unemployment rate, for postsecondary degree holders, is still fairly high and if we cannot provide our current citizens with jobs, how can we offer jobs to an influx of international students. Redden (2015) touched on using tenured faculty to aid in reaching internalization goals. In my student services course, I learned that faculty need to demonstrate a level of competency in teaching, research, and service. It would be fairly easy to incorporate the international -focused criteria within the service spectrum. I understand that some institutions do not have the financial means of supporting faculty to travel internationally and make this requirement part of the tenure path. However, if an institution decides it wants to have international students studying at their school, they need put it into their strategic plan and provide incentives to both faculty and students.

References
Albatch, P. & De Wit, H. (2015, Summer). Internationalization and global tensions: Lessons from history.
International Higher Education; Number 81
University of Oxford (2015)
Redden, E. (2015, November 10). Internationalization and Tenure. Inside Higher Ed
Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/10/should-universities-include-internationally-focused-criteria-tenure-and-promotion

Posted on by s.ahuja1 · 3 Comments

W1- Sima S. Ahuja Introduction & Readings Reflections

Hello!  I am Sima Saran Ahuja and this is my fourth session in the MSED Higher Administration program.  I am General Counsel of the Metropolitan College of New York.   Coming from an immigrant family that came to this country to pursue higher education, I am interested in the history and current trends of international higher education.  More importantly, as a member of a college that is increasing international enrollment and very focused on growing these numbers, there are several aspects of the trends that impact my role.  Previously, I was in CUNY’s office of General Counsel and both my parents are long-time CUNY professors.  I am a graduate of Barnard College and the B.N. Cardozo School of Law.

As an introduction, the readings this week did a good job laying out the past, present and future of international higher education in terms of the international political and academic landscape.  It was also useful to get an understanding of the concept of internationalization which rooted the readings and I am sure will be a guiding principle in the weeks to come.  The readings seem to break down into three categories:  (i) Altbach who provides a brief history of higher education and explains the concept of internationalization; (ii) Green who addresses the US’s explicit role in the history and future trajectory; and (iii) Oxford University Press’s detailed and fascinating look at current trends in international higher education.  I am excited to explore these trends in-depth in this class.

In Altbach’s article, I was intrigued to review the history of international higher education prior to the 1970’s – a watershed moment for Asian students venturing abroad to pursue education and to note that the history and trends date back to WWI and carry real relevance to goals of international peace and solidarity signaled by the establishment of institutions such as the UN.  The final question posed by Altbach is an unsettling one – whether current global conflicts involving religious fundamentalism and nationalism will harm international higher education strides.  Statistics cited in Green’s article suggest that current conflicts in troubled regions are in fact where the largest segments of international students hail from – South Asia, China and Nigeria.  I look forward to exploring what Green’s statistics  reveal about the pessimism underlying Altbach’s premise that global conflict may curtail higher education international pursuits.  I agree that the internationalization of higher education may be at a critical crossroad.

The Oxford University Press review of international trends in higher education was instructive.  While the review was undertaken with Oxford in mind, I think the trends are relevant to other markets and institutions looking to break into the international higher education market or sustain growth in that area.  Given Green’s assertion that the US is lagging behind in internationalization, the Oxford discussion of trends seem particularly relevant and informative in understanding why and how to reverse the US trends.  I am curious to learn more about international branch campuses in non-traditional countries, particularly with respect to current viability and success rates, e.g. Johns Hopkins in Malaysia.  I am also eager to learn more about the concept and trends of widening access through innovations such as MOOCs (their apparent rise and decline) as well as internationalizing access to research and the potential impacts on quality of research and intellectual property rights.

Posted on by c.graziano · 5 Comments

W1 – Christie Graziano Intro & Blog Post

Hi Everyone! My name is Christie Graziano and I will be graduating from the MSEd program at Baruch in May, with one elective left to take this summer. I have worked at CUNY John Jay College for the past 3 years as Coordinator for the Office of Student Transition Programs, which handles new student orientation, weeks of welcome, parent and family programs, commencement and senior related activities, as well as a peer ambassador leadership program. I graduated with a B.A. in Communications and Marketing from Loyola University Maryland in 2009. During my junior year, I studied abroad in Amsterdam, Netherlands and this experience forever changed my life! I caught the travel bug and after working for a year in media buying, I applied for a working holiday visa in Australia and spent the year working and traveling Australia and parts of Southeast Asia. This experience as well as my experiences working as a work-study student is what prompted my interest in working in Higher Education and I hope to move into the field of international education after I have completed my master’s degree.

All three articles, in various different ways, focused on the important concept of Internationalization. Internationalization in the context of higher education is “the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of postsecondary education.” This concept is something that I have heard discussed in many meetings on my campus, as well as in my colleges 5-year strategic plan. In addition, I notice it is a growing topic of higher education articles and has been discussed in my various classes at Baruch. Altbach’s article emphasized the importance of reflecting on our world history and examining how we have succeeded and more importantly failed at this concept in the past due to governmental influences and nationalism, which trumped any efforts of significant international higher education partnerships that would build connections and create peace internationally. A perfect example of this was during World War II, after significant efforts towards internationalization had been made post World War I, yet the nationalism efforts that created Nazi Germany were widely supported by German universities. What sparked my interest the most about this article was the question as to whether current global conflicts will influence or harm the progress we have made since the 1980s to foster these relationships and make large strides in international education? I do feel that the conflicts happening in the world will and have already influenced internationalization as a whole and continued collaboration between certain countries is made impossible due to internal and external conflicts.

Green’s article focused more on the who is leading the way in the internationalization of higher education and the United States is not among one of these leaders. This article did not surprise me at all, as I have felt we were way behind when compared with other countries since I studied abroad in 2008. Students I had studied with all spoke more than one language, studying in another country seemed to be a natural part of their postsecondary education experience, and the diversity of students from various countries at the university I attended was in stark contrast to my campus at home. What I did find interesting was that the US had the highest percentage (15%) of institutions that had no internationalization strategy when compared to all responding institutions, which had 7.5% with no strategy in place. I think one point that I notice in most of my observations about recruiting more international students for US institutions is the financial benefit because international students are not eligible for financial aid; therefore, they pay full sticker price for tuition, which increases revenue for institutions. While this is a great benefit, I do not feel this is the reason for searching to internationalize ones campus. This makes me wonder if that is one of the reasons the U.S. lags behind other nations in regards to their internationalization strategy. Oxford’s article points out that “the presence of international students is not a core part of the student body for the world’s leading universities” (p. 5). I think this is a piece that the majority of U.S. institutions are missing. However, according to this article, it contradicts Green’s article by saying that the United States is still the most popular country for international students, while Green points out that only Latin America and the Caribbean rank North America as their top regional priority. Oxford does point out however, that US and UK markets are declining as other countries become more popular for international study.