Every year people from all over the world come to the United States to pursue their dreams. Some people come in as immigrants and work hard to succeed. Others come in as tourists and get an exposure of the American success. It is known all over the world that the engine that powers the American dream is a successful college education. The vision of the American Dream – the idea that you can pursue opportunities to build your success from rags to riches by working hard and making milestone achievements like graduating from college, finding a stable professional job, and ultimately buying your own home – drives millions of students, and particularly international students, to get excited every year and start their parkour toward a successful American life. In fact, the number of international students enrolled in the US colleges in 2016 is 975,000. It increased from 1% in 1949-50 to 5% in 2014-15 (International Education Report, 2017). For these reasons international student’s topics grasped the interest of many scholars around the world (McClellan).

International students are defined as a group of students coming from different countries who bring diversity of cultural and educational backgrounds from their home countries. This diversity can be both useful and challenging to their new life in the American society (Bevice and Lucas, 2007). These foreign students in higher education contribute highly to the US economy. They contributed 36.9 billion dollars to the US economy in 2016 – 2017 academic year, and they financed the jobs of 450,00 Americans (NAFSA 2016-17). In addition to that, they offer a direct exposure of international cultures to the American students. They also allow them to positively interact with multiple cultures and languages that characterize international students. This is great for many of the American students who cannot afford to study abroad. The American higher education system is committed to help international students adjust to their new lives in a supportive environment because the American universities consider themselves as a home that will build future world leaders. The student affairs offices provide different services and program to facilitate the new transition and the integration of the international students.

Engagement is very important for students to succeed. It can fill the academic gaps that students may have before starting college (Kuh, 2009). For international students, engagement is a way to compensate their language deficiency in the United States.  Another way to develop the use of engagement is to collect data from different institutions to know how much the students were engaged in their high school learning (Kuh). Student Affair professionals should communicate with the international students to find out how much they were engaged in their learning in high schools to facilitate their transition to the new education system in the United States. Engagement is a key to success in higher education (Anaya, 1996; Baxter Magolda, 1992). Higher Education professionals should encourage students to participate in activities that require a high level of engagement. Participating in campus events such as workshops, student organizations, clubs, and voluntary organizations inside and outside the campus will promote and develop international students’ learning and will increase their sense of belonging for a better success.

International students look at the student’s affairs services not only as a faculty member but a their first confident, mentors, advisors, and coaches. As one of the international students I believe that the higher education system in the United States need to invest more resources to serve international students. My interaction with the college advisors was not very good. The information provided in the website did not match the information provided to me on the phone by the advisor. I preferred if the college has an updated user-friendly website where information can be searched within two or three clicks. I would also like to see advisors who specialized in transfer credit policies of dedicated senior colleges. For example, one advisor could specialize on transfer policies for Baruch college, and another specialized for transfer policies of Brooklyn colleges.  I also wish that the faculty and staff understood the challenges international students have in adapting to the school environment while learning to adapt a foreign city. Sometimes, professors speak as if they are addressing local students and leave foreign students confused about background details. Other times faculty fail to understand that cultural differences prevent many foreign students from engaging in a constructive dialogue with the class and the professor where debating opposite ideas are encouraged. professional services need to provide more resources and time to support the international students to engage in American learning system.

Student Affairs professionals can organize meetings and orientation sessions where international students discuss together their challenges engaging into the education system in the United States and how to use the available resources to adjust to this new system. For example, Student Affairs office can create programs that give the international students the ability to apply what they have learned with their professors in the real-life situation.

Sources:

International Education Report/ https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1AVNE_enUS689US689&q=international+students+in+united+states&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNtKOzlcHXAhUEySYKHdINCFsQvwUIJSgA&biw=1366&bih=

Kuo, 2011 Language challenges faced by international Graduate Students in the United States/ http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526158.pdf

 

(McClellan). The Global Practice of Students affairs/services: An Exploratory international survey

(Anaya, 1996; Baxter Magolda, 1992) Chapter 1 Making Engagement Equitable for Students in U.S. Higher Education Shaun R. Harper and Stephen John Quaye.

Bevis, T.b. & Lucas, C. J. (2007). International Students in American Colleges and Universities. Nwe York, NY/ Https://jistudents.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/10-international-atudents-in-america.pdf.

(NAFSA 2009-17) NAFSA International Student Economic Value. Tool/http://www.nafsa.org/Policy-and-Advocacy/Policy-Resources/Policy-Trends-and-Data/NAFSA-International-Student-Economic-Value-Tool/

 

 

Study Abroad Overview and Internalization

International students are defined as a group of students coming from different countries who bring diversity of cultural and educational backgrounds from their home countries. This diversity can be both useful and challenging to their new life (Bevice and Lucas, 2007). However, based on my own experiences, studying abroad may be very challenging in many levels.  From a social and cultural perspective, it is tough for most international students to become independent adults in terms of emotional and financial disconnect from their home. It is challenging to them to try to plug into the foreign culture and at the same time hold on to their own culture and tradition.

One of the main challenges of international students is the language barrier. The lack of the mastery of a foreign country’s language, reading, writing, listening and speaking skills is likely to impact international students’ academic performance. Living away from home and not being able to communicate with others can be very challenging for international students (Kuo, 2001). The limited mastery of the language prevents them from engaging in a constructive dialog with the class and the professor where debating opposite ideas are encouraged. However, studying abroad provides many benefits for the American students. It provides the students with a broadening world view and open their way of thinking by interacting with different cultures and languages of the world.  According to Open Doors 2005, There are almost 191,321 American students studying outside the United States. The higher education institutions in the United States created an American study abroad strategy to manage their programs abroad and to benefit the American students who want to have a foreign experience in their education outside the country. This exchange program involves collaboration and interaction with institutions outside the country.

Engagement has a successful outcome for all students regardless their racial and academic backgrounds. Students Affairs professionals need to make the students engage through collaboration, communication and interaction (Kuh, 2009). Higher Education professionals should encourage students to participate in activities that require a high level of engagement. Participating in campus events such as workshops, student organizations, clubs, and voluntary organizations inside and outside the campus will promote and develop international students’ learning and will increase their sense of belonging for a better success.

The American program abroad offers five levels for the American students who share the motivation and the desire to pursue their education abroad and interact with the different cultures abroad. On the following table there is a brief description of each one of them.

Level 1   Study Tour	Level 2   Short-Term Study	Level 3   Cross-Cultural Contact Program	Level 4   Cross-Cultural Encounter Program	Level 5   Cross-Cultural Immersion Program
The duration of this tour is from several days to few weeks. The coursework is performed in English language. This tour offers no cultural interaction and no experiential learning. Students are required to have an elementary to an intermediate to the target language.	The duration of this step is 3 to 8 weeks. It is performed in the summer. English language and some of the target language are used to perform in teaching the courses. Similar to the first level there no cultural or experience interaction with the foreign country.	The duration of this program is one full semester. The perspective American students are required to have an elementary to an intermediate level of a target language. The perspective students have the option to integrate to some activities to interact with the foreigners.	The duration of this program is 1 semester to 1 academic year. The pre-advanced or the advanced level of the target language is required at this level of the program. Students have the option to participate in the integration activities.	The duration of this level is the same as level 4. The advanced target language level is required at this stage. The perspective students are required to interact and integrate to the foreign culture through intensive integration activities.

The Bard Case

The institute of liberal education (IILE) was created at Bard in 1988. The purpose of the institution is to establish a dynamic relationship with the international institutions to ensure a positive exchange of learning experience, education, and new ideas between the American students and the rest of the world. This institution interacts with institutions in South Africa and Russia where they establish partnership with St. Petersburg and Witwatersrand universities. The Bard institution is committed to understand and fulfill the needs of their overseas partners.

The students at IILE institution have the advantage to carry a dual degree when they complete the joint academic program after 4 years of the program. Bard university maintain an excellent relationship with its oversea partners. This partnership maintains a long-term exchange that includes students and faculty as well as curricular exchange between the institutions.

 

Sources

Bevis, T. B. & Lucas, C. J. (2007). International Students in American Colleges and Universities. New York, NY/ https://jistudents.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/10-international-students-in-american.pdf

 

Kuo, 2011 Language challenges faced by international Graduate Students in the United States/ http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526158.pdf

 

Engle, L., & Engle, J. (2003). Study abroad levels: Toward a classification of program types.Frontiers: The interdisciplinary journal of study abroad,

 

Creating Deep Partnerships with Institutions Abroad with Jonathan A. Becker, Bryan Billings, Sergey Bogdanov, Christina Davis, Fazela Haniff, Ayesha Kajee, Thomas Keenan, Nikolay Koposov, Tawana Kupe, and Valery Monakhov Chapter 28

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogpost #4

PAF 9399 International Higher Education

Sabrina Kader

 

International Organizations and its Influences in Higher Education

Higher education is situated in a boundless environment that is shaped by global networks, information, finance, history and law. Global organization such as OECD, World Bank, UNESCO are the main actors for the global shaping of higher education system. The outcome policies in higher education are most of the time a result of a big competition and cooperation between the countries.

The OECD, the organization for European Economic Cooperation, is created in 1961. Many countries are commonly concerned about their higher education system. The OECD works as a network of the policy makers to provide a clear understanding about higher education system. It includes 30 member countries, most of them are developed countries. The OECD works as a benchmarking that allows the countries to evaluate their higher education performance and compare their policies with each other. It also helps the countries to work as a team and learn from each other. It enhances the dialogue between them to provide an effective policy that promote the global higher education (Rizvi, Lingard, 2009).

The Higher education program of the OECD is responsible for managing a series of events throughout the world that makes the organization’s members benefit from the best current policies in higher education system. These events allow the members to connect physically or virtually to come out with new policies and formal articles.  Other counties that are not members of the OECD can also participate to some of the conferences to make the worldwide benefits from the conferences a positive outcome. Example of the conferences include “Higher education’s role in creating national skills strategies” held in 2015, “Global Citizenship and higher education” held in the same year, and “What Works”, a conference about higher education about entrepreneurship and innovation, held in 2012. system (OECD WEBSITE, 2017).

World bank is considered as an important source of resources and information for developing countries. It includes 189 members from 170 countries. All the members aim to reduce poverty and expand knowledge all over the world. As higher education is considered as the main instrument that reduces poverty and promote life style, the world bank decided to focus its interests toward the developing countries especially after the World War 2 that devasted these countries. The main concept of this bank is that their members can borrow money from each other with a lower interest rate, However, the interest rate varies form a country to another. The variation is based on the financial market of the country, If  powerful countries decide to borrow money they will benefit from low interest in comparison to the developed countries that will have the highest interest rate. In my opinion the world bank serves more the interests and the wellbeing of the developed countries than the developing ones.

UNESCO is the only UN organization with an authority in Higher Education. It develops the policies of higher education and promotes the equal access to a successful higher education system for some better learning outcomes. It also provides knowledge and actions to promote higher education system. One of its important program for higher education is the UNESCO Chairs Program. It is created in 1992 and includes 116 countries. The purpose of this program is to promote the inter-university networking. This exchange of knowledge and resources will promote the development of societies.

One of the purpose of international organizations is to shape the global higher education. The outcomes of this action varies from a country to another. For example, while the United States’ higher education have the heaviest influence in defining the global trend, the developed countries suffer from the brain drain phenomenon; I mentioned this on my previous blog about Kenya where most of the scholars have migrated to the developed countries in Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia as a result of advertisement of the developed countries for their universities to attract the perspective students (Simon Marginson, 2006).

 

Sources

THE OECD AND GLOBAL SHIFTS IN EDUCATION POLICY Fazal Rizvi and Bob Lingard

CAN MULTILATERAL BANKS EDUCATE THE WORLD? Claudio de Moura Castro

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/tertiaryeducation

“What Works” in Higher Education/https://www.oecd.org/education/imhe/whatworksinhighereducation.htm

Dynamics of National and Global Competition in Higher Education by (Simon Marginson, 2006) /https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-004-7649-x

 

 

In Shofer & Meyer’s article, the authors highlight the expansion of higher education in the 20th century as a global phenomenon for both the developing and the developed countries. In the 1960s, most of the developing countries were facing decolonization. For example, Algeria
gained independence from France in 1962; Kenya was decolonized in 1964, and Cameroon in 1969. Before the independence, most of the developing countries were not allowed to receive education that would encourage self-sustaining socio-political and scientific development. My country case about Kenya on my Blogpost 2 illustrates this situation very well. After the
independence in the 60s, these developing countries experienced a surge in graduation rate from the secondary schools and this expanded the higher education programs in these countries. Similarly, the developed countries like the United States and major European countries like France, and England, also experienced growth in graduation rates, especially after World War 2 (Meyer et al. 1977).

The end of World War 2 established a new way of life that focused on democracy and human rights which led to the explosion in higher education enrollment. After the primary needs are achieved within a society such as providing food and medical care, a government will start to think about functional needs and the immediately establish a relationship between
higher education and its economic sustainability missions.missions. In other words, there is a strong relationship between the higher education growth and the economy of the country. It is also clear that economic viability affects enrollment for both the private universities and public
ones. For example, if the economy of a country is weak, then there will be not enough public for the universities. The weak economy will also create financial challenges for private universities where the prospective students won’t be able to pay the tuition fees for their education.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The significance of Higher Education is evident in the ways developed countries take initiatives to bolster its scientific, economic, and medical communities. Higher education is used as a strategy to attract talented people to immigrate and add to the human capital of developed countries. For example, Canada offers higher education opportunities to attract
immigrants in order to add more people in its workforce. The United States, offers Diversity Visa lottery (DV) to highly educated people to immigrate in hope that they will integrate and add value to the US national capabilities that include the scientific, military, academic, and business frontiers.

However, Higher Education may also be used as a way to restrain population. The United States illustrates this in its defunding initiatives where federal and state governments make significant budget cuts that negatively affect its citizens. This includes cutting down budget for Arts and Science programs the help students from developing their intellectual
capabilities, especially in low-income communities. The US also does not actively provide Financial education in its school systems that would make its students become aware of how to be financially responsible and be independent as they navigate their way in the capitalist economy.

Human rights and democratization also influenced the expansion of Higher Education. The United Nations considers education as both a human right and a means to realize other human rights (Sharon E. Lee). Driven by UN initiatives to help developing nations achieve economic sustainability, higher education fosters the environment to build tolerance for multiethnic economic force. Also, gender equality has become an important issue that is being highlighted in many countries as more and more women graduate with postsecondary degrees. There is a lot of research that points out that the increase of female enrollment within university systems is a main factor for the expansion of higher education.

 

                                Higher Education System in Kenya

The number of youth in Kenya represents 67% of its entire population. They all have the age to attend school from primary school to college and university.  To satisfy the educational needs for this population, Kenya decided to expand learning at all level of education system. After Kenya’s independence, the number of professional workers was very limited due to the colonial strategy that aimed to use the Africans as manual force for European countries and limit them to vocational education.

In 1922, Kenya was introduced to its first higher education institution named Makerere University under the British colonialism but, it was not until I1949 that the institution was recognized as a full-fledge university. Before that, it was considered as a technical college to prepare the East Africans to gain manual skills. After the independence of Kenya, the university was divided into three national universities. During that period, the number of professional workers was very limited due to the colonial strategy that aimed to use the African youth only for manual labor force; the Africans were not allowed to receive education that would develop their intellectual capabilities that encourages self-sustaining socio-political and scientific development.

After its independence in 1963, Kenya witnessed a huge number of the graduation in secondary education, and its public university became unable to welcome all these students. In addition to the limited opportunities in public higher education, Kenya’s state-funded university was unable to meet the rising demand of student enrollment as well.  Consequently, the number of private universities started rising. However, this rise is not fast enough to keep up the pace of enrollment, forcing about 5000 students go study outside of Kenya every year.

Today Kenya has only 8 public but 17 private universities. The private universities are considered better than public universities even though there were some reservations as to the value of degrees attained from private universities in their earlier days. Today, however, Kenyans consider the private universities as a blessing and even the students who are qualified to attend the public universities tend to choose the private ones due to the quality of education given there.

In terms of financing for their education, more than $192 million is spent annually by Kenyan to study abroad. The main destinations of these students are the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Many foreign countries advertise for their universities in Kenya to attract perspective students. The demand for a better education and the willingness to pay to go abroad to attain it makes the provision of higher education in Kenya an international business venture for foreign universities and, by the same token, decreases the demand for local public and private universities’ enrollment.  This creates a competition for both pubic and private universities.

Private and public universities are competing locally as well. This was expected with the expansion of the self-funded universities. It is true that public universities are more advanced that the private ones but both sectors share the same challenges including the lack of resources. Another issue with the private university is that to generate revenue, they accept most of the students, even the ones who are not qualified to attend public higher education.  The increase in unemployment for graduate students in both public and private universities brings to light questions about the relevance of these universities.

Currently there are 80,000 students enrolled in both public and private sectors. 40,000 are enrolled in public universities. 30,000 are privately sponsored in public universities, and 10,000 attend private universities. The private universities in Kenya are self-financed by the student’s tuition fees and auxiliary enterprises, donation, grants and alumni. Kenya also introduced virtual universities where online degrees are given from the United States and Australian universities.

The lack of resources in both public and private universities in Kenya due to the poor economic condition of the country is the main cause for the phenomenon known as the Brain Drain. The number of PhD students has decreased during the last years, this is due to the lack of the opportunities and scholarship in both public and private institutions. As a result, most of the Kenyan scholars have migrated to developed countries like England, United States, Canada and Australia. Unfortunately, teaching in both public and private education sectors in limited to lecturing and theories due to the lack of resources such science laboratories, libraries etc.

The number of students in private and public universities is increasing every year but the government needs to find solutions for the graduate students who are unemployed even after graduating with PhDs.  This is mainly due to the low entry points required to boost the university access. The country’s minimum grade to enter a public university in a C+. The access to private university remain very relaxed to attract students for commercial goals.

 

Sources

Charles K. Ngome Kenyatta University, Kenya

KENYA: Entry points lowered to boost access/Dave Buchere16 August 2009 Issue No:35/http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090813170055514

 

Education and Colonialism in Kenya GEORGE E.URCH page 249 of pages 249-264

KENYA: Private university growth a mixed blessing

Stephen Ndegwa*13 April 2008 Issue No:23

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