International companies fare better, study says [Wisconsin State Journal]

By Marv Balousek, Wisconsin State Journal

Companies with foreign operations are earning more profits and hiring more workers than those operating only in the U.S., according to an annual survey by the RSM McGladrey accounting firm.

International companies reported gross margins 4 percent higher than those with no global strategy and were hiring workers at twice the rate of their domestic-only counterparts. The weak dollar has boosted demand for U.S. goods.

The RSM McGladrey Manufacturing and Wholesale Distribution National Survey questioned more than 960 industry executives representing 911 companies. Nearly 50 Wisconsin companies participated. RSM McGladrey has a Madison office at 8040 Excelsior Drive.

About 12 percent of the companies reported considerable international growth while 8 percent reported domestic growth.

One in five companies is unable to find enough skilled workers and the demand for labor likely will increase as baby boomers retire, said Karen Kurek, managing director of RSM McGladrey’s manufacturing and wholesale distribution practice.

The survey also found growing environmental and energy awareness among the respondents. About 46 percent of the businesses said they adopted at least one green initiative and half of these businesses said their green initiative came in response to customer requests.

About 80 percent of the respondents said they’re pessimistic about prospects for U.S. economic growth and the percentage who described their business as declining has tripled in the past two years.

More than 75 percent of the respondents do not take advantage of any government programs and fewer than half were taking full advantage of tax-planning opportunities, according to the survey.

Build It And They Will Learn The geography of higher ed is changing fast, with Asia and the Mideast coming on strong [Newsweek]

By Zvika Krieger, Newsweek Aug 9, 2008

Drive down Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai’s main thoroughfare, and you’ll pass the world’s only seven-star hotel, its tallest building and its largest man-made resort island. But head off into the desert and you’ll hit a modest-looking set of office buildings and construction cranes that promise to be just as superlative. This is the site of Dubai International Academic City: the future home of a Michigan State University campus and the center of the local effort to make the emirate into a new global hot spot for higher education. “There is a war out there for talent,” says Abdulla al-Karam, director-general of Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority, “and we’re not going to let everyone else take the best.”

Dubai, along with its neighbors, is leading a rush of countries trying to erode the dominance of Harvard, Yale and a handful of other, mainly American or British, schools. As of 2005 (the last year for which numbers are available) there were about 138 million students worldwide seeking university degrees, according to UNESCO—up 40 percent in seven years, reports the London-based Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Traditional academic destinations—English-speaking countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia—are finding it harder and harder to meet that demand. Post-9/11 U.S. visa complications have also helped create a massive pool of international students looking for new places to learn. According to the Washington-based Association of International Educators, the market of postsecondary students studying outside their home countries grew 49 percent between 1999 and 2004, even as foreign enrollments in U.S. schools increased only 10 percent. That’s created an enormous opportunity that will only grow, as the number of students seeking education abroad triples by 2025 to 7.2 million, as the Australian testing company IDP Education projects.

Many countries are eager to pick up the slack, and these efforts stand to permanently redraw the global education map. Traditional Western powerhouses seem likely to remain strong, but new centers in the Persian Gulf, China, Singapore and elsewhere are coming on fast. And those that can’t adapt are quickly falling behind as schools elsewhere embark on bold new projects to increase their competitiveness, hire U.S.-trained administrators (they’re the best at fund-raising), launch massive capital campaigns and put more and more courses online.

Although New Haven and London won’t soon be replaced by Shanghai or Seoul, they have started to feel the heat. “We [in America] are already looking over shoulders,” says Philip Altbach, director of the Boston-based Center for International Higher Education. “Academic leaders are already saying that if we don’t keep up, we’ll be overtaken … The U.S. still has a significant lead, but imagine if we had this discussion 40 years ago about the U.S. auto industry.”

Report Offers Advice for Colleges on Building International Partnerships [Chronicle of Higher Education]

A major new challenge facing the United States is the deterioration of positive relationships with several major regions of the world, according to a new report from the American Council on Education. The report, “International Partnerships: Guidelines for Colleges and Universities,” outlines considerations that institutions should take into account in building partnerships in that climate and provides sample agreements covering many types of partnerships.

The report was written by Jack Van de Water, a former dean of international programs at Oregon State University, and two council staff members: Madeleine F. Green, vice president for international initiatives, and Kim Koch, a program associate. It is the second working paper in the council’s series on higher education in a global context.

An earlier report in the series found that despite a growing consensus that it is important to educate students about different countries and cultures, colleges were making “uneven progress” in their efforts to internationalize their campuses. —Charles Huckabee for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Weak dollar drives up cost of studying abroad [USA Today]

By Sarah Butrymowicz, USA TODAY

For years, rising numbers of U.S. college students have been packing their bags and flying overseas, typically to Europe, for a semester or year abroad and a wealth of irreplaceable memories. Lately, though, these students have been stung by a nasty adversary that they and their parents didn’t have to worry about till recently: the sinking U.S. dollar.

The dollar has dropped steadily just as more students have been heading overseas. In the past decade, the number has surged an average of about 9% a year. In the 2005-06 school year, 223,534 students took classes abroad, compared with only 89,242 a decade earlier, the Institute of International Education says. Those figures are projected to climb as more colleges stress the value of a global education.

The result is that more students are feeling financially squeezed overseas. The dollar has sunk especially low compared with the euro, the currency used by most Western European countries, and with the British pound. Britain was the top study-abroad destination in the 2006-07 year, followed by Italy, Spain and France. Germany and Ireland also made the top 10.

For students on tight budgets, the cost of many goods and services overseas, especially in Europe, is now crushingly expensive. A one-month student pass for the Tube in London? That’ll be $130, please. Dinner for two at a modest Parisian restaurant, with dessert and a couple glasses of wine each that might cost around $60 in the U.S.? More than $95.

Universities Seek to Strengthen Ties in Africa and China [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

By Karen Fischer, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Officials from research universities meeting here this week agree there is a pressing need to build stronger and more sustained partnerships with African institutions. They also concur that such collaborations face real challenges.

International partnerships, particularly in Africa but also in China, have been the focus of a three-day meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, which wraps up today. The research-university group has made increasing the capacity of African institutions to meet the continent’s development needs a major priority and is seeking ways to build collaborations of a decade or more between U.S. and African colleges, in critical fields such as agriculture, health care, and teacher training.

(Click here to read the full story. Subscription only.)

Dalai Lama visit to Wisconsin highlights close ties [Associated Press]

The Dalai Lama is admired around the world but he’s a particularly big hit in this slice of America’s Dairyland.

The Tibetan political and spiritual leader has developed a tight relationship with Madison over the last 30 years and it will be on full display when he visits the city for the seventh time later this month.

The six-day visit concludes with a July 24 ceremony in which Tibetans will wish the 73-year-old a long life in a series of prayers and gift offerings. Organizers say the ceremony known as the tenshug - an elaborate Buddhist ritual - has never been performed in the West.

The visit comes as the Dalai Lama’s dispute with China over his Tibetan homeland is in the spotlight ahead of next month’s Olympics in Beijing. China claims Tibetan forces allied with the Dalai Lama are seeking to torpedo the games with violent plots; he calls those claims false.

The Dalai Lama will find considerable support in Madison, where 12,000 people filled a University of Wisconsin-Madison sports stadium to hear his message of peace and understanding last year. Its growing Tibetan community of 500 residents see the Dalai Lama as their only hope to return to a free homeland, which is ruled by the Communist Chinese government.

Even Gov. Jim Doyle, who displays a picture of himself and the Dalai Lama in his office, counts himself a supporter.

“He’s a very important figure around the globe and we’re fortunate enough to have been visited by him a number of times,” said state Rep. Joe Parisi, who met him last year and has been outspoken in favor of a free Tibet. “And for the Tibetans who live here, he’s a ray of hope.”

The area’s close ties with him can mostly be traced to one Buddhist monk: Geshe Sopa.

Sopa was on the panel of scholars that questioned the Dalai Lama before awarding him his highest degree in Buddhist philosophy in 1959. They both fled to India that year after the Chinese used force to quell a popular uprising.

In the early 1960s, the Dalai Lama sent Sopa to mentor three young monks chosen to study in the U.S. and gave him the task of spreading his vision here.

Sopa spent a few years at a monastery in New Jersey before being hired to teach at UW-Madison, where he became the first Tibetan tenured professor in the U.S. During three decades on campus, he helped build the Buddhist studies program and taught Tibetan history and language.

He founded the Deer Park Buddhist Center in 1975 in a rural area about 10 miles south of Madison. It is the only full-scale Buddhist monastery and teaching center in the Midwest. The Dalai Lama performed a special religious ceremony for world peace there in 1981 for the first time in the West.

Sopa, 84, said the long-life ceremony later this month will be just as special. He said the Dalai Lama will sit on a throne as a line of supporters offer prayers and symbolic offerings. “This kind of thing is rarely done,” he said.

Tashi Namgyal of Seattle, who is coordinating the event for the North American Tibetan Association, said such an elaborate long-life ceremony had never been performed outside India and Tibet.

He said the Tibetan people will promise the Dalai Lama they will work to sustain their culture in North America. The occasion is expected to be the biggest gathering of Tibetans in the U.S. with up to 5,000 in attendance, he said.

The Dalai Lama’s visit will help open a glistening new $6 million temple at Deer Park. He plans to give public talks and teachings for several days before the ceremony.

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese Communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

The Dalai Lama, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for advocating nonviolence, has often found time to speak at UW-Madison, which gave him an honorary degree in 1998. He has taken an interest in some of its programs, including research into the effects of meditation on health.

Joe Elder, a UW-Madison professor who is an expert on Asia, said Sopa’s hiring made the university a pioneer in the field of Buddhist studies and facilitated its unique relationship with the Dalai Lama.

“Here’s a person who is in huge demand all over the world and he chooses to come to Madison, Wisconsin,” Elder said. “That indicates how strong the tie is between himself and Geshe Sopa and now all the community of people who are sympathetic.”

Foreign students flock to the US [The Boston Globe]

By Peter Schworm, The Boston Globe

The faltering US dollar, which has steadily lost value against major currencies around the world, has produced a silver lining for foreign students, and the American universities that recruit them.

With every dip in the exchange rate, the cost of college for many foreign students has dropped in kind, a discount that has contributed to a surge in demand for Boston-area colleges and universities, college administrators, consultants, and higher education specialists say.

“Everyone wants an American education, but for many families the cost has been prohibitive,” said Marguerite Dennis, vice president for enrollment and international programs at Suffolk University, which attributes a sharp rise in international enrollment this fall to the exchange rate. “But now, the dollar has made coming here so much more attractive and realistic.”

Widely considered the worldwide gold standard for higher education, American universities have suddenly emerged as a bargain for a growing number of international students, whose yen, rupees, and pounds go much further than they used to. The influx is expected to reverse the declines in foreign student enrollment that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“We know as a general proposition that worldwide economic trends impact student flows,” said Victor Johnson, senior adviser for public policy for NAFSA: Association of International Educators. “If people are coming here for a couple of days to do nothing but buy a new wardrobe, it would be strange if the exchange rate didn’t affect their educational decisions.”

Many colleges in Massachusetts and across the country report sharp increases in applications and acceptances from international students for the coming school year, especially from India, China, and European countries.

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst expects a roughly 20 percent increase in new international students this fall, while Northeastern University will enroll 17 percent more students than last year’s class. Foreign students will comprise nearly one-quarter of Babson College’s incoming class, after a 67 percent rise in their ranks.

“We’ve stepped up recruiting, and the dollar has certainly played a role,” said Grant Gosselin, Babson’s dean of undergraduate admission. “As the dollar decreases in value, American colleges become that much more attractive.” [Click here to read the full story]

Top 10 Cures for Study Abroad Boredom [examiner.com]

By Jessica Warnock, examiner.com

Inevitably, once you arrive to your new country, once all the orientations, paper-work filling sessions and unpacking is complete, you will at some point become incredibly and mind-numbingly bored. While it is easy to assume the first few weeks will be a whirlwind of cultural infusion and fun, most likely, after the first week or two, you won’t have any idea what to do with yourself. This unexpected affect is completely normal in any new situation. You are not familiar with your new area and what it has to offer and probably haven’t made too many friends yet. You suddenly find yourself chalk full of free time with no idea how to spend it. For this, I offer tried and tested methods to kill the monotony so you don’t end up playing hundreds of games of FreeCell on your laptop.

1. 1. Volunteer: This is a boredom killer that not only passes the time, but makes you feel like using your time positively. It is also a great way to meet some locals and get to know a new area that may not be covered in your Lonely Planet. As to be expected, the most common volunteering option is to teach or tutor English. However, I encourage you to look past this option for something a little more intriguing. For instance, one of the kids in our current group will be spending three weeks after the semester ends volunteering in two Costa Rican national parks. Rainforest vs. English grammar? No contest.
   2. Read…in your host language: Trust me, if you are looking to kill time, reading in another language you are just starting to learn will make the hours fly by, especially when it takes a half-hour to read one page. Also, reading is the best way to pick up new vocabulary. Try reading the local version of one of your favorite magazines (my favorite: Spanish Cosmopolitan). If you are feeling courageous, pick a book written by someone in your host country. Once you finish your first whole book in another language, you will feel incredible!
   3. Go to a local café or bar you have never been to: Exploring the bar/café scene in your area is essential to the beginnings of any study abroad semester. Take your new gringo buddies and find the best cup of coffee in town. Once you have found a great spot, you will always have a place to come back to.   Regarding the club scene, try and sit at the bar and make friends with the bartender to practice your new language (also a great way to meet potential study abroad boyfriends and girlfriends, hint hint).
   4. Have a Multicultural Cooking Night: Whether you are living in a host family or in an apartment with roommates, suggest a night in which each person brings/cooks something specific to her region. For instance, if you are from Kansas, make some delicious BBQ for your new friends. This is a great way to try some homemade foreign food and is a great conversation starter.
   5. Join a Gym or Sports Team: If you are studying in a large university town, there are probably some sports teams you can join.

Beyond Borders and Bullets ‘Human security’ advocates call for a different approach to global problems [The Chronicle of Higher Ed]

By Peter Monghan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27 2008

Every day human cataclysms vie for headline space: Hunger and disease plague the war-riven Congo; the Sudanese government stonewalls United Nations peacekeepers; Myanmar’s oppressive regime blocks aid for cyclone victims. Increasingly, it seems, the world’s trouble spots are afflicted by both man-made miseries — civil wars, terrorism, genocide — and natural disasters. And the two are often linked: Poverty and scarce resources can trigger armed conflict, while politically unstable or oppressed regions suffer more from the effects of drought and other calamities.

Roughly two decades ago, some political strategists began arguing that traditional approaches to international relations and national security were no match for such complex combinations of strife. Calling their framework “human security,” these strategists took as their starting point the notion that, just as states should be protected from outside threats, their people were not truly secure unless they were protected from disease, hunger, and fear. The notion simmered quietly in development and diplomatic circles but was largely disregarded by academic scholars.

In the past dozen years, however, the human-security paradigm has established a presence in academe. “Part of the reason is that we have more instability and threats due to the rapid growth of globalization,” says Lincoln C. Chen, director of the Global Equity Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. And “part of it is due to the holistic nature of the concept, which gives it intellectual agility.” (Click here for the full story. Subscription only.)

Global Sustainability: A Green Curriculum Involves Everyone on the Campus [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

By John Petersen for The Chronicle of Higher Education

Recent graduates have a lot to learn about budgeting when they leave college. Many are financially on their own for the first time, and so rent, grocery bills, taxes, and, of course, student loans are expenditures they will need to balance against their incomes. In addition to those personal budgetary challenges, the lives of our graduates will be profoundly affected by impending national budget crises associated with the costs of war, a trade imbalance, Social Security, and health care. And as if those burdens were not enough, the graduates must concern themselves with a new category of budgeting, one that relates not to money but to carbon.

Today’s college graduates confront the first truly worldwide environmental challenge, that of balancing the carbon budget — the stocks and flow of carbon through the biosphere — to ameliorate the negative consequences of global climate change. Colleges and universities have an obligation to ensure that we provide our students with the knowledge and experience necessary to accomplish that challenging task. Many of those essential lessons can take place in classrooms, while an equally educational, parallel curriculum is embodied in the management and development of campus infrastructure, the maintenance of grounds, and the provisioning of food and transportation for our students. (Click here for the full article. Subscription only.)

Push for Americans to Learn Arabic Abroad [Inside Higher Ed]

By Elizabeth Redden for Inside Higher Ed

The number of American students studying in Kuwait recently plunged 50 percent in one academic year — well, that is, it fell from two to one.

In developing a new study abroad arm, America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc. is counting on that number going up, as well as the number of Americans deciding to study in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. Despite that shocking decline in Kuwait, the number of students studying in the Middle East and North Africa has been rapidly increasing, climbing in the Middle East, for instance, 30.8 percent in one year, from 1,977 in 2004-5 to 2,585 in 2005-6, according to data from the Institute of International Education.

Meanwhile, the study of Arabic at U.S. colleges increased 126.5 percent from 2002-6, according to the Modern Language Association.

Yet, while interest is growing, capacity has not kept pace, making AMIDEAST’s expansion significant in that the organization hopes to create an extra 500 to 700 study abroad slots within five years, according to its study abroad director.

“There’s this huge increase in interest,” said Jerome Bookin-Weiner, director of study abroad and outreach for AMIDEAST, a nonprofit founded in 1951 headquartered in Washington and with field offices throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The organization managed its first AMIDEAST-branded study abroad program in Morocco last fall, and is developing semester- and academic-year programs starting in 2009 for Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait, in addition to summer options — an intensive Arabic program in Morocco and a “learn and serve” program in Tunisia.

Wisconsin Attends International BIO Convention

From Wisconsin Technology News

Madison, Wis. - A state that has experienced historic floods and the announcement of a major plant closing within the past two weeks could use some good news. Perhaps it’s found in the steady growth of Wisconsin’s biotechnology industry.

When the Wisconsin delegation shows up on the floor of the San Diego Convention Center for this week’s BIO International Convention, it will have fresh success stories to swap with the 20,000 or so attendees. Since the last BIO convention in Boston in May 2007, Wisconsin has chalked up the following:

• Madison-based TomoTherapy opened trading on the Nasdaq National Market with an initial public offering of shares that generated $185 million in net proceeds.

• Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche acquired NimbleGen, a Madison-based firm, for $272.5 million. NimbleGen’s employees appear to be staying put in Wisconsin.

• The U.S. Department of Energy announced it would locate a $135 million federal laboratory on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to study cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. It is one of only three such DOE labs in the nation, and Wisconsin’s first new federal lab in generations.

• The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation began to fend off legal challenges to its key patents for human embryonic stem cell breakthroughs. WARF’s initial success cooled initial fears in some quarters that its patents would be overturned.

All Abroad! Overseas Study Required at Goucher College [The Chronicle of Higher Ed]

By Karin Fischer, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Goucher College’s picturesque campus, on 290 leafy acres just north of Baltimore, plays well in college-admissions materials. Officials at this private liberal-arts institution, however, hope students will also be attracted by the opportunity to get away.

Two years ago, Goucher began requiring all students to earn some academic credit abroad, one of possibly just two American colleges to make overseas study mandatory.

Goucher officials wanted to “convey in no uncertain terms that a cross-cultural experience is critical,” says Eric Singer, associate dean of international studies. They also hope that the requirement, which comes with a $1,200 voucher to help defray some of the expense, will make the college distinctive to prospective students.

The Goucher experiment is still in its infancy — the college will welcome the third class to enroll under the requirement this fall. And several colleges, like Kalamazoo, in Michigan, and Dickinson, in Pennsylvania, have succeeded in sending nearly all their undergraduates abroad without such a requirement.

But with academic, business, and political leaders in agreement that international study is one of the best ways to produce globally literate citizens, administrators at other institutions say they are closely following Goucher’s experience as they seek to increase their own foreign-study participation rates.

“We have to look at what’s happening — or not happening — on campuses to find more ways to make study abroad available,” says Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization involved in international exchanges. He notes that 55 percent of collegebound high-school seniors in a recent survey said they planned to study overseas, but just 1 percent of American students actually do so.

In many ways, Goucher’s experience magnifies the challenges other colleges have faced as they seek to expand international study.

Administrators here have wrestled with concerns over cost and capacity as they seek programs of sufficient variety and quality to accommodate growing demand. In this first phase, at least, Goucher has found itself relying on short, faculty-led trips as it begins the slow process of vetting longer-term programs. Some faculty members and students, however, have questioned the educational value of such brief stints abroad. And a number of professors say they sometimes feel in over their heads as they struggle to be both academics and travel coordinators.

Faculty buy-in is important, international-education experts say. Without it, foreign study risks becoming disconnected from the rest of the college experience.

“The number of students abroad itself, that’s just the input,” says Brian J. Whalen, president of the Forum on Education Abroad, a consortium of American and overseas colleges and study-abroad providers. “The real measure is the impact on the institution and on what students are learning.” [Click here to read the full story. Subscription only.]

Send More U.S. Students Abroad [The Christian Science Monitor]

We can’t be competitive globally if we lack exposure beyond US borders.

By Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton

from the June 12, 2008 edition

Both presidential candidates have identified the decline of America’s international prestige as one of the most serious problems that the next administration will face. But neither have yet come forward with a detailed plan to address it.

One crucial step the United States could take to improve its long-term understanding of and effectiveness in world affairs is to establish study abroad as an integral component of US undergraduate education. Legislation to address this need is languishing in the Senate. Its passage would provide the next president with an important tool for advancing US interests.

Polls have consistently shown that most students enter college wanting and expecting to study abroad. Yet few do. The reason is not only a lack of funding but institutional barriers and curriculum rigidities at colleges and universities.

About 1 percent of those enrolled in all US higher education institutions study abroad for credit in any given academic year. About 10 percent of those graduating from college in any given year will have studied abroad for credit at some point in their undergraduate education. Of those who study abroad, the vast majority does so for a semester or less, nearly half for only a few weeks, and nearly half in only four Western European countries. Study abroad participation is overwhelmingly white and two-thirds female. Minorities and students of limited financial means are underrepresented.

Brainstorm: Why Study Abroad? [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

By Stan Katz, The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle recently reported on a new American Council on Education report (“Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses: 2008 Edition”) on the status of the internationalization of American campuses. The report concludes that some progress has been made — the percentage of schools offering education abroad has grown from 65 percent in 2001 to 91 percent in 2006, more funding is available for faculty to lead study programs abroad and for hosting international faculty.

But the report also cites declines in general education requirements to take international courses and notes that most campuses do not have a full-time person to coordinate internationalization, and that a large number of campuses had no students studying abroad. The ACE report is important, and one hopes that data of this sort will be kept systematically so that we can continue to monitor the situation.

But of course the important question is what constitutes “the situation.” We have been proclaiming the importance of internationalization (or, more recently, globalization) for a generation now, but these terms mean very different things to different people, institutions and classes of institutions.

Some of the emphasis has been on curriculum — do we have courses relating to foreign cultures? About globalization? Should we require international studies for degree completion? Some of the emphasis has been on human resources — do we have faculty who come from (and/or were trained) abroad? Do we have faculty who are genuinely knowledgeable about other parts of the world?

Much attention has been paid to study abroad — shouldn’t we require our students to spend at least one term outside this country? Don’t we need more foreign students on American campuses? And so forth. These are all important questions, and they move us beyond promotion of the junior year abroad, which for too long was the primary response of U.S. higher education to calls for internationalization. (Click here to read the full story. Subscription only.)

Foreign Universities Want More U.S. Students [The Chronicle of Higher Ed]

By BETH MCMURTRIE for the Chronicle of Higher Education

A new report by the Institute of International Education says that foreign universities would welcome more students from the United States but that American students increasingly prefer short-term programs to the semester-long and yearlong programs that many overseas institutions continue to offer.

The report, “Meeting America’s Global Education Challenge: Exploring Host Country Capacity for Increasing U.S. Study Abroad,” asks whether universities abroad are able and willing to take in more American students at a time when both colleges and lawmakers in the United States are seeking a rapid expansion of study-abroad numbers.

More than 530 universities responded to a survey by the institute last fall, with 64 percent of the responses coming from Europe.

The survey found that virtually every institution would welcome more American students but that the programs most institutions offer for study abroad were designed for a full semester or a year. Only 16 percent offered programs two months in length, and only 22 percent provided programs of less than two months.

That is at odds with trends in the United States. About 53 percent of students who travel abroad from the United States participate in such short-term programs. Only 37 percent study abroad for a semester, and only 6 percent do so for a full year. (Click here to read the full story. Subscription only.)

Where Multicultural Ed and Internationalization Meet [Inside Higher Ed]

By Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed

“Elitist, frivolous, escapist.”

“Divisive, political, provincial.”

Such are some common perceptions of college officials involved in internationalization (see the former colorful set of adjectives) and multicultural education (see the latter) — perceptions that are among the challenges to cooperation between the two fields, as outlined during an American Council on Education-led session at the 60th annual and largest-ever NAFSA: Association of International Educators Conference in Washington, which kicked off Tuesday afternoon with more than 9,200 registrants.

“It really boils down to the last point, that we’ve had limited interactions and knowledge of each other’s work,” Christa Olson, associate director of ACE’s Center for International Initiatives, said of the gap between internationalization and multicultural education at American colleges.

ACE is leading an initiative, still in its early stages, to “bridge” that gap, and explore the intersection between work on diversity and difference done through domestic and international lenses, respectively. In their presentations Tuesday, Olson and Jarred A. Butto, a program associate at ACE, described the challenges to collaboration between those involved with multicultural education and internationalization, ranging from the theoretical (divergent historical and intellectual roots of the two fields) to the practical (different offices charged with the two endeavors, and different budgets), as well as potential common ground (including a shared student learning outcome of intercultural competence).

Conference Participants Discuss Key Issues in International Education [The Chroncile of Higher Ed]

By KARIN FISCHER and BETH MCMURTRIE, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Washington– More than 9,000 participants from 110 countries gathered here to talk about the future of international education as the 60th annual meeting of Nafsa: Association of International Educators kicked off this week.

The conference, which runs through Friday, will examine some of the most salient issues in the field, including the ethical management of education abroad, the establishment of overseas campuses and partnerships, and the effect of visa policies on attracting foreign students to study in the United States. Other sessions will focus on global work-force demands and trends in international-student mobility, and advisers to the presidential candidates will speak on international education.

As the conference got under way on Tuesday, participants paused to renew acquaintances or exchange pleasantries with new colleagues. Others strolled the convention center’s cavernous exhibit hall, which had been transformed into a supersize study-abroad fair. Some 600 exhibitors offered information about overseas study, global internships, and immigration-software solutions, among others.

The Global Campus

One standing-room-only panel discussion on Tuesday looked at internationalizing the campus experience. Three college leaders—from Australia, Canada, and the United States—talked about the challenges of infusing more of a global perspective on campus. Two ingredients are necessary, they agreed: resources and leadership. [Click here to read the full story. Subscription only.]

Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses: 2008 Edition [ACE]

By Kellee Edmonds, for the American Council on Education

Washington, DC (May 22, 2008)—Despite ongoing efforts to broaden global knowledge and understanding, an analysis by the Center for International Initiatives at the American Council on Education (ACE) finds that internationalization is not a high priority on most college campuses.

Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses: 2008 Edition is the second in a series, following a 2001 study, on the policies and practices of colleges and universities in furthering internationalization. When possible, the report compares the 2001 data with the most recently collected 2006 data. The results, taken from a survey of more than 2,700 colleges and universities, present an overview of U.S. higher education institutions as well as information by institutional type.

While there has been some progress since 2001, ACE’s 2006 data found that gains have been slow and uneven, few areas registered sharp increases, and some experienced declines.

Among the survey’s findings:

• Many institutions do not see internationalization as integral to their identity or strategy. Less than 40 percent of institutions made specific reference to international or global education in their mission statements, although that’s up from 28 percent in 2001.
• The percentage of colleges and universities that require a course with an international or global focus as part of the general education curriculum dipped from 41 percent in 2001 to 37 percent in 2006.  Less than one in five had a foreign-language requirement for all undergraduates.
• The majority of institutions do not have a full-time person to oversee or coordinate internationalization.
• Despite reports showing growth in study abroad participation, the ACE survey found that 27 percent of institutions reported that no students graduating in 2005 studied abroad.
• Ten percent of responding institutions offered degree programs abroad for non-U.S. students. Forty percent of these programs were established in China and another 16 percent in India.

“Overall, internationalization doesn’t permeate the fabric of most institutions,”

New foreign student and export income geographies in the UK and Australia [Global Higher Ed]

By Kris Olds for GlobalHigherEd

I’ve been visiting the University of Warwick for the last two days and have noticed a serious level of international accent diversity at various campus sites, far more than was the case when I was a PhD student in Bristol in the mid-1990s. Not surprising, perhaps, given Warwick’s position as the third largest recipient of foreign students in the UK, as the Guardian coincidentally noted yesterday:

The universities with the largest numbers of international students.
2006-07 (latest figures)

1. Manchester University 8345
2. Nottingham University 7710
3. Warwick University 7435
4. Oxford University 6555
5. City University 6380
6. Cambridge University 6340
7. University College London 6135
8. London School of Economics 5980
9. Westminster University 5735
10. Birmingham University 5505

Grand total of international students in all years (ie not just in their first year) at all universities in the UK and including undergraduates and postgraduates was 351,470

A related graphic on the regional “hotspots” in the Guardian is here. Recall that the UK is the second largest recipient of foreign students in the world.

Meanwhile in Australia, the 5th largest recipient of foreign students in the world, Australian Education International just released an interesting Research Snapshot (May 2008) that captures some of the economic effects of receiving foreign students