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.”

UW-Madison Students Improve Ecuador Water Quality

CONTACT: Jeff Russell, (608) 262-7244, russell@engr.wisc.edu

UW-MADISON STUDENTS IMPROVE ECUADOR WATER QUALITY

MADISON - “I’ve got a project for you,” University of Wisconsin-Madison civil and environmental engineering professor Peter Bosscher told Jonathan Blanchard and Kevin Orner in August 2007, during one of the trio’s weekly gatherings at Bosscher’s home.

Blanchard and Orner, civil and environmental engineering students who graduated in May 2008, listened as their mentor described a design to fix a water pipeline serving five small communities in central Ecuador.

“The day he told us, we said, ‘Yes, we’ll do it.’ We went home and started putting together a proposal that week,” says Orner.

Along with fellow civil and environmental engineering student David Tengler, Blanchard and Orner tackled the project for their senior design capstone project, a requirement for all civil and environmental engineering seniors.

The result is a 10 kilometer-long system of PVC pipes that provides equal amounts of water to the villages of Larca Cunga, Agualongo, Panecillo, Yambiro and San Juan Loma.

Water equity is a major improvement: Before the project, the communities furthest from the mountain spring could only draw water for one hour late at night while the communities closest to the source drew an estimated 100 gallons per person per day.

“We all felt privileged to do a project that influences people’s lives in such a positive way,” says Tengler.

Area studies programs in Congress [Chronicle of Higher Education]

8/6/2008 Daily Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Conservatives Claim Some Victories in Democratic Congress’s Higher-Education Bill
By KELLY FIELD

Washington
Liberal Democrats may have drafted the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill that cleared Congress last week, but conservative Republicans weren’t left out of the process entirely.
Buried in the 1,158-page bill awaiting the president’s signature are two provisions long sought by conservative groups. One would require federally financed international-studies programs to “reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views.” The other would create a new grant program to promote the teaching of traditional American history and Western civilization.

Both additions were requested by Sen. Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, a member and former chairman of the Senate education committee.

Conservatives have for years been calling for increased federal oversight of foreign-language and area-studies programs that are supported under Title VI of the Higher Education Act.

In 2003, Stanley Kurtz, who was then a research scholar at the Hoover Institution, told a U.S. House of Representatives higher-education subcommittee that such programs “tend to purvey extreme and one-sided criticisms of American foreign policy,” and recommended that Congress create a supervisory board to monitor the programs (The Chronicle, June 20, 2003). That proposal drew support from Jewish and Israeli advocacy groups, who have complained that the centers are too pro-Arab, and the panel introduced legislation to create such an advisory board later that year.
But higher-education groups and the centers themselves fought the plan, warning that a politically appointed advisory panel might meddle in colleges’ curricula. During debate over the measure in 2003, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, echoed their concerns, saying such a board “could be an intrusion by the federal government into academic freedom.”

Since then, the measure has undergone significant changes. The most recent version would do away with the advisory panel and instead require international-studies programs applying for Title VI funds to explain how they “will reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views.”

Still, conservatives are claiming victory. Mr. Kurtz, who wrote an article in March for the National Review expressing concern about Saudi influence on federally supported public-outreach programs, called the provision an “important step.”

“For the first time, Congress has gone on record voicing support for the value of intellectual diversity,” he wrote in an e-mail message to The Chronicle.

But international-studies programs are nervous that the government might use the new requirement to interfere in colleges’ curricular decisions.

“I don’t know anyone who is against diverse perspectives; it’s like motherhood and apple pie,” said Miriam A. Kazanjian of the Coalition for International Education. The question, she said, is how the Department of Education will interpret and administer the new requirement, particularly given that Congress also barred the department from dictating colleges’ curricula.

This complete article and more news on the Higher Education Act can be found on The Chronicle’s News Blog. http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/08/4131n.htm

UW Welcomes New Chancellor With Global Vision [Message from the Dean]

Dear Friends,

As some of you may know, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents recently named Dr. Biddy (Carolyn A.) Martin, provost of Cornell University, as the next chancellor of our campus.

We are delighted. Both Dr. Martin’s background and vision indicate that she understands how important it is for this great research university to sustain its global stature and to prepare globally competent citizens and leaders to whom we will entrust the fate of our planet.

A UW-Madison alum, Dr. Martin earned her PhD in German literature here in 1984. She sees a bright future for the campus, and recognizes the role a global public research university can play in addressing global challenges and improving the quality of life for all residents of Wisconsin.

“Despite all of the problems and challenges, there is an emerging knowledge economy across the globe,” says Dr. Martin. “Higher education has never been more important. The numbers make it apparent how absolutely critical UW-Madison is to the economic well-being of the state of Wisconsin.”

Her timing could not be better. This year select faculty and staff have worked hard to come up with a strategic plan for UW-Madison as it moves forward. They established “Creating Global Citizens” and “Shaping the Global Agenda” as two clear goals for our future. In rethinking the role of the public research university, the self-study team recommended a new place for Wisconsin in the world:

The responsibility of the UW-Madison in the twenty-first century to benefit both the people of Wisconsin and the global community represents a powerful opportunity to leverage alignments of local and global work. We envision an implementation of the Wisconsin Idea in which the state of Wisconsin becomes our laboratory for the world, and in which the world is our laboratory for Wisconsin. The research and education achievements of the UW-Madison on behalf of and in concert with the people of Wisconsin will be internationally recognized and respected.

We look forward to working with Chancellor Martin in ever improving UW-Madison’s reach and service to communities in Wisconsin, the nation, and around world.

Cordialement,

Gilles Bousquet

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.

Diplomats in a Global Age: Panel Discussion

Please join us to hear firsthand how three UW-Madison visiting diplomats-in-residence each dealt with a challenge or crisis that arose during their diplomatic career. The panel, comprised of John Campbell, Alfred Defago, and Florence Chenoweth, will also speak more generally of the challenges faced by ambassadors and diplomats in a globalizing world.

This event is brought to you in partnership by the Division of International Studies and the Wisconsin Alumni Association®.

Tomas Loftus, former ambassador to Norway, will present welcoming remarks. A reception will follow the panel, providing an opportunity to meet the Division of International Studies’ diplomats-in-residence.

Thursday, June 12, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street

This event is free and open to the public.

John Campbell is the former United States ambassador to Nigeria, and is a visiting professor of international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He most recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Human Resources.

A career foreign service officer since 1975, Campbell’s overseas postings included Lyon, Paris, and Geneva. He also served as Polcouns at Lagos, Nigeria (1988-1990) and Pretoria/Cape Town, South Africa (1993-96). Assignments at the Department of State have included: dean, School of Language Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, deputy executive secretary, and director of UN Political Affairs.

Florence Chenoweth is the former United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) representative to the UN and executive director of the FAO Liaison Office in New York. She is currently a University of Wisconsin-Madison distinguished international visitor. Dr. Chenoweth, a national of Liberia, earned both her master’s degree in agricultural economics (1970) and her doctorate in land resources (1986) at UW-Madison. She became Liberia’s (and Africa’s) first female minister of agriculture at the age of 32, serving from 1977 to 1979. Chenoweth and her family narrowly escaped Liberia after a violent coup, walking across the country to safety in Sierra Leone.

Alfred Defago, the former ambassador of Switzerland to the United States is a visiting professor of international studies at UW-Madison. In addition to his ambassadorship, he has served as consul general of Switzerland in New York. He also served as the director of the Federal Office of Culture, and he was head of the national and economic affairs department of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. Defago earned his doctorate in history and German literature from the University of Bern, and has studied at the University of Vienna, the German Institute in Rome, and the Vatican Library.

Thomas A. Loftus was the special advisor to the director general of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2005. Previously he served as the United States ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway from 1993 to 1997. Upon leaving, he was awarded the Grand Cross by His Majesty King Harald of Norway, the highest order of the Royal Norwegian Order. Ambassador Loftus served in the Wisconsin Legislature from 1977 to 1991, serving as Speaker of the House for 8 years. Loftus holds degrees from UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison.

The Division of International Studies is the campus unit charged with formulating and implementing UW-Madison’s internationalization strategy. Its mission is to promote international education, scholarship, and collaboration both on and off campus.

For additional information contact Cynthia Williams: cwilliam@wisc.edu or 608-262-3929.

UW Receives Large Grant from German Government for German and European Studies

Contact: Elizabeth Covington, Executive Director, European Studies Alliance, (608) 265-4778, eecovington@wisc.edu

The Center for German and European Studies (CGES) at University of Wisconsin–Madison has received a grant for $530,000 from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) renewing the center’s funding through 2012.

“Writing a successful grant this time was a terrific challenge because DAAD had decided to shift from a center-focused to a project-focused funding model,” says Myra Marx Ferree, CGES director. “However, our faculty rose to the challenge beautifully, and we put together a compelling package that really spoke to cutting-edge concerns and will allow us to work synergistically across disciplinary lines.”

CGES proposed four international, interdisciplinary plans to DAAD including: After the Violence: The Work of Memory in German Culture and Society (Leader: Marc Silberman); Positioning ‘Modern’ Germany in the World: Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism Colonialism, Migration, (Leader: B. Venkat Mani); Transforming European Governance (Leader: Jonathan Zeitlin); Work, Family, and Education in Europe: Challenges of Globalization and Gender (Leader: Myra Marx Ferree).

DAAD’s reviewers recognized that “social science-based proposals have great potential as break-through ventures for newly integrated knowledge about major social transformations in western societies.” What is more, they wrote, humanities projects represent a “comprehensive effort to broaden existing research in German culture, political history, and mental transformation since the 19th century.”

DAAD established the CGES in 1998 under the German Marshall Plan with matching grants from UW–Madison and the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Devoted to the development of the next generation of scholars and the production of new knowledge relating to Germany and Europe, the center supports research, teaching, and outreach in a broad range of fields and disciplines. At the heart of the center’s activities is a unique series of research projects focusing on Germany and Europe from a trans-Atlantic perspective, involving faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars.

“CGES is a model for cutting-edge social science- and humanities-based interdisciplinary, international research and graduate education,” says Gilles Bousquet, dean of the Division of International Studies. “This highly competitive new award is a tribute to the leadership of Professor Myra Marx Feree.”

###

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.]

New Exchange Program to Build Bridges Between UW and India

CONTACT: Aseem Ansari, (608) 265-4690, ansari@biochem.wisc.edu

MADISON - Although still recovering from jet lag, a group of 15 undergraduate students from India are getting situated in various labs across the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, where they will spend the summer conducting research.

They are the first official participants in the university’s Khorana Scholars Program, which aims to create new opportunities for promising young researchers in one of the world’s most populous nations.

But the new program isn’t just about giving students a new scientific and cultural experience. Aseem Ansari, a UW-Madison professor of biochemistry who co-directs the program, explains that the Khorana Scholars’ visit is part of a broader effort to forge a closer relationship with India.

“The hope is that this program will lead to stronger ties between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and leading educational institutions in India and to the creation of virtual scientific communities across the globe,” he says.

The students, who hail from seven leading Indian universities, will fan out across campus to join labs in the College of Engineering, the College of Letters and Science, and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. While the students are expected to have some trouble adjusting to campus life here, organizers of the visit expect that they will return home more adept at navigating American culture-and with a deeper sense of what it means to be a research scientist.

Study abroad students featured in más+menos magazine

The new online version of más+menos 9 at www.ciee.org/masmenos, the magazine created each semester by students on the Liberal Arts program at the CIEE Study Center in Sevilla, Spain features stories by UW-Madison study abroad students. Philology students at the Universidad de Sevilla are paired with CIEE students and staff to work together on the creation of articles, personal stories, interviews, and reports around a given topic.

The UW students featured are:

• Bryan Morris “Home”
• Chelsea Lavin “¡Levanta! ¡Rapido!”
• Stefan Bloomfield “From the Cave to the Suburbs”
• Nesse Lovendahl “A House Full of Memories”

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,”

Into Africa: Holmen grad embarks on medical journey to test skills and help

By JO ANNE KILLEEN for Onalaska Community Life

Natalie Ammerman, a 2004 graduate of Holmen High School, has been accepted as part of a group of professional students to tour Uganda and help in hospitals, medical clinics and pharmacies.

Ammerman, 22, is a doctor of pharmacy candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. The university has an ongoing project in Uganda for pharmacy, medical and nursing students and sends students for three weeks each summer. Ammerman and 15 other UW students will travel to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on May 24.

“I’m really excited,” Ammerman said. “I’ve never been outside of North America. Even though we’re prepared, we really don’t know what to expect. I don’t think I’ll be ready emotionally for what I’ll see. In America, we don’t see emaciated people sitting on the side of the road. It’ll be a culture shock.”

This semester she’s been in a special, for-credit class focusing on Uganda and its culture. “It gets you in the mood. You learn about different aspects of the country, what it has gone through,” Ammerman said. “After many hours of reading texts and discussing the frustrating injustices of life in developing countries, I am eager to offer my knowledge and skills to those who are greatly in need.”

Ammerman has learned Uganda is a country home to many diverse cultures and problems. “Abducted children are forced to fight as soldiers and are powering a rebel movement to overthrow the government in the northern part of the country,” she said. “The urban settings in Uganda have become crowded with displaced children who have fled their homes to escape abduction. The AIDS pandemic has also left many children without parents or a place to live. Most Ugandans live in extreme poverty and do not have access to the basics standards of living such as food, clean water and health care.”

Crossing state lines for material purposes: Cooperation along the I-Q Corridor [Wisconsin Technology Council]

By Tom Still, Wisconsin Technology Council

MADISON – In his book on the plight of the Midwest in the global economy, Richard Longworth of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs laments that Wisconsin and its neighbors worry too much about what’s happening just across the border when the real competition is half a world away.

“When it comes to thinking about economic growth, each state is bound by state lines that were drawn by the Northwest Ordinance more than 200 years ago,” said Longworth, who spoke recently at a Wisconsin Innovation Network meeting in Madison. “But the economy ignores states and state lines.”

Longworth, an Iowa native and former Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent, thinks the Midwest can and must do much better. His book, “Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism,” concludes that much of the Midwest remains in denial when it comes to building a 21st century economy. Individual states are either too small or too incompetent (his words) to compete with America’s coastal states, the European Union or the economic titans of Asia.

It’s a pessimistic view, to be sure, and countered by a few other scholars who believe the Upper Midwest has most of the basic ingredients needed to compete in the modern “knowledge economy.” But there’s no denying Longworth is correct when he argues the Midwest needs more meaningful policy and economic collaboration. He has called for the creation of a Global Midwest Forum to help make that happen.

Badger Alum Brings Awareness To World Hunger

Chenoweth Inspires UW Students

from Channel 3000 WISC-TV

MADISON, Wis. — Florence Chenoweth, who has been a Badger alum for nearly four decades, is the focus of WISC-TV’s Inspiring Women series.

After getting her Masters in agricultural economics In 1970, Chenoweth went back home to Liberia to serve as the country’s Minister of Agriculture.

Civil war in Liberia left her a refugee in Sierra Leone, but that didn’t stop Chenoweth from returning to Madison.

Her work has helped shape policies for agencies such as the World Bank and the World Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations.

But as global as her life has become, “I went back home in 1970 after my Masters feeling like a Badger, and I still do,” Chenoweth said.

News Three’s Andy Choi reported why Wisconsin is still on the map of this well-traveled Badger.

Chenoweth spoke with the world’s most powerful people about the world’s most important humanitarian issues, and this past semester, she brought that dialogue to the University of Wisconson-Madison.

The Private Sector Role in Global Higher Education [Inside Higher Ed]

by Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed

In many countries, as in the United States, demand for higher education is growing fast, sometimes outstripping the ability of traditional colleges — which, in many countries, means government-run institutions — to fulfill the need.

The extent to which private institutions, be they for-profit or nonprofit, are the answer (or part of it) to meet the demand varies from country to country, with some openly embracing the private sector, others keeping them out, and still others intrigued but wary. Wednesday night, dozens of international higher education officials, investors, and others gathered in Washington for the start of a three-day meeting sponsored by the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank agency that aims to build the private sector in developing countries.

And to kick off the meeting, the group turned to Douglas L. Becker, chairman and chief executive officer of Laureate Education, Inc., whose company has built a 300,000-student, $2 billion a year enterprise by focusing solely on creating private institutions in foreign lands — so far, 70 campuses in 17 countries.

New Online Methods Course for Instructors of Less Commonly Taught Languages

The Language Institute and the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages are pleased to announce the Fall 2008 pilot of Methods of Teaching Less Commonly Taught Languages, a new online course for post-secondary instructors of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). Enrollment is limited!

Course Description

Methods of Teaching Less Commonly Taught Language is a fully online course developed in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Language Institute, in collaboration with the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL), to provide pre- and in-service teachers of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) at the postsecondary level with an introduction to language teaching methods.

The course is built around the National Standards for Foreign Language Education, with a framework that responds directly to the particular challenges shared by many instructors working in LCTLs in the United States.  The course is based on original material authored by the project team, videotaped interviews with LCTL professionals and students, videotaped exemplars of classroom practices, and readings from professional journals and other works.  In this course, you will reflect on your and other’s teaching practices, learn about approaches to language teaching and research in language learning, and apply new ideas and methods to your teaching.

Course authors

Sally Magnan, Dianna Murphy, Robin Worth, Erlin Barnard

Questions about enrolling

Dr. Dianna Murphy, (608) 262-1575

Click here for more Information.

New UNESCO Portal on Higher Education Institutions [Global Higher Ed]

UNESCO Portal on Higher Education

via Global Higher Ed.

This portal offers access to on-line information on higher education institutions recognized or otherwise sanctioned by competent authorities in participating countries.

Users are encouraged to consult several sources of information before making important decisions regarding matters such as the choice of an institution, course of study or the status of qualifications. Individuals wishing to have their qualifications recognized for work or further study are advised to consult the competent authorities of the country in which they are seeking to have their qualifications recognised. It is also important to note that some institutions not on the national lists may offer quality programmes. Users are encouraged to contact the national contact point(s) for each country, if necessary, for further information.

It provides students, employers and other interested parties with access to authoritative and up-to-date information on the status of higher education institutions and quality assurance in these countries.

Currently, information can be accessed on the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In the next stage of the project, the number of countries covered will be expanded.

The country information on this portal is managed and updated by relevant authorities in participating countries. More information on the national processes for recognizing or otherwise sanctioning institutions is available on the country pages.

Global warning: States must work together, development expert says [The Capital Times]

Mike Ivey, The Capital Times

When Brown Shoe announced it was locating its new headquarters in St. Louis, not Madison — and closing its Famous Footwear offices here — one reason cited was some $43 million in economic development incentives from the state of Missouri.

Wisconsin officials had also attempted to lure Brown Shoe, offering up free land and other perks if it would build its new headquarters here. Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Chamber of Commerce President Jennifer Alexander even flew to St. Louis to give the pitch.

But rather than spending limited resources fighting each other for new jobs, Midwestern states must work together if they hope to compete in the new world economy, development experts say.

“A guy in China doesn’t care about the difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin and we shouldn’t either,” says Richard Longworth, author of “Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism.”