Working Title: University in the U.S. vs Europe: Why Studying Abroad is a Foreign Idea
Topic
I have chosen to explore the differences between European and American higher education, with the specific goal of explaining why students from both regions decide to attend university in America, where tuition costs are much higher, and not pursue an education abroad in Europe, where tuition is reduced or often free. This means that I will be exploring the similarities and differences between both education systems, particularly how the privatization of education (or lack thereof) relates to the quality of education, the number of students who attend, and the demographics of those students who attend.
Research Question
Why do many students, both from the United States and from abroad, choose to attend university in the U.S. when many international institutions have reduced or free tuition and American tuition costs continue to rise? Why does the allure of prestige of American universities outweigh the benefits of getting education abroad at a much lower cost? How does the increased privatization of these institutions in both regions affect the number and types of students who choose to attend university abroad?
Theoretical Frame
In his presentation comparing the United States’s and Europe’s higher education systems, Andrzej J. Gapinski presents a very alarming statistic: “The U.S. has the biggest share of twenty percent (22%) of the international student market according to London Based Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE)” (5). Even with rising tuition costs in the United States, the number of international students who attend university here is increasing each year. American universities go to extreme lengths to recruit students from all over the world to their programs in an immense effort to increase diversity. Once these institutions acquire a desired level of diversity, they utilize their demographics as a tool to recruit more and more international students. The perpetuation of this cycle is dependent on the success of these recruiters, which is why there are so many resources poured into this operation.
My question, however, is why does this kind of program seem to not exist the other way around? Or, if it does, why do students continuously choose to study in the United States anyway? Gapinski also writes about the Bologna process enacted in universities across Europe in 1999, where quality of education became a priority and curriculum and degree programs became more standardized institution to institution. This greatly allowed universities in Europe to begin developing the cutting edge of competition that American universities already had, and also allowed for greater mobility of students, who were now able to transfer credits between universities if they chose to do so. However, even with these vast improvements, it is interesting to note that students are choosing to attend the further advanced United States universities as opposed to their European counterparts, which are starting to catch up.
Case
One study that I would like to consider in my research is “Analyzing the effect of context of second language learning: Domestic intensive and semi-intensive courses vs. study abroad in Europe” by Raquel Serrano et. al, explores equivalent programs (English for Spanish speakers), with one group going abroad to England and two other groups taking courses at home in Spain. Surprisingly, the results of each group turned out to be about the same. This study is important because although both of the groups took classes within European countries, there are comparable programs offering high quality education among universities in different countries. If it is true that American degree programs as well as their European counterparts are of the same standard of quality (which could not be proven by this study specifically, but hopefully another that I find), it would make an interesting argument for American students to study abroad, and would raise the question of why American students do not study abroad even though the quality of education is the same, at a lower cost.
The study “Community College/Cluster Connections: Specialization and Competitiveness in the United States and Europe” by Stuart A. Rosenfeld examines multiple community colleges and trade schools within the United States, focusing on career clusters and how they affect the types of students that attend these schools, what their goals are, and what life looks like for them after graduation. Although community colleges and trade schools fall outside of the “typical” higher education, which is usually constituted of a traditional four-year university, I believe they are important to consider in my research because, as Gapinski mentions in his presentation, community colleges (particularly in the United States) can often serve as a stepping stone to those four-year universities, allowing for mobility, and also allowing students and their families to save money on higher education in an age of increasing privatization. In addition, community colleges and trade schools play a role in the main aspect of my research question regarding four-year institutions because as students choose to attend these institutions, they are simultaneously choosing (whether consciously or not) to not attend a traditional university. This is particularly interesting when comparing costs. If a family is choosing to send students to community college because of the lower tuition, why wouldn’t they choose to send them to a university in Europe, where tuition is essentially free?
Works Cited
Conti, Annamaria, and Patrick Gaule. “Is the US Outperforming Europe in University Technology Licensing? A New Perspective on the European Paradox.” Research Policy, vol. 40, no. 1, Elsevier B.V, 2011, pp. 123–135.
Gapinski, Andrzej J. "Higher Education: Europe vs. USA." 2010.
Rosenfeld, Stuart A. “Community College/Cluster Connections: Specialization and Competitiveness in the United States and Europe.” Economic Development Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, Sage Publications, Feb. 2000, pp. 51–62.
Serrano, Raquel, et al. “Analyzing the Effect of Context of Second Language Learning: Domestic Intensive and Semi-Intensive Courses Vs. Study Abroad in Europe.” System, vol. 39, no. 2, Elsevier Ltd, 2011, pp. 133–43, doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.05.002.
Woolf, Michael. “The Baggage They Carry: Study Abroad and the Construction of ‘Europe’ in the American Mind.” Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, vol. 21, Frontiers Journal, 2011.
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