This article covers the noticeable shift of universities in the United States from encouraging study abroad students from going to Europe to choosing other countries, particularly in Asia, Latin America, or Africa. The author discusses how institutions in Europe fear that their partnership with the U.S. may be in jeopardy because of this shift, which could limit them from being able to share resources or laboratories, and potentially making it more difficult for European students to find a place in the United States to study abroad.
About the Author: Beth McMurtrie is a senior editor for The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, and she received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She is extremely knowledgeable about the topic of higher education, as she has been writing for The Chronicle since 1999.
Key Terms:
Global Outreach: The author uses this term to describe the connections between institutions of different countries and the value they hold. The United States has expanded its global outreach to include more countries, which European organizations feel could potentially put their global outreach connections to the U.S. potentially at risk.
Strategy/Strategic Partner: The author uses this term to describe the relationship specific institutions have with each other when they share resources or send students to gain study abroad or research experience.
Quotes:
"Recent years have seen the birth of programs to send thousands more students to China and Latin America; to strengthen ties between Indian and American universities; to build programs and exchanges between Indonesia and the United States, and to create a cadre of scholars who speak so-called critical languages as Arabic and Mandarin" (2).
"Of particular concern to those who run study-abroad programs in Europe is the attitude they sense in America: been there, done that. Some European institutions have had to suspend some student exchanges with U.S. partners for lack of interest here" (2).
"The problem, study-abroad directors say, isn't just that students are interested in other parts of the world. It's that colleges, in support of those efforts, imply that going to Europe is more akin to tourism than cultural immersion. It's not different enough; everyone speaks English; there are too many other Americans around" (3).
This article is valuable to my research because it provides an alternative reason for students not wanting to study abroad in Europe. While it is worthwhile to mention that more than half of students who study abroad choose Europe as their destination (1), colleges are focusing more and more on encouraging their students to attend study abroad in other parts of the world so they are getting a truly new and unique experience.
McMurtrie, Beth. “Is Europe Passe?: As U.S. Higher Education Shifts to a 'Pacific Century,' Europe Feels the Sting.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 July 2013. Social Sciences Premium Collection.
About the Author: Beth McMurtrie is a senior editor for The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, and she received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She is extremely knowledgeable about the topic of higher education, as she has been writing for The Chronicle since 1999.
Key Terms:
Global Outreach: The author uses this term to describe the connections between institutions of different countries and the value they hold. The United States has expanded its global outreach to include more countries, which European organizations feel could potentially put their global outreach connections to the U.S. potentially at risk.
Strategy/Strategic Partner: The author uses this term to describe the relationship specific institutions have with each other when they share resources or send students to gain study abroad or research experience.
Quotes:
"Recent years have seen the birth of programs to send thousands more students to China and Latin America; to strengthen ties between Indian and American universities; to build programs and exchanges between Indonesia and the United States, and to create a cadre of scholars who speak so-called critical languages as Arabic and Mandarin" (2).
"Of particular concern to those who run study-abroad programs in Europe is the attitude they sense in America: been there, done that. Some European institutions have had to suspend some student exchanges with U.S. partners for lack of interest here" (2).
"The problem, study-abroad directors say, isn't just that students are interested in other parts of the world. It's that colleges, in support of those efforts, imply that going to Europe is more akin to tourism than cultural immersion. It's not different enough; everyone speaks English; there are too many other Americans around" (3).
This article is valuable to my research because it provides an alternative reason for students not wanting to study abroad in Europe. While it is worthwhile to mention that more than half of students who study abroad choose Europe as their destination (1), colleges are focusing more and more on encouraging their students to attend study abroad in other parts of the world so they are getting a truly new and unique experience.
Though I do occasionally hear the phrase "exchange student" to describe those who study abroad, it seems to be mostly an older phrase, from the era comprising the end of WWII to shortly after the end of the Cold War--which also coincided with increased privatization of American higher education. Though I don't think there was ever the necessity of a literal "exchange" between institutions, the idea was that schools from the US and, typically, Europe would form a partnership to share resources and to encourage students seeking to study abroad to study at these partner institutions. Rutgers, for example, maintained a strong relationship with the University of Southampton in England for many years. This seems very much along the lines of what these authors are talking about as the lost ideal of creating positive and mutually beneficial exchanges between American and European institutions through student exchange.
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth looking into the history of the "exchange student" term, which seems very different from the way things are today.