May 7, 2013, 10:21 am
By Guest Writer
The following is a guest post by Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
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Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities
U.S. higher education is uniquely positioned to contribute to the agriculture, health, and economic prosperity of developing countries. And the U.S. government plays an important role supporting such work. But that partnership between government and universities could be threatened as lawmakers look for places to cut federal spending— and with foreign aid an all-too-frequent target. As a former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a former president of Michigan State University,…
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April 15, 2013, 11:27 am
By Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser
There has been much talk in the United States recently about higher-education “bubbles.” The growing student-loan debt is one, while others point to increasing costs and continued high unemployment as an indicator that higher education writ large is creating a bubble. Closer to our area of study are claims of a possible international-branch-campus bubble.
One bubble has gotten less attention and may be on the verge of popping. And if it does, it could have a big impact on academe.
Colleges and universities in the United States have become increasingly reliant on international students. According to latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics, international students account for around 10 percent of all graduate enrollments (compared with about 3 percent in undergraduate programs). But a recent report from the Council of Graduate Schools suggests that the pipeline…
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March 26, 2013, 10:47 am
By Nigel Thrift
Engineering students outside the Mumbai office of the All India Council for Technical Education in August 2012.
A recent trip to India I took underlined the challenge that higher education faces worldwide. It must change what it does and how it does it to meet the growing demand. In India, for example, one estimate is that 500 million people will need training in vocational skills by 2022 and 40 million will need a university education by 2020. The consequences of these kinds of numbers for colleges and universities—not only in India but elsewhere, too—are still only being thought through.
I can think of five consequences.
First, higher education will have to become even more involved in secondary and adult education. Given the scale of the problem, there is no real alternative. Of course, universities…
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February 26, 2013, 10:38 am
By Guest Writer
The following is a guest post by Cheryl Matherly, the University of Tulsa’s vice provost for global education. It is following up on a Chronicle article about the challenges American universities face in building partnerships in India.
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A street in Delhi. While the country can be a confusing place, it holds great promise for American educators, says Cheryl Matherly.
My flight to New Delhi from Chicago had already been delayed 24 hours when I learned that my Air India connection to Bangalore would be late. This information emerged, some four hours after the time we were to depart, when my increasingly irritated fellow passengers demanded that the airport information desk clerk summon a manager from the airline. When the Air …
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February 20, 2013, 10:09 am
By Guest Writer
The following is a guest post by William H. Avery, author of China’s Nightmare, America’s Dream: India as the Next Global Power. The blog post is adapted from a commentary published in the Economic Times of India and continues themes raised in a recent Chronicle article on the challenges American colleges face in India.
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High-school students taking final exams in Jaura, India.
In the 20th century, the United States built a higher-education system that no nation could match in scale and quality. This system helped the country become the dominant economic power of the post-World War II era.
But that is last century’s news. Today India and China are racing to expand and enhance their own higher-education systems, with the…
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January 29, 2013, 10:49 am
By Guest Writer
The following is a guest post by P. Pushkar, a former lecturer in international-development studies at McGill University who is now based in Gurgaon, India.
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Many researchers who have been looking at data on international migration believe that the ideas of “brain drain” and “brain gain” have become less relevant in the 21st century. Instead, there are signs of “brain circulation,” in which skilled workers move around the world more freely than before to the benefit of all nations. In Indian higher education, however, little has changed; its most talented scholars continue to leave for Western countries. The paradigm of brain drain and brain gain stubbornly persists.
A recently released study by Wan-Ying Chang and Lynn M. Milan of the National Science Foundation found that only 5.2 percent of Indians who…
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October 15, 2012, 4:24 pm
By Guest Writer
Following is a guest post by P. Pushkar, a former lecturer in international-development studies at McGill University who is now based in Gurgaon, India. A version of this post also appears in EDU, a magazine on Indian higher education.
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An entrance to the Hazra campus of the University of Calcutta.
The recent QS World University Rankings hold no surprises. Not one Indian institution made it into the top 200. While Western institutions continue to dominate the rankings, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan are also way ahead of Indian institutions.
It is certainly a matter of concern that a wannabe great power does not boast many world-class institutions. However, lost in the talk about world rankings are the key…
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July 5, 2012, 12:06 pm
By Guest Writer
The following is a guest post by P. Pushkar, a former lecturer in international development studies at McGill University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history at St. Stephen’s College in India.
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A college computer lab in Andhra Pradesh, India.
A quiet revolution may be underway in India’s higher-education system. Making headlines are issues such as India’s need to build thousands of new universities and colleges, faculty and skills shortages, reforms to improve the quality of education, and legislation to permit the entry of Western universities.
What is not making big news is that female students now outnumber men at some elite Indian institutions and this change may even accelerate. This is hardly a new trend in …
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May 21, 2012, 11:15 am
By Francisco Marmolejo
Niños de la escuela en la India
Recientemente escribí una columna en torno a los retos y oportunidades asociados con la creación de nuevas instituciones de educación superior, en la que me refería al caso específico de la Universidad Internacional Albukhary en Malasia. Esta segunda entrega describe interesantes experiencias similares en India.
Considerando que India será en el año 2030 el país más poblado del mundo, su gobierno enfrenta tremendos desafíos al tratar de atender las necesidades educativas de sus ciudadanos. Para contextualizar la magnitud de tal reto, vale la pena considerar que hay más de 370 millones habitantes en la India en el grupo de edad para estudiar (6-23 años de edad) lo cual representa un segmento poblacional más grande que el total de la población en los Estado…
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May 14, 2012, 4:47 pm
By Francisco Marmolejo
School children in India.
Recently, I wrote a column discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with the creation of new higher-education institutions, in which I made reference to the specific case of Albukhary International University in Malaysia. This second article describes interesting experiences of a similar kind in India.
Poised to become the most populous country in the world by 2030, India is facing tremendous challenges in addressing the educational needs of its citizens. To put into context the magnitude of the educational challenge that confronts India, there are more than 370 million Indian school-age citizens (ages 6-23) representing a cohort larger than the entire population of the U.S. and three times the total population of Mexico.
Considering the fertility rates in India,…
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