Emergic: February 27, 2005 Archives

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Higher Education

Higher education is now international in a way it has not been since the heyday of Europe's great medieval universities—and on a vastly greater scale. Numbers studying abroad were statistically negligible only two decades ago, says Andreas Schleicher, of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based think-tank. Now growth is soaring: 2m university students—approaching 2% of the world's total of 100m, according to the International Finance Corporation—were studying outside their home country in 2003. Since the late 1990s the higher-education market has been growing by 7% a year. Annual fee income alone is now an estimated $30 billion. Private, profit-seeking institutions are still a minority, but almost all universities are beginning to compete for talent and money. That is breeding independence of government, both financially and psychologically; inexorably, the state's role is shrinking.

The two big trends, of internationalisation and competition, feed each other. The more that universities tailor their offers to foreign students, the more attractive they become. And the more that students hop between countries, the more their choices count rather than the wishes of a particular government.

General | PermaLink | Comments (2)

One big reason why 3rd world students flock to US univs is the opportunity afforded by the US to get work after study - an OPT that converts fairly straightforwardly into a work visa from an F1.

Will desi univs, post upgradation and world-class-ization of course, also be able to compete for students on similar terms? Tons of B'deshi, nepalese students flock to India, can they compete for jobs here? Do they want to?

These questions are vitally important in understanding the trends the Economist talks about. The quality and quantity of int'l student flow depend on its resolution. Actually, it would make a good research paper idea in economics, marketing and allied fields!

Posted by sudhir

There are reasons (plural) why the US attracts foreign students: quality of graduate education, the chance to migrate to the US for a better quality of life and greater professional and personal opportunities.

India could compete along the quality/price dimension but cannot compete on the opportunity dimension. To raise quality while still retaining some price advantage is the challenge that India faces. Intensive use of ICT tools is one way.

Posted by Atanu Dey

Information Discovery

Greg Linden writes: "Even if you monitor just a few tens of sources, you are facing a daily stream of hundreds or thousands of articles. It's a painful, overwhelming task to manually skim it hunting for relevant content. There is precious little discovery in the current model."