Back to back stories on the globalization of the university in the NYT.
Today, we hear:
Education City, the largest enclave of American universities overseas,
has fast become the elite of Qatari education, a sort of local Ivy League.
But the five American schools have started small, with only about 300
slots among them for next year’s entering classes. So there is a slight
buzz of anxiety at the fair, which starts with a nonalcoholic cocktail
hour, with fruit juices passed on silver trays as families circulate
among the booths.
Money quote from yesterday:
“I still think the downside is lower than the upside is high,” said Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania. “The risk is that we couldn’t deliver the same quality education that
we do here, and that it would mean diluting our faculty strength at home.”
Wonder what others think about the costs versus benefits of this.
February 11th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Hey, I think you put the same link in twice by mistake.
February 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Richard,
In reading the 50-some comments from readers on the article about establishing universities abroad, it struck me that only one person (a student) asked this question: if foreign nationals can go to an NYU campus and pay only $5,400 a semester for what some say will be considered a degree equivalent to NYU’s main campus, CAN US STUDENTS GO THERE FOR THE SAME FEE?
I don’t have a problem with US universities setting up campuses around the world. Quite the contrary. I think that using education as a means of connecting globally is highly commendable. Okay, so the $50 million donation up front is questionable (is there any reason to believe that US universities are in this for anything BUT the money?). However, these schools could become surprisingly attractive to US students who want to study abroad at a “recognized” university without paying the full room, board and tuition at the home college.
With the NY attorney general’s office digging into the suspicious practices of 15 top universities regarding their study abroad programs and the announcement over the weekend that the father of a Wheaton College student is suing the university for unfair study abroad charges, there’s reason to believe that these shiny new campuses might end up attracting more US students than locals.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of admissions policies the colleges will institute to prevent US students from saving thousands of dollars by going abroad for their degrees.