Opinion

Apparently, Pennsylvania is considering moving to a voucher system for public higher education. The idea is to zero out the direct funding for colleges and universities, and to replace it with money to students. Colleges’ funding will become a direct function of enrollment.

Do foreign institutions complement or compete with existing public institutions in the host country, or even weaken the latter because of its ability to attract better qualified staff and students? Does it create a greater social divide between the rich who can pay high fees and the poor who cannot? Is the operation a purely commercial one, with little regard to quality or accreditation, especially as in many instances the host country may not have a quality assurance agency? Does it pose a threat to the cultural values of the host county? All these are issues of global responsibility that challenge higher education institutions in their delivery of cross-border education.

It's summer in academia. Doesn't meant we get to take much time off.

What would Detroit look like today if the University of Michigan had not moved from the city (after the university's founding in 1817) to Ann Arbor in 1837? Imagine what U of M's $8 billion endowment and 40,000 students would mean to the city today?

I took a few weeks off from blogging in order to participate in some end-of-semester faculty development, finish my grading, and otherwise wrap up the school year. So what did I miss? Naomi Schafer Riley blogged irresponsibly, sparked a call for a boycott, apologized weakly, and lost her blogging gig, all in the time I was away from the blogosphere. (See the first paragraph of Liana Silva’s recent post for the details—and read the rest for her smart thoughts on why minority scholars’ voices need to be heard.) There was an election in France. Some more pseudo-mommy-wars seem to have flamed up. And Maurice Sendak died.

Some new reading on the complex, surprisingly little understood, and much debated topic of 'internationalization' was published today by NAFSA. To access a PDF of this free 26 pp. report, written by Madeleine F. Green, click on the cover page image below.

"Technology is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so" is a paraphrase from Hamlet that crossed this English major's mind a number of years ago when I began working in this field. It came to mind again recently as I have been reflecting on the irony of how technology has affected higher education. When in 2001 I became aquatinted with EDUCAUSE, and by that I mean the larger thinking about information technology in higher ed, I was not only thrilled to be part of a world where people talked about big ideas but in a community that swelled with optimism and hope about the transformation that technology would bring to my calling. The underlying assumption was loud and clearly a positive one. The transformation would take us all to a new and better level.