Higher Education in a Global Society (review)

Higher Education in a Global Society emerged from the proceedings of a higher education leadership conference hosted by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association—College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) in November 2008. The conference focused on creating cross-cultural understanding, constructing global collaborations and fortifying worldwide economies. Participants included presidents, chancellors, higher education researchers, thought leaders, senior management of TIAA-CREF, and senior campus officials. This book distills their concerns, challenges, and prospects for promoting globalized and internationalized higher education.

As a whole, the book provides a rich understanding of the concepts of globalization and massification of higher education. Its chapters inventory various internationalization strategies adopted by colleges and universities in the United States. These include study-abroad programs, the recruitment of international students, cross-border education offerings, research collaborations, and faculty involvement in internationalization.

The first three chapters approach globalization broadly, offering rationales, definitions, and typologies. In Chapter 1, Bruce Johnstone discusses the significance of globalization to American higher education. He provides several scholars’ definitions of globalization and isolates the difference between internationalization and globalization. Johnstone elucidates how in a globalized world, economic wealth flows from knowledge as opposed to natural resources. Hence, the wealth of nations in a global economy increasingly emerges from the commercialization of knowledge, universities and research centers, scholars, an educated labor force, a suitable system of education, and workforce training.

While reinforcing American higher education practices, Johnstone simultaneously observes that the United States may learn much from the European Union education scenario. He closes the chapter by presenting the challenges that higher education leaders face in an increasingly globalized world.

Chapters 2 and 3 closely relate, introducing the phenomenon of the massification of higher education, and the emergence and growth of cross-border education as a response. Philip G. Altbach, in Chapter 2, explains massification as the movement from small to very large enrollments in colleges and universities, and from elite to mass participation in higher education across society. Altbach enumerates both the benefits and concerns that arise from expanding enrollment growth.

Jane Knight, in Chapter 3, explains cross-border education as “the movement of people, programs, providers, knowledge, ideas, projects, values, curriculum, policy and services across national boundaries” (p. 47). Knight typologizes these strategies, provides a framework for understanding their differences, examines their impact, and touches on their associated challenges.

The next seven chapters present observations and case studies of various specific internationalization strategies. Elizabeth Capaldi, in Chapter 4, reflects on the need to increase international research collaborations to solve global problems. She discusses the roles of the government and international corporations in promoting such collaborations, as well as legal and regulatory issues and cultural considerations.

Mark Kamlet, in Chapter 5, describes Carnegie Mellon University’s successful experience in implementing and sustaining cross border education in undergraduate and graduate education.

Peter McPherson and Margaret Heisel, in Chapter 6, focus attention on study-abroad programs, arguing the need for students to gain a global perspective to ensure America’s economic well-being and social and political security. They discuss the influence of the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Commission, established by Congress in 2004, which addressed this very issue and developed a framework for postsecondary international study. The authors also discuss the growth in study-abroad programs, variations in their format and duration, the challenges facing these programs, and the need for study abroad to emerge as a field of research.

Kathleen Waldron, in Chapter 7, offers Baruch College of the City University of New York as an example of how to create international experiences domestically. She examines the design and implementation of Baruch’s global student certificate program that provides students with an international experience without leaving the campus.

Chapters 8 and 9 address the importance of faculty involvement in creating a more globally oriented campus. Patti McGill Peterson, in Chapter 8, discusses barriers blocking faculty involvement. They include the faculty’s focus on their respective...