Why has globalization had such a small effect on higher education - and when will that change?

I recently wrote an article that addressed these provocative questions. It has been accepted for publication in New Directions for Higher Education, to be published by Jossey- Bass. I will just cover some of the main points of the article in this post, and point interested readers to the preprint.

I argued the first premise of this question - that globalization has had a small effect on higher education - by using the taxonomy that Samuel Palmisano defined to classify the stages of industrial globalization (see Globalization and internationalization, June 7, 2006).   I argued that most of what occurs in higher education today fits Palmisano’s 19th century “internationalization” model of hub-and-spoke activities.  I then described the relatively few activities in higher education that fit the early 20th century “multinational” phase, and the even more uncommon higher education activities that have real parallels with “globalization” as the term is generally used in the business literature.  I argued that the “international” activities have little potential to cause major change in higher education, but that both the “multinational” and “globalization” stages have the potential to cause as radical change in higher education as they have in industry generally.   

But why has higher education  responded so slowly to the opportunities and challenges of globalization?  I argue that the major reason has been the place-based nature of our history, and consequently, of our missions. There are also constraints in the way of change, which include the reality that at present, US higher education has been dominant in the competition for international students and faculty; that the constituencies that support higher education are not open to a greatly changed role; and that government in the US has not addressed the question of what it expects of higher education in a rapidly globalizing world.

I contend that globalization will, nevertheless, come to higher education - probably sooner rather than later.  Reasons include the declining global luster of US higher education, the changing relationship between government and higher education, and the shifting of economic and technological leadership from the US to Asia.

I discuss some of the issues that will have to be addressed before an higher education institution can really move successfully into the era of globalization, and the risks and benefits of some of the possible approaches to globalization, such as twinning and franchising. 

Details of these arguments can be found in the preprint of this article accepted for publication in New Directions in Higher Education, copyright 2007 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comments

[Lloyd]

Thanks Charles. I checked out your website. It looks very interesting. Consider yourself linked!

[Charles Jannuzi]

Hello.

We are endeavouring to cover such topics as transnational HE in our online news weekly.
University World News.com.
I will link to your material in the future. Check out our site and consider adding us to your 'interesting links' list.
Comments can go to my g-mail, from which I can also direct you to our blog and yahoogroups.