Responding to the explosive growth in the internationalization of colleges and universities around the world, the Center for International Higher Education is hosting summer workshops for delegations of administrators from universities in Russia, Mexico, and Asia.
It is estimated by organizations such as British Council and IDP Education Australia that there will be eight million internationally mobile students by 2025. More and more universities are undertaking initiatives to meet the demands of this growing market.
The center, in conjunction with BC’s Global Leadership Institute, this month provided professional development for 23 international student recruitment and services officers from select Russian universities in support of the 5-100 Russian Academic Excellence Project, a drive in that country to move five institutions into the 100 top-ranked universities in the world.
Next month, the center and the institute will also provide a three-week training session for university administrators from institutions that are part of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. Also in July, senior administrators from the University of Guadalajara will attend a daylong seminar.
This week, the center and World Education Services are partnering to provide an interactive seminar for higher education professionals who oversee international operations and recruitment services at their institutions.
The increasing internationalization of universities outside of Europe and North America is testing the capacity of institutions under pressure to compete for students beyond traditional boundaries, said Hans de Wit, the director of the Center for International Higher Education at BC’s Lynch School of Education.
“More universities want to attract students from abroad—they cannot rely just on students from the U.S., because the pool is shrinking, and they realize that international students bring in funding,” said de Wit, who recently wrote about the influence of international rankings in University World News. “They see internationalization as source for income, but they are also responding to the larger markets like China, India and Russia. But they also underestimate the risks and ethical dimensions of such an approach.”
Increasingly, universities are turning to outside agents for a range of services to aid in the recruitment and enrollment of international students, which raises issues of accountability, integrity and transparency, as de Wit wrote in a recent article for Inside Higher Ed.
The summer workshops are intended, in part, to help universities remain true to their missions and values while branching out into new markets, said de Wit. Speakers include Boston College faculty and administrators, as well as faculty from other institutions.
“We want to help these senior university leaders understand what is happening in the U.S. and the rest of the world,” said de Wit. “The real strength of the center is a broad understanding of the higher education landscape beyond the U.S.”
—Ed Hayward | News & Public Affairs