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Internationalisation of Education – Globalisation or Development - the big picture.The international education industry continues to expand on a global scale where the industry provides significant export earnings, both through direct education revenues as well as benefits like spending on other services (tourism, retail, accommodation etc). Asia continues to grow as a significant competitor to the ‘traditional’ major players in the international education arena (e.g. USA, UK, Australia, Canada). Other countries are also seeking to increase their involvement in the international education industry and have considered support from Australia to support their market expansion. Economic drivers stimulate interest in entering the international education industry, yet equally those drivers are not only what educational internationalisation strives to achieve. What is important is for the industry to be at least equally cognisant of its social development role as it is of its own economic development [growth]. Internationalisation [globalisation] of education should also not be assumed to be the domain only of the higher education sector, with both the secondary education and vocational education and training sectors remaining very active. As with higher education, these sectors target a range of benefits from involvement and do so through a range of activities and within a range of markets. China, for example, has been a significant source of secondary students [for Australia] embarking on short-term English study tour programs during their school vacation periods. And the vocational sector has a history of providing short-term technical assistance [consultancy] to industry in developing environments. This is in addition to the thousands of students ‘moving’ globally within these sectors, each year. So is educational internationalisation only a symptom of globalisation or does it contribute to the development agenda? Australia, which operated the Colombo Plan back in the 1950’s, continues to provide thousands of aid scholarships annually through the [now] Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and has incorporated this within its Tsunami reconstruction efforts. Yet the education industry maintains a significant focus on the inbound student market, not that there is necessarily anything wrong with this. [See for example, Gilbert Hennequin’s paper as presented at the 2004 IDP Australian International Education Conference]. It is important to recognise that international education [internationalisation of education] involves more than recruiting and accepting in-bound international students to undertake learning programs through traditional delivery approaches. Institutions with advanced strategies for their internationalisation include activities from in and out-bound student movement, study tour programs, staff and student exchanges, joint program delivery, consultancy, establishing off-shore campuses, distance education, joint research and so on. There are benefits for the internationalisation of the education industry. Yet, there remains a range of operational challenges in implementing an appropriate internationalisation strategy. Ongoing dialogue in Australia, for example, suggests that it is important that ‘all’ students undertake formal learning in more than their home country. Yet this is done against a backdrop of concern that, for a range of reasons that are often politicised, Australia’s ‘brightest’ are not remaining in Australia. Other issues that surface include the impact of global health issues on the local environment, such as SARS; the threat, real or perceived, of terrorism; a belief that the commercial nature of the international education industry leads to favouritism towards the fee-paying international students; the concern that international students don’t go home and hence the industry is an alternative immigration pathway; and the sometimes occurrence of racial tensions. A picture that emerges is one of an industry [international education] that is, or should, be internationalisation, globalisation and development simultaneously. An appropriate internationalisation strategy should be one that considers the economic and social aspects of the industry, from both an opportunity and a responsibility perspective. Yet what is clear is that the international education industry and current and future internationalisation strategies could have a role in development. However, if ‘new’ entrants to educational internationalisation [South Africa for example] are to address a development as well as a commercial agenda [need] then replicating the developed world’s approach to international education may well be insufficient. Internationalisation of education has created for itself a significant commercial basis from which to operate, yet this does not mean an altruistic, contribution and development philosophy cannot be part of the framework. A solution is for governments and industry to further encourage and support the development and implementation of internationalisation strategies that are complete, such that there remains a balance between internationalisation, globalisation and development, and not a narrow focus on in-bound fee-paying international students. 11 July 2005 |
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