Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Higher education looks abroad: historical trends
- 2 Who goes today? and who does not?
- 3 Individual costs and benefits
- 4 Campus attitudes
- 5 Obstacles to international experience
- 6 Issues for debate
- 7 Cases studies
- 8 Epilogue: missing the boat
- Appendix: institutions visited
- Index
6 - Issues for debate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Higher education looks abroad: historical trends
- 2 Who goes today? and who does not?
- 3 Individual costs and benefits
- 4 Campus attitudes
- 5 Obstacles to international experience
- 6 Issues for debate
- 7 Cases studies
- 8 Epilogue: missing the boat
- Appendix: institutions visited
- Index
Summary
Unlike some other topics in international education, such as the place of area studies in the curriculum and the costs and benefits of foreign students and study abroad, the importance of an international experience for U.S. faculty has not received focused attention either on the U.S. campus or at the level of public policy formation. Partly this reflects the lack of a convenient niche or category through which to remind all concerned of the subject's importance. There is seldom an administrator responsible for the process on a campus, there is no national association to worry about it, and there is no place in government to review it in all its dimensions. In consequence the level of discourse on the subject is often superficial and disorganized, or nonexistent.
In this chapter we set forth for discussion issues that deserve the attention of thoughtful people both on the campuses and in public decision-making positions at the state and national levels. These lists draw upon the material already discussed.
Questions for the campus
Does it matter?
This question, like most others, must inevitably be answered differently for different campuses and for various parts of any campus. That is because objectives and values vary, as do appraisals of local, regional, national, and global circumstances. It is important, however, to face these objectives and circumstances squarely, to examine thoroughly the relevance of faculty experience, and not to allow the settling of significant questions by default.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Missing the BoatThe Failure to Internationalize American Higher Education, pp. 78 - 93Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991