At the Summit of the Americas last week, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of educational exchanges in economic development:
“… [E]ducation more so than ever before, is the ladder of opportunity for people all across the planet… It is why President Obama launched 100,000 Strong in the Americas.”
Morgan State University is a historically black college (HBCU) in Baltimore that works to provide its American students with international exposure through engagement with international students, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The U.S. Department of State announced that it will launch a study abroad branch to increase diversity among study abroad participants, build partnerships with foreign governments, and promote opportunities in non-traditional destinations, The Pie News reports.
Evan Ryan, the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, noted the State Department’s desire to increase diversity in study abroad participation and efforts in building partnerships:
In an opinion article for The New York Times, Molly Lister, a producer at CNN, strongly suggests students to take a gap year abroad before beginning college. Throughout her year own gap year, she ventured into Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda.
China is focusing on recruiting regional inbound students from neighboring countries, like India and Pakistan, offsetting stagnating numbers of inbound students from “traditional” countries, The Pie News reports. Meanwhile, levels of Chinese students studying abroad are on the rise following a slowdown in 2013.
International students are enrolling in U.S. institutions at an unprecedented rate, spurred largely by increasing Chinese enrollments and scholarships awarded by Gulf States, like Saudi Arabia, reports the Wall Street Journal.
For the third time in recent years, the Alliance partnered with Representative Hank Johnson’s office to send a sign-on letter to the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee. The letter this year is bipartisan and signed by 105 members of Congress, requesting the highest funding level possible for State Department exchanges in FY 2016. This represents a strong commitment to international exchange programs and continues to build on the Alliance’s advocacy efforts.
Earlier this month, Mexico and the United Kingdom (U.K.), signed a mutual qualifications recognition agreement aimed at increasing student mobility between the two nations, the Pie News reports. The treaty will permit the use of academic qualifications, for work or study, for up to 170,000 students.
The United States’ education system has failed to prepare the public with the information necessary to “understand the world we live in today,” according to Dr. Sanford J. Unjar, the former president of Goucher College in Baltimore. In an essay published by Inside Higher Ed, he suggests that a “broader familiarity with the world is needed,” through increased efforts of global awareness in academia.
Study abroad programs in China are seeing substantial drops in enrollment of American students, reports Reuters. Although overall study abroad numbers slightly rose throughout 2012-13, the number of U.S. students studying in China decreased 3.2 per cent, according to the Open Doors report published by the Institute of International Education (IIE). In contrast, the number of incoming Chinese international students rose 16.5 per cent in 2013-14.