Office of Science & Technology - America in the World: Higher Education and the Global Marketplace
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America in the World: Higher Education and the Global Marketplace Print E-mail
bridges vol. 26, July 26 / Feature Article
 
By Philip G. Altbach and Patti McGill Peterson


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Around the globe, the demand for higher education is on the rise.
Higher education is in a period of significant transformation globally, with universities influenced by market forces and everywhere asked to be responsive to demands from students, the society, and the state. Academic institutions are expected to conduct themselves in more competitive ways and to develop goals and strategies that take advantage of emerging opportunities in the academic marketplace. As David Kirp has noted, the "bottom line" is increasingly important.  
             
Demand for higher education around the world is escalating rapidly and, as a consequence, education has become one of the "growth industries" of the 21st century. Higher education is a point of strength for developed and developing countries alike - necessary for providing the personnel needed for complex post-industrial economies in the North and for economic development in the South. Research, much of it produced in universities, is an essential component of the development equation. Higher education also provides a key means for social mobility - providing opportunities for advancement for individuals and groups. In short, institutions of higher education are central to a country's national as well as international aspirations.

Much of the debate about higher education has focused on the impact of market forces and the global dynamics of expansion.  Higher education is recognized as a growing international force - more than two million students are studying outside their own countries, and there is a growing number of universities with branch campuses overseas. Research, always international in scope, flows beyond national borders, and nations as well as academic institutions increasingly have international strategies. In most cases, these strategies are intended to earn income from the growing cross-border international trade or to help internationalize the academic experiences of students.

This article examines a neglected element of higher education worldwide - the potential and reality of its contribution to the "soft power" of nations. How does higher education relate to the image, the influence, as well as the "bottom line" of nations? Do countries think about the contribution universities might make to their foreign policy objectives and diplomacy or to their overall role in the world? Do higher education institutions or government policy makers pay attention to this contribution of higher education? We look at these issues by focusing on the United States - the role of American higher education worldwide and the policies and programs of US institutions and the federal government in international higher education. 
   
Invented and expounded by Joseph S. Nye, Jr. , the idea of "soft power" encompasses the nexus of influences in world affairs that relate to culture, science, technology, and other subtle forces.
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Political activists Mahatma Ghandi and Sun Yat-sen were influenced as students by the Western soft power of liberal ideas, overcoming foreign and monarchial rulers.
Nye explores the interaction of soft power with "hard power" in trade treaties such as the World Trade Organization, military alliances, and direct involvement by one country in the affairs of another. Discussions in US government circles about America's public diplomacy around the world frequently refer to the strength and attractiveness of the country's higher education system and the effectiveness of educational exchange as a way of explaining American values to the rest of the world - themes emphasized by Joseph Nye in his 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.

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