 |
| All you need is a good suitcase ... and money |
by Annie Burrows and William Lawton, The Observatory:
http://www.obhe.ac.uk/newslettersborderless_report_june_2013/mobilising_a_global_generation
Studying abroad is not just an opportunity to experience a new city.
Students who spend a semester (or more) studying and/or working in a
foreign country have the upper hand in language ability, cultural
awareness and overall professional credentials.
They are more
sought-after in the jobs market, and governments are well aware of the
benefits of international experience to their economies and political
leverage. But how much investment do governments think is necessary to
support outward mobility?
The main HE exporting countries have low levels of student outward
mobility. UNESCO data indicate that in 2010, China had some 563,000
students studying abroad, while the US had 51,500 and UK 23,000.
The US
numbers hardly moved in the three years prior to these statistics. (OECD
numbers are slightly higher for the UK.) Brazil is another stay-at-home
nation, with only 27,000 outwardly mobile students in 2010.
That same
year, the most common destination for US students was Canada, for
Chinese students it was Australia and Japan, for UK students Ireland and
for Brazilians it was France.
‘100,000 Strong’ in the United States
In 2010, President Obama and then Secretary of State Clinton launched a
100,000 Strong Initiative
as a way to expand and diversify the American student population
studying abroad in China and ‘invest in US-China relations, one student
at a time’.
100,000 was the cumulative target for Americans studying in
China over a four-year period.
The initiative itself has no new US government funding but rather packages an existing
collection of grants and scholarships,
including scholarships offered by the Chinese government.
By 2012 it
had received over $15m in pledges and the Chinese government had offered
20,000 scholarships. Among the private-sector supporters of the
initiative are the Ford Foundation, Citi, Coca Cola, and Caterpillar.
An
IIE progress report
in January 2013 noted that the number of American students studying in
China for academic credit from their home institutions had risen from
3,291 students in 2000 to 15,647
in 2010-11.
But more were
also going to China for short, not-for-credit programmes such as study
tours, internships, and volunteering. Because the precise numbers of
those were not known, there was no way of knowing whether the 100,000
target was being reached.
A survey in 2011-12 revealed that there were more than 11,000
additional students engaged in these other education-related activities
in China, beyond those normally counted in the IIE
Open Doors surveys.
While the overall total therefore appears to be less than 30,000, the
IIE felt that there were still many other independent travellers not
counted and that the survey yielded an underestimate.
Its conclusion was
that ‘Based on these findings, the 100,000 Strong Initiative is likely
to meet the goal of sending 100,000 American students to China over a
four year period, assuming a sustained or increased interest in studying
in China’. This seems more hopeful than anything else.
In 2012, the
100,000 Strong Foundation,
a non-profit, non-governmental entity, housed at American University’s
School of International Service in Washington DC, was launched to
bolster the State Department’s efforts to ‘bridge the gap between our
two cultures, strengthen bilateral ties and enhance global stability’.
It has funding from the Ford Foundation and other sources.
The foundation’s mandate encompasses independent studies, a national
campaign, annual conferences, an alumni network, and encouraging
government support for study abroad in China. Whether it enables the US
government to hit the target remains to be seen.
In March 2011, Obama also launched a
‘100,000 Strong in the Americas’
initiative for outward mobility to Latin America and the Caribbean. As
with its predecessor, there does not appear to be dedicated funding.
Meanwhile, in the UK
Increasing the outward mobility of UK students has been a concern of
the UK HE sector and at least the last four UK government ministers
responsible for higher education, but a coherent strategy has now
emerged.
A Joint Steering Group on Outward Student Mobility was formed
in October 2011 at the request of the current Universities minister. Led
by Professor Colin Riordan, Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University and
Chair of the UK HE International Unit’s Advisory Board, it recommended
that the UK should implement a national strategy for outward student
mobility, with support from a dedicated body.
The International Unit (IU) has been designated to take this forward
on behalf of the sector.
The UK Department of Business, Innovation and
Skills will inject a one-off £200k to establish the programme and the
Higher Education Funding Council for England is committed to further
funding of £150k per year until 2016.
These are not astronomical sums
but remarkable enough when money is tight. It is up and running with
formal launch to come in July.
The IU indicates that it will consult with stakeholders on
implementing the strategy, including the British Council and devolved
administrations. One such liaison will be with the new Generation UK
initiative from the British Council, launched two weeks ago.
Generation UK
is an outward mobility programme with echoes of the 100,000 Strong
Initiative. Its purpose is to offer support and guidance to encourage UK
students to study, intern, and work in China.
The link between
international experience and keeping the UK competitive during economic
uncertainty was emphasised by the British Council at the launch.
Generation UK appears to have more funding than the other new
programme, above. It was reported that DBIS will put in £400,000 over
two years, another £250,000 will come from the British Council itself,
and that businesses will be approached for support.
The money will fund
scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate study at mainland
Chinese universities (for courses of different durations), two-month
internships, and liaison with university career advisors to build links
between industries in China and the UK.
The IU is already managing the big
Science without Borders
scholarship programme of the Brazilian government, which should see
10,000 Brazilians studying in the UK over the next few years.
Although
Brazil’s main concern is to boost outward mobility, the programme also
offers ‘Inbound Fellowships’ at Brazilian universities.
Barriers to outward mobility
There is no shortage of studies on the barriers to outward mobility
and what can be done about them. A recent offering is from the British
Council’s Education Intelligence unit in Hong Kong:
‘Broadening Horizons’
published in March of this year.
Its student survey showed that only
20% of UK respondents were even considering studying overseas and that
only 24% felt they had sufficient information to make an informed
decision. US students were more inclined to think about it (56%) but
only 22% had the information needed.
Barriers identified were cost (53% of UK respondents and 72% of US
respondents), obtaining a visa (35% for UK), the difficulty of leaving
family and friends (35% for UK, 38% for US) and language ability (42% of
US respondents). The IIE identifies cost and language barriers as the
two main problems.
China, of course, looks at this the other way round. It has had a programme for inward mobility since 2010 - part of
China’s National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development 2010-2020.
The target is 500,000 international students by 2020, 150,000 of which
in higher education. Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore also have
international recruitment targets.
The US and the UK should be pushing at an open door when it comes to
China as a study destination. The problem is not with the host country
but rather overcoming the obstacles at home - which include costs.
The
sectors and governments in both the US and UK recognise the problems.
But the responses reflect the American preference for a non-governmental
solution.
No doubt the UK government would prefer that too but it
accepts that at least some tax money will be needed to make a
difference.
by Hiroshi Mikitani, Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140520125240-52782505-why-students-should-study-abroad
