Higher Edge: Institutions: Publications: Overseas, Overwhelmed©, Volume 8, Issue 33

Overseas, Overwhelmed^©
A Bulletin for International Education Professionals
Volume 8, Issue 33; October 7, 2009

1) LET’S GO CANADA – Saudi Embraces North America’s Academia
2) ABROAD PERSPECTIVE - Talent Search: Global competition for international students
3) OVER THE COUNTER - Changing tides: Chinese students increasingly flock to the US
4) GLOBE TIPPING – Lost in Translation

1) LET'S GO CANADA – Saudi Embraces North America’s Academia

In Canada, the launch of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has perhaps not met with fanfare commensurate with its importance for North American academe, or global science as a whole.

In the inaugurating message, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud stated: "It is my desire that this new University become one of the world's great institutions of research; that it educate and train future generations of scientists, engineers and technologists; and that it foster, on the basis of merit and excellence, collaboration and cooperation with other great research universities and the private sector". The KAUST is no small wind blowing into academic circles. Its reported endowment of some ten billion U.S. dollars puts in financial league with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Many of the KAUST's precepts from co-educational classes to legal autonomy to academic freedom, are expected to encounter some local public resistance. But apart from dramatically affecting Saudi society, the KAUST will likely go a great distance globally in affecting and transforming the oversimplified views of those resistant to a more nuanced perspective of Saudi society.

When asked for comment, the Kingdom's Cultural Bureau in Canada indicated that the King's message should be taken to signify that the "KAUST is open to developing important relationships with leading universities in Canada and the United States and to providing exceptional North American graduate students the opportunity to obtain their Masters and Doctoral degrees under the guidance of many of the world's leading scientific researchers".

Further information is available in English at:
http://www.kaust.edu.sa/about/about.html

2) ABROAD PERSPECTIVE - Talent Search: Global competition for international students

A study by The Centre for Studies in Higher Education, ‘The Global Competition for Talent’, indicates that students throughout the world no longer see the US as the primary place to study.

Between 2000 and 2006, the countries with the highest growth rates in terms of international student enrolments included New Zealand (725%), the Netherlands (160%), Spain (100%), Italy (96%), Japan (95%) and Australia (75%).

The favourite destinations for international students during this same period remained the US, the UK, Germany and France. By 2006, the US attracted 20% and the EU 38.9% of the global market share.

In order for the US to compete effectively, it should have more flexible visa policies and increase financial resources to subsidise foreign students, among other things.

Source “US: How to win the global competition for talent” University World News, October 4, 2009

Source “The Global Competition for Talent” Center for Studies in Higher Education, October 2009

3) OVER THE COUNTER – Changing tides: Chinese students increasingly flock to the US

In the past few years, the number of annual applications from China has grown to 300 from 50 or 60 most years.

Carleton College in Baltimore has 18 new Chinese students this year. While Chinese graduate students are no surprise on campus, undergraduate applicants are a new phenomenon at most institutions. Just a few years ago Carlton only had three or four students, and never enrolled those who could afford to pay their own way.

Carleton isn’t alone in seeing an increase. Duke university undergraduate applicants from China hit 500 this year, as opposed to 175 three years ago.

University of Southern California has 60 freshmen Chinese students this year alone, a number that exceeds the total of undergraduate students in the last five years.

With the increased interest come concerns about issues such as assessing eligibility of Chinese students, unscrupulous recruitment agents operating in China and lack of proper information about US institutions by potential students.

Source “The Chinese Are Coming” Inside Higher Ed, September 28, 2009

4) GLOBE TIPPING - Lost in Translation

Travelling in a non English-speaking country is challenging, particularly so for the business traveler.

Prepare yourself for the trip by compiling a list of useful phrases. Contact your foreign counterparts and advise them what hotel you are staying in and ask them to write down your destinations and addresses in the local language, particularly in countries which use characters. Putting these down on small cards, laminating and affixing to a key chain may seem like work now but could save you a lot of hassle later.

See more tips on http://trip-tips.com/travelling-abroad