Copyright© 2007 by School Services of California, Inc.

                                      Volume 20                   For Publication Date: August 17, 2007             No. 18

Media Reports on International Education,
Global Race for Best Students 

Newsweek and Inside Higher Education are profiling international education this month and providing some interesting evidence of the positive role community colleges play in developing nations and in the world economy.  

Nambia and Vietnam have institutions that can be classified as community colleges because of their focus on vocational and technical education and goals to create an entrepreneurial mind state in their students. Polytechnic of Nambia offers several “American style” degree programs that emphasize the development of small businessmen and women, a major leap forward for a country that, until 1990, was under the control of South Africa and its apartheid regime. Workforce development is a major concern for developing countries like Nambia and Vietnam where poverty and soaring unemployment rates weaken the potential economic growth in emerging markets.   

Vietnam’s approach to community college education began a decade ago when it opened its first community college with the help of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS).  KCTCS worked with other American colleges and universities to train instructors to teach Internet Technology (IT) to Vietnam’s students. This teacher education program model was bolstered by the Vietnamese government, which recently required its employees to be “IT literate.” In both countries, the advancement and reach of community colleges into the citizenry of developing nations continues to have an effect on the local and global economies.  

Newsweek’s profile of international education reported a first—a Washington advertising campaign devoted to enticing students from China and other high achievers from the around the world to American universities. The Newsweek expose expands New York Times journalist Thomas Freidman’s idea of a “flat world” and applies it to higher education where, according to Newsweek, a global race for competitive students is being waged. 

—Angelo Williams