Academic Globalization:
The Growth of International
Collaboration in Education and
Research Projects
Stuart A. Umpleby
The George Washington University
Washington, DC
Dramatic changes are occurring
in universities
• Universities have existed in most countries
for many years
• Some travel by students and faculty has
been common for many years
• But several trends, occurring at the same
time, are having a dramatic effect on the
way universities operate
Current Trends
Trends that are creating
a global network of universities
• The internet
• The Bologna Process is standardizing university
course credits, degrees, and procedures
• More international experience for faculty and
students
• A change in the “global game”
• Increased competition among universities
• Widespread use of the English language
Universities are striving to
•
•
•
•
•
Improve contacts with other universities
Find new sources of funding
Promote faculty development
Improve university infrastructure
Encourage research and service in addition
to education
• Increase faculty oversight of university
administration
Competition among universities
Sources of competition
• New private universities
• Branches of Western universities in other
countries, for example Westminster
University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
• Distance education courses and degrees
• Corporate universities
Many new corporate universities
35
30
25
20
15
Percentage of
Universities
10
5
0
3-5 years
1-2 years
less than
1 year
6-10
years
11-15
years
16-20
years
Age
more than
20 years
Source:Corporate University Xchange 5th
Annual BenchMarking Report 2002
Consequences of competition
• Universities compete for faculty by offering
higher salaries
• Faculty, who have more choices in where to work,
want oversight of administrative decisions
• Tuition-paying students demand quality
instruction
• Higher salaries will mean less corruption, such as
professors selling grades to students
Cooperation among universities
Aid for developing
new degree programs
• Some governments, such as the U.S., U.K. and
Germany provide grants for establishing new
degree programs (e.g., an MBA program in
Sarajevo, Bosnia)
• For a few years students receive degrees from both
universities to help establish the program
• Faculty members in both countries learn about the
other country
More student and faculty
exchanges
• Increasing numbers of students now travel
abroad for a semester, a summer or short
study tours
• Faculty frequently attend international
conferences
• Faculty learn how other universities work
and take ideas home
Visiting scholars at GWU
• At The George Washington University we
have been hosting young faculty members
since 1994 under a State Department
program
• Most have come from the former Soviet
Union and the former Yugoslavia
Visiting scholars by year
Russia
Ukraine
What the visiting scholars do
• Revise their course materials
• Learn more participatory teaching methods
• Make contacts with U.S. scholars in their
fields
• Prepare papers for conferences and journals
• When they return, keep in touch via email
• Occasionally meet at conferences
Encouraging service learning abroad
• In addition to their usual work on research
and revising curricula, we explain service
learning and introduce them to group
facilitation methods
• Service learning is a new idea in many
countries
Growth of Campus Compact Since 1985
1200
1000
975
924
935
Number of Members
868
800
748
650
600
548
520
689
575
512
475
400
380
260
305
202
200
235
113
133
4
98
0
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05
Years
Some obstacles to implementing
service learning abroad
• Low faculty salaries leave little time to experiment
• Service Learning is sometimes confused with forced
labor
• The curriculum (from the Ministry of Education)
prescribes teaching methods
• The way courses are taught limits teaching methods
(students decide to enroll at the end of the course)
Recommendations for removing
the obstacles
• Adopt service as a mission in addition to
education and research
• Offer training programs to explain SL
• Create incentives and rewards for faculty
• Create a positive image of faculty engaged
in SL
• Modify the curriculum and requirements
when necessary to enable SL
The Internet
Regions and Countries
Regions
Countries
Africa
Congo, Nigeria, South Africa
China
East Asia
Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand,
Vietnam
Europe
Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia,
Spain, Switzerland, UK
Latin America
Brazil, Columbia, Mexico
Middle East
Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Turkey
North America
Canada, United States
Oceania
Australia, Indonesia, Philippines
South Asia
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan
Number of PC Users
Africa
South Asia
Middle East
180
Oceania
Latin America
160
China
140
East Asia
Europe
120
North America
100
Total PCs in Millions
80
60
1990
40
1992
20
1994
1996
Region
North America
Europe
China
Latin America
Oceania
Middle East
South Asia
2000
East Asia
0
1998
Africa
Year
SOURCE: Yearbook of Statistics,
Telecommunication Services,
Chronological Time Series 1990-1999,
International Telecommunication Union
Total Internet Users
The graph begins from 1990
North America, Europe and East Asia are the top three
Middle East
Africa
The rate of increase has
South Asia
Latin Am erica
been phenomenal after
1994
120
Oceania
100
China
East Asia
China, Oceania, Latin
America
80
60
and South Asia also have a
40
high growth rate
20
1990
But the rate is lower and itYear
started late
North Am erica
0
1993
1996
1999
Middle East
Africa
South Asia
Latin America
O ceania
China
East Asia
Europe
North America
An increase in every region
Europe
Total Internet Users in
Millions
Region
SOURCE: Yearbook of Statistics,
Telecommunication Services, Chronological
Time Series 1990-1999, International
Telecommunication Union
What the internet makes possible
• Much easier access to information via the
world wide web
• Easier administrative cooperation for
conferences, journals, professional societies
• Distance education where students and
professors can be located anywhere in the
world
Implications of the internet
for research
• The possibility to work with scholars
anywhere in the world almost as easily as
with colleagues at the same university
• Co-authoring of papers by researchers in two
or more countries
• Great new opportunities for social science
research
New Sources of Funds
New sources of funds
for universities
• Charge tuition
• Begin an endowment
• Develop contacts with corporations so they
will support university research
• Submit more proposals for research grants
• Sell objects that use the university name –
T-shirts, coffee mugs, caps
New sources of income
for faculty members
• Higher salaries due to competition among
universities for faculty members
• Consulting income from corporations which
must compete with international firms
• Work as a teacher or assistant in distance
learning courses offered by foreign
universities
Reasons to outsource teaching to
foreign professors
• Expand the number of potential instructors
• Lower costs by hiring instructors who are
willing to work for less than Western
professors
• Hire professors who know both English and
the home country language
• Increase the number of students who enroll
for courses
Examples of outsourcing
teaching
• A faculty member at the Siberian-American
Faculty of Management in Irkutsk, Russia,
has been teaching for the University of
Maryland University College via the
internet
• The same faculty member has been teaching
for the University of Southern Queensland
in Australia
Strengthening the global network
of universities
• Improve specific universities using quality
improvement methods
• Improve service to the local community
through service learning
• Strengthen cooperation among universities
using the internet
Likely benefits from
strengthening universities
• More scientific advances created by more
scientists
• More rapid economic development
• A more skilled labor force
• More educated citizens to create stable
democracies
• Improved international understanding
Implications of academic
globalization
• Universities will pay more attention to
research and service in addition to
education
• Those interested in promoting
“development” may pay more attention to
education in addition to economics and
politics
An experiment in academic
globalization
• We can use these conferences in Orlando to
advance academic globalization
• During this conference we shall meet to
develop plans for cooperative activities
• In the coming year we shall work to
implement these plans
• Next year we shall reflect on what we have
learned and then develop new plans
A keynote address prepared for the
World Multi-Conference on
Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics
Orlando, Florida
July 8-11, 2007
Contact Information
Prof. Stuart A. Umpleby
Department of Management
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052, USA
Phone: 202-994-1642
E-Mail: umpleby@gwu.edu
http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby