Latitudes

After a difficult few years, what’s in international education’s future?

It’s a tough time to be a senior international officer.

Frankly, I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve had a version of that conversation in recent months, as campus international leaders shared the complications and frustrations of their jobs.

I’ve heard from SIOs whose task it is to “clean up” their global relationships in light of heightened government scrutiny of foreign partnerships, and from those who found themselves unsure of their role after being left out of institutional discussions about international research security or global safety. I’ve spoken with administrators scrambling to meet ambitious international-enrollment targets set by presidents who expected a return to normal once American consulates around the world began to reopen. Others have shared that they were asked not to put out press releases touting their study-abroad participation because they could be viewed poorly by more nativist elements in their state legislatures.

When the position of senior international officer sprang up several decades ago, the United States was in a different place, where international engagement was broadly embraced and globalization was seen as an accepted good. We’re in a new moment now. It’s easy to point fingers at Covid-19 and its forced isolation, but as the data in a new American Council on Education report makes clear, American colleges’ international disengagement came earlier: Less than half of all colleges said their internationalization efforts were accelerating in the five years prior to the pandemic. By comparison, back in 2016, nearly three quarters of institutions said their global engagement was expanding.

Consider another data point: The number of colleges that include international or global education in their mission statements or strategic plans has also declined over the years. In the council’s 2012 report, 51 percent of respondents said internationalization was part of their institutional mission. By 2017, the share had fallen to 49 percent. In this latest survey, 43 percent answered in the affirmative.

Despite a trajectory that is sure to trouble those who believe in the value of international education, campus leaders are bullish about the future: Two thirds of those surveyed said they expected their institution’s overall level of international engagement to increase in the next five years.

Readers, help me make sense of these findings. Do you think we’re at the end of a golden era for internationalization? Are we entering a new period of international engagement, and what might that look like? What makes you optimistic for the future of American higher education in the world? (Pessimists, I want to hear from you, too.) Send me your thoughts and ideas at karin.fischer@chronicle.com — your perspectives will help inform my reporting on this critical topic, and I could share your responses in a future newsletter.

Meanwhile, the American Council on Education report has some recommendations for making internationalization more of an institutional focus:

• Create a strategic plan that prioritizes certain universitywide global initiatives and identifies areas of improvement.
  
• Measure your efforts. The report notes that only 28 percent of colleges had assessed the impact of their international engagement in the past three years.
  
• Articulate how internationalization advances the broader institutional mission. “Identify the big and small ways across an institution that global engagement propels the core values and purpose of the organization,” the report recommends.

A focus on international students and sexual assault

International students have become a more prominent presence on American campuses, yet sexual-assault education and services that aid victims don’t always take their cultural differences into account. Differing social norms, combined with language barriers and a reticence in many cultures to talk openly about sex, can complicate international students’ understanding of sexual violence.

In The Chronicle, I take a look at the challenges and vulnerabilities for international students and sexual assault, and talk with experts about how to shape more culturally sensitive programming and support. Read more here.

A report documents threats to higher education around the world

The ability of students and scholars to study and think freely has been oppressed amid political and economic crises and armed conflict around the globe. But academic freedom is also under threat in democratic, seemingly stable countries.

That’s the conclusion of the latest “Free to Think” report from Scholars at Risk, an international group that supports scholars and protects academic freedom worldwide. Its 2022 report tracks 391 attacks on higher education in 65 countries or territories worldwide between September 1, 2021, and August 31, 2022; among them:

• Afghanistan’s Taliban government has enacted policies that deny a college education to women, reversing two decades of educational progress. University leaders have been dismissed, and scholars critical of the government have been detained.
  
• Russia’s attacks on Ukraine have damaged university campuses and the country’s scientific research infrastructure and have sent both students and professors fleeing for safety. In Russia, academics opposed to the war face persecution, and its universities have been academically isolated.
  
• Officials in China and India have sought to block researchers from participating in global forums and conferences.
  
• Police and security forces have cracked down on student protesters in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and the West Bank.
  
• And in the United States, state legislatures have proposed and enacted bills that would restrict what colleges can teach, including discussions of race, gender, and other “divisive concepts” in the classroom.

Colleges can serve as places of refuge, taking in scholars displaced by threats. But academic leaders can also do more, the group urges, such as condemning attacks on higher education and promoting understanding and respect for its core values, including academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and equitable access.

The nature of attacks differs, the report concludes, “but they all share a motivation to punish and silence ideas. If we value new voices and ideas, if we embrace higher education as an engine for economic, social, political, and cultural development, we must act.”

Around the globe

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has sent a letter to Mark S. Wrighton, president of George Washington University, asking him to investigate allegations of widespread removal of posters critical of the Chinese Communist Party on campus. I wrote earlier about how a debate over the free-speech rights of international students is playing out at the D.C. college.

Canada has eliminated interest payments on federal student loans, making permanent a Covid-era suspension.

Nearly 20,000 British students have signed onto a group lawsuit demanding refunds after being charged full tuition during pandemic lockdowns.

Students from Europe have traditionally accounted for a third of all international students at British universities, but Brexit has dampened their enthusiasm for studying in the U.K., a new report says.

College students in Iran told The Washington Post why they continue to take part in antigovernment protests despite the risks.

Twin explosions killed at least 100 people near Somalia’s Ministry of Education, including students lined up to collect their high-school certificates.

India’s higher-education system is finally opening up to the world. But is it ready, asks scholar Philip G. Altbach.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented third term could mean more money for universities and research but also tighter ideological control.

The decision by a top biologist to leave a tenured position at Princeton University to help start a medical-sciences research institute in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen went viral on Chinese social media.

Students enrolled in international branch campuses have lower satisfaction with the academic environment than foreign students studying at the colleges’ home campuses, according to a study of four British and Australian universities.

And finally …

Let’s talk about international enrollments!

Join The Chronicle next Tuesday, November 15, at 2 p.m. ET for a virtual forum on the future of international-student mobility. I’ll be speaking with an excellent panel of experts and practitioners from a diverse group of institutions: Jeong Powell, director of international admissions and recruitment at North Carolina State University; Adam Sapp, assistant vice president and director of admissions at Pomona College; and Robert Summers, vice provost for international affairs at Middle Tennessee State University. We’ll be digging into the new Open Doors data from the Institute of International Education, but we will also go beyond it to discuss some of the biggest issues facing the field, including the new normal for international enrollments, what comes after the China boom, and strategies for diversifying the global student pipeline.

The webinar, sponsored by ETS Toefl, is free, but registration is required. (A recording of the session will be sent to all who register.) Sign up here.

Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line, at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can sign up here.