Education goes global
by Emma Masters
In
our global and connected society – where millions of people travel the
world daily and students can complete their entire university degree
online – any notion of a quality education has to be international.
The past decade has seen the evolution of a new competitive market for higher education and some Australian universities have been particularly successful in offering their teaching, learning and research to a growing international audience.
While some more cynical media commentators portray this success as a “cash cow” approach, many believe international engagement is transforming education in the 21st century. It is true that the income generated by international students has provided important funds in a climate of diminishing government funding, but according to experts from UniSA, there are resounding philosophical reasons for internationalising the sector.
UniSA’s Director: International Rob Greig says that internationalisation is not just about attracting a fee-paying student market, it is also about building relationships across national borders.
“UniSA has students from all over the world coming to study in Adelaide and many more studying with the University offshore. We are one of the biggest providers of international education in the country,” Greig said.
“With international students comprising a third of UniSA’s student population, it places us in a strong position to really deliver on our promise to equip our graduates with an international perspective.
“We have good relationships with many universities across the world, particularly in Asia. These relationships are broad and include partnerships with other educational institutions, research collaborations with organisations and businesses, and more personal relationships with graduates through our growing alumni chapters.
“These are vital not just for our university, but for Australia because they make up a positive network in research and industry and in a broader sense, the global community.
“There are some great stories of research projects running overseas and student exchanges taking place. An example is the work being done in the School of Social Work and Social Policy – with local students going across to work in counselling in India, and Indian students coming here to do the same – it’s a real exchange of knowledge and experience.”
A report prepared for the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee (AVCC) by UniSA’s Language and Culture Research Centre, highlights the changes that internationalisation has brought to higher education.
“We
have been looking at what we do in higher education because the movement of
people and information is so much greater these days – and with people comes
the movement of ideas and knowledge,” head of the AVCC research project and
the research centre, Associate Professor Angela Scarino said.
“Academics teaching offshore programs need to ensure quality is maintained across the board, in Australia and overseas. So we’ve been looking at a framework for how academics alter their materials, their courses and the way they teach so they are amenable to learning by different cultural groups.
“If we really want to internationalise all that we do and if we want students to understand what it means to have an international perspective, then we need to embrace a notion of intercultural education.
“To do that we need to be able to move into another’s space and allow them to move into ours. It’s understanding where others are coming from and what they make of what we offer, then understanding what we in turn make of their ideas through their cultural perspective and how we can learn from that and build it back into our programs.
“The framework we have developed is one that strives for genuine reciprocity.”
Like Scarino, Greig believes that the real positive of international education is that it fosters better understanding and tolerance.
“In the classroom, people are hearing from many different cultural points of view and gaining a broader understanding of the world,” Greig said.
“And the networks and friendships students themselves are developing through studying together hold much promise for the future.
“It’s essential in today’s world that we do have an international outlook and that the programs we deliver have a significant international focus, that they’re not introspective.”
“In a world of air travel, instant messaging, the Internet, and mobile telecommunications we are no longer bound by a ‘tyranny of distance’. It is now more important than ever, for the development of students, the quality of the education we provide and the research we engage in, that we take an international approach – the results of that engagement will have long term benefits for future societies.”