US Education in the Middle East
Posted by Admin on February 14, 2008
Read this interesting article about US universities expanding beyond its shores, particularly in the Middle East. In principle, the concept of truly global education provided by an international university with a presence in multiple countries makes a lot of sense and is truly fascinating. However, it does raise a number of questions. Here are a few.
- How does the University maintain the quality of its education?
- Is it realistic to scale the number of faculty on a global basis?
- Will the overall learning experience even come close to that offered at the main campus?
- Are universities viewing global opportunities for growth as a money making exercise?
In the context of India, there are no shortage of collaborations between Indian and foreign universities (though very often its hard to identify which of these are real and which of these are purely publicity exercises). A collaboration is very different from a foreign university setting up shop in another country. Collaboration is easier to achieve and quicker to produce results but lacks the brand value and the potential financial upside for the foreign university. Hence the rush to setup shop overseas.
