On Nov. 17, 2006, NEBHE convened nearly 300 educators and decision-makers in Providence for a thought-provoking conference titled College Ready/World Ready: New England Higher Education in a Global Student Marketplace.

The conference featured three panel discussions as well as luncheon addresses by Asia expert S. Frederick Starr, the former Oberlin College president who now chairs the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and Larry E. Christensen, vice president of export controls with JPMorgan Chase Vastera.

The Fall 2006 issue of Connection: The Journal of the New England Board of Higher Education features articles by educators and other opinion leaders on crucial issues in international education, globalization, immigration and the future of New England. For more, visit www.nebhe.org.

Panel Discussion: Where in the world is New England?
The new global economy demands that New England develop the skills of all its people—old and young, immigrant and native. At the same time, the region’s burgeoning immigrant population offers the promise of raising intercultural awareness among all New Englanders—a priceless asset as the region learns to understand new global partners and competitors. Is New England prepared for the challenges and opportunities offered by a shrinking world? Saint Michael’s College President Marc A. vanderHeyden moderated the panel.

JPMorgan Chase Chief Economist James E. Glassman laid out the economic landscape facing New England business and higher education. For more, see summary and presentation.

Demographic trends analyst Peter K. Francese, who is the founding editor of American Demographics magazine, showed that New England is the smallest, oldest and one of the slowest-growing regions in the nation. He noted that New England is losing young people faster than it is gaining foreign immigrants. Because the region is losing both children and women in the childbearing age range, New England’s native population of traditional college age will also soon be in decline. Click here for more.

Francese noted that New England is home to just 2 million 15- to 24-year-olds, while the rest of the United States is home to 40 million, and Latin America is home to 100 million. Unless many more of the region’s high school students go on to attend college here, thinking globally is not just a nice concept, it is a survival imperative, Francese said. He warned that too many high school students are bored with their current instruction and concluded that New England’s tradition of local control was making it impossible to make students from lower-income backgrounds college-ready; he suggested the region abolish property taxes as the chief way to fund schools and consolidate school districts.

Christopher L. “Kip” Bergstrom, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, noted that New England must turn its immigrants, who are often illiterate in their native languages, into “knowledge workers.” He warned that New England must create an “innovation economy,” which is continually inventing new jobs, because today’s high-end job can quickly be adopted in China or India. Quoting Wayne Gretzky’s maxim that he skates not to where the puck is but to where it’s going to be, Bergstrom noted that in the innovation economy, we need to skate to where there may not even yet be ice.

He also called for efforts to integrate work and learning. He noted that even students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds can learn and graduate with the right kinds of learning programs. He held up as a model the Metropolitan School in Providence, where each teacher, known as an “advisor,” facilitates the learning of 14 students and stays with those students for four years until they graduate. Teachers have every one of their students on speed dial on their cell phones, Bergstrom added. Click here for more.

Mary S. Harrison, president of the Rhode Island Children’s Crusade for Higher Education, offered an in-the-trenches look at preparing immigrant and minority children to be knowledge workers and good citizens. She warned that schools are using an industrial-age model to teach in the 21st century. She urged that the school calendar and school day be lengthened to reflect new realities and that efforts be made to confront the effects of poverty.

Panel Discussion: Internationalization of Higher Education.
Many of New England’s 270 colleges and universities are truly international institutions—magnets for foreign faculty, scholars and students. But the world is flat.  Nations that once sent their best and brightest to New England for college now boast their own world-class higher education systems.  Advances in distance learning bring quality higher education to distance corners.  And anti-terror measures have made entry into the United States for study more difficult for many students. Will the world’s students continue to beat a path to the United States and New England in the post 9/11 era? Are our institutions capitalizing on the latest global trends and opportunities?


Boston College professor of higher education Philip G. Altbach, who directs BC’s Center for International Higher Education, explained that of the estimated 2.3 million college students worldwide who are studying outside their home countries, about one-third study in the United States. He said New England should play off its higher education brand and market itself as a higher education destination. He noted that one advantage New England has in the global context is that international students want to be in an English-speaking culture. He pointed out that more people are studying English in China right now than in the United States. “English is the Latin of the 21st century,” he noted.

Altbach noted that when we talk about “internationalization” of curricula, we are really talking about “Americanization” of the curricula. Other countries are adopting American-style college programs including the quintessential American degree: the MBA.

He explained that there is an unprecedented level of global migration today among academics, but also among higher-end talent in all fields, and this will only grow as borders become more porous. Altbach urged educators to pay attention to global treaties noting that the Bologna agreement aimed at breaking down walls between higher education systems, i.e. standardizing degrees and credit transfer, within Europe could also build walls around Europe. One question is how the three-year bachelor’s degree popular in much of Europe will be viewed in countries with a four-year bachelor’s tradition. He also noted that trade treaties such as GATS will impact financing of international distance learning programs.

Karen Boucias, director of the University of Maine’s international programs, contrasted the heavy impact of foreign enrollment on U.S. campuses with the tiny percentage of U.S. students who go abroad for college study—less than 2 percent of U.S. college students in 2005. She noted that 80 percent of U.S. citizens do not even have passports.

Robert L. Carothers, president of the University of Rhode Island, explained how URI’s economically vital international initiatives have grown from an early program integrating German and engineering into Global University 8, a major consortium of institutions worldwide with focus on issue such as marine technologies and logistics.

Carole A. Cowan, president of Middlesex Community College in Massachusetts, explained how her community college in the immigrant gateway city of Lowell has initiated international programs reflective of its melting pot profile.

Cambridge College President Mahesh Sharma suggested that the cell phone, rather than the Internet, may be the future of educational delivery worldwide.

Luncheon speakers

Larry E. Christensen, vice president of export controls with JPMorgan Chase Vastera, explained the ins and outs of export laws as they relate to higher education in a post-9/11 world.

Asia expert S. Frederick Starr, the former Oberlin College president who now chair the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University, spoke of how technology and a flattening educational world increasingly offer a student on a hilltop in Peru access to the best higher education options.

Panel Discussion: Balance of Trade: Foreign Enrollment: Study Abroad and New England’s Place in the World.
“College in New England” has moved beyond a phrase in the English language. It has worldwide meaning.  It’s a global brand. But is the region’s brand being squandered? How can New England create a new age of interglobal connections, collaboration and joint ventures? What opportunities exist for New England to export its vaunted education resources to underserved countries in Asia and elsewhere?

Michael E. Lestz, director of the O’Neill Asia Cum Laude Endowment and an associate professor of history at Trinity College, moderated the panel.

Carol Bellamy, president and CEO of World Learning and president of the School for International Training, urged educators to avoid the study abroad “low road” in which students are sent abroad carelessly, taught in English and allowed to behave inappropriately in their host countries. Instead, she urges colleges and others to manage the “footprint” of U.S. students abroad, to first immerse students in the language of the country to which they are going and to emphasize the need to be sensitive to the culture in which they are studying.

Institute of International Education President Allan E. Goodman noted that the United Kingdom and Australia invest much more than the United States in recruiting foreign students and scholars. He said there are resources available, however, for the United States to finance international students.

Bates College Vice President for External Affairs William C. Hiss noted that Bates has always attracted foreign students since its abolitionist beginnings, but that more international efforts have grown over time. Since 1980, the college has totally merged its domestic and international financial aid program and created a full-time position of international dean of admissions. Hiss visited Hanoi’s Amsterdam High School while in Vietnam adopting a daughter, and today the school accounts for more Bates applicants than do the high schools in the college’s host cities of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine. Now 70 percent of Bates students do international studies, and Bates receives enough international applicants to fill its entire class with foreign students.

Roger Williams University President Roy J. Nirschel explained how his wife was touched by the suffering of Afghan women following September 11 and asked her husband what he could do as a university president. In response, Roger Williams introduced a special four-year scholarship for an Afghan woman. The Nirschels challenged university presidents across the country to follow suit and several did. Now, more than a dozen colleges and universities participate in the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women, and Roger Williams has extended its outreach to Iraq and other distressed countries.

Nirschel called Roger Williams the Southwest Airlines of international higher education—going to the places the more established brands do not. He laid down a another challenge to the college leaders in the room. If Roger Williams can operate in Afghanistan and Iraq, said Nirschel, then other New England colleges should surely be able to work in less-troubled countries.

Nirschel noted that institutions have to become culturally sensitive. “If you enroll a lot of Muslim students, you may not want to give a calculus exam at 3 p.m. during Ramadan.” He suggested colleges follow Roger Williams’s lead of buying passports for students who earn a 3.0 grade point average.

Thomas J. Vallely, director of the Vietnam Program at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, explained how the program focuses on getting foreign students to study abroad and then return to their home country. One problem is that Vietnam offers few opportunities for academics to return to.

Most of the speakers agreed that New England’s historical edge as a destination for international students rests on a few famous campuses. A Chinese graduate student in attendance stood up and reminded the audience that Harvard and MIT are the only two of New England’s 270 or so colleges that have any significant name recognition in China.

Many speakers suggested a need for New England colleges, businesses and others to collaborate to bolster the region’s brand in the global student marketplace.

Nirschel noted that he is a member of the New England Council, the region’s largest business organization, which is also focused on promoting New England brands.

NEBHE President Evan S. Dobelle closed the conference by reminding attendees that New England is failing to prepare large percentages of students for college success, and that the new global student marketplace only raises the stakes connected to New England’s college readiness challenge.

The conference closed with an exhibition of international programs sponsored by NBH Solutions.

Exhibiting Institutions included:

Bryant University
Johnson and Wales University
Roger Williams University
Salve Regina University
University of Rhode Island
Fairfield University
University of Massachusetts