Taking a Global View of the Student Experience

Students are all around the world but the student experience is different in all the places. There is the thought that the student experience around the world should be thought about. There are many things and factors that are shaping and reshaping the student experience. One of those factors is globalization. The question that was brought up in this article was, since there is such emphases on globalization in education, will that make education and the student experience homogenous or will there continue to be diversity over time? There was a statistic that stated that over half of international students study within five countries. Those countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia. The other part of the statistic was that over half of the internationally mobile students are from Asia. It was stated that there is no true universal student experience but it refers to the higher education aspects.

                China has the largest higher education system in the world and although they are considered the largest system, little is known about the impact that internationalization has on the students’ experiences. It was stated that the big picture that surrounds economic and political globalization should be related to the student experience. For example, the cultural differences in learning, the role of academic literacy, quality in the context of competition, what a global curriculum can offer and so forth. Those few that I listed as well as more have an impact on students and education. It can have an impact on things such as the quality of the experience, the destinations that students choose and so forth. Because thoughts and beliefs are not shared around the world universally, globalization can be very hard. There is an increasing amount of diversity within in the international student population. There can be a lot of challenges faced when teaching globally and when experiencing the student experience. Across countries, differences in factors such as class, ethnic origin, religion, language and so forth can play a huge role. There is a lot to think about when talking about globalization in the education and how that impacts the student experience. This article provided information on how all countries are not the same universally which can make global education a challenge in some ways. 

 http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130328120529307

Jennifer Aiken

4/1/2013 5:15pm