Louisville, Kentucky
June 20, 2010
June 20, 2010
June 23, 2010
2153-5965
International
5
15.605.1 - 15.605.5
10.18260/1-2--16624
https://strategy.asee.org/16624
439
A native of Texas, Andy Riess earned his B.A. from Baylor University (history, political science, philosophy, Latin) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University (Russian history, Inner Asia, Eastern Europe, Ottoman Empire). A veteran of the United States Army Security Agency, he has also studied at the Frei Universität - Berlin, Moscow State University, and the Graduate School of Business, New York University. Dr. Riess has worked in the worlds of academia, for-profit, and not-for-profit in the United States and abroad. For 18 years, he was in charge of Fulbright Scholar programs in the Former Soviet Union, Western Europe, and Asia for Council for International Exchange of Scholars in Washington, D.C. He was named, early in 2008, to head recruitment efforts for American scholars for the Fulbright Scholar Program at CIES.
Title: Fulbright Scholar Awards: A World of Opportunities for Faculty and Professionals
Abstract:
Every leader in history has recognized that the future of the country lies in the proper education of its youth. Today’s world mandates that we develop and educate a global citizen, and a global engineer and scientist, among other disciplines, for the good of the individual, the country, and the people of this planet. U.S. colleges and universities must prepare U.S. students to be competitive in this increasingly global marketplace. Fulbright scholars are tremendously effective in advancing this important goal. They serve as models of international collaboration to students, colleagues, and professional organizations, and bring their Fulbright experience to bear in many meaningful ways. This paper first describes the current situation regarding the globalization of education, emphasizing engineering and STEM fields in the United States. The second portion of the paper describes how the Fulbright Scholar Program can be used to further the internationalization of U.S. faculty, institutions and students.
Body of the Paper:
The Globalization of Education: Engineering and the STEM Fields
Today’s reality is that we have a technologically borderless planet, a globally interactive economy, numerous multinational companies, a distributed educational system, an educational system that is trending towards homogeneity while the product desire is heterogeneous, and we have the need to balance cooperation and competition in business including the business of education as well. All that notwithstanding, citizens of the United States do not fully recognize the importance of the fact that 96% of the world’s population lies outside the United States. In 2009, only 262,416 U.S. students studied abroad1 while 671,616 international students studied in the United States.2
Outgoing American students went dominantly to Europe (56%),3 and only 11% of them were graduate students. Their major fields of study were social sciences, business/management, humanities and the arts, and their language preparation was generally limited.4 Women accounted for 65% of outgoing students.5
On the other hand, the incoming international students were over 40% graduates students,6 and their countries of origin were China, India, South Korea (these three alone accounting for 41%), among others.7 Regarding their fields of study, over 41% were in the STEM fields.8 Were this to be the ‘balance sheet’ for a company, eyebrows would be raised in concern for the future.
Gerhardt, L., & Riess, A. (2010, June), Fulbright Scholar Program Proposal Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16624
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