International Higher Education, Winter 1999

News of the Center for International Higher Education

The Center continues its cooperation with the Quality Support Centre of the Open University in the United Kingdom. Their publication, Higher Education Digest, regularly reprints articles from International Higher Education. We also plan to use QSC material. We have begun working with the Society for Research into Higher Education in the United Kingdom. We will work with the SRHE, which is Britain’s main organization for higher education research, in developing their international publications.

Dr. Jan Currie of Murdoch University in Australia will be a visiting scholar at the Center during the 1999 spring semester. She is working on a research project relating to the internationalization of higher education. Xabier Gorostiaga, S.J. continues his work at the Center through March 1999. Center graduate assistants include Dave Engberg and Yoshikazu Ogawa. Liz Reisberg continues as managing editor of the Review of Higher Education.

New Perspectives on Private Higher Education
Private higher education, perhaps the fastest growing segment of world postsecondary education, is featured in a new book to be published by the Center for International Higher Education. New Perspectives on Private Higher Education, edited by Philip G. Altbach, focuses on the key issues facing private higher education, especially in the context of developing countries. The book has a particular interest in Latin America, but chapters also consider trends in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The Philippines, where private colleges and universities educate the majority of students, is discussed, as is Malaysia, where private higher education is a growing phenomenon. Several chapters deal with Latin America, including a case study of Mexico, and a chapter on accreditation. The book will be published by Greenwood Publishing Co. in the United States late in 1999, and a limited paperback edition will be available to readers in developing countries through the Center. For more information, please contact the Center.

New Perspectives on Global Higher Education Challenges
At a conference on international higher education held in Washington, D.C. on December 3 and 4, 1998, there was general agreement on the similarity in the central issues facing higher education around the world. Organized by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Council on International Exchange of Scholars (CIES)-the Fulbright Program, the meeting brought together nine key experts from around the world to discuss current and future trends in higher education. The group responded to a theme paper prepared by Philip Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, and Todd Davis, research director at the IIE. The paper can be found in this issue of IHE. The conference featured one day of discussions of major trends and developments with a larger group of Washington-area policymakers and international education experts. Among the groups represented were the Inter-American Development Bank, the U.S. Department of Education, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Organization of American States, the U.S. Information Agency, and others. A second day of discussions with the core group of experts was held to discuss future directions for international higher education cooperation.

Among the experts attending the conference were Peter Darvas, formerly director of the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute in Budapest, Hungary and now a senior staff member at the World Bank; Nasima Badsha, deputy director general of the higher education division in the Ministry of Education, South Africa; Suma Chitnis, director of the Tata Endowment and former vice chancellor of SNDT University in Bombay, India; Simon Schwartzman of the Center for Social Research on Sustainable Development in Brazil; Min Weifang, executive vice president of Peking University, China; Akimasa Mitsuta, professor at Obirin University in Japan and formerly a senior official in the Japanese Ministry of Education; Barbara Sporn of the Department of Informatics at the Economics University of Vienna, Austria; and George Eshiwani, vice chancellor of Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

The insights of these experts will soon be published in a book cosponsored by the Institute of International Education and CIHE. Copies of Toward a Global Understanding of Higher Education will be available from CIHE and IIE in spring 1999.

Inventory of Higher Education Center and Programs
The Center for International Higher Education is organizing a major international directory of centers, institutes, and academic programs in the field of higher education worldwide. Our aim is to provide a complete listing, with full addresses and related information, of all institutions and programs involved in research, policy work, and teaching in the field of higher education. This inventory will provide a guide to the field of higher education worldwide, and permit researchers and others to communicate with colleagues in other countries and institutions. Questionnaires have been sent to more than 300 places so far, and we hope to learn of more institutes, programs, and centers. If you are involved with such a program and have not received a questionnaire from us, please let us know. We want to be as complete as possible in our coverage. A book will be published, and information will also be posted on the Internet.