International Higher Education, Spring 2000

News of the Center for International Higher Education

Work continues on two important Center projects. The inventory of centers and programs of higher education worldwide is mostly completed. Dave Engberg has been providing leadership to this work. We will publish the inventory as a book and will post it on our website as well. The Ford Foundation and the International Education Research Foundation have provided support for this effort. Our African higher education handbook continues to progress. Damtew Teferra is the lead researcher on this project, which will result in a comprehensive volume featuring research-based essays on all African countries. The Ford Foundation is providing support. Our collaboration with the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands continues. The Center organized a weeklong seminar on American higher education for a group of University of Amsterdam senior administrators in Washington, D.C. and Boston this past fall. Prof. Karen Arnold, coordinator of BC’s higher education program and Philip Altbach coordinated this effort, and Kevin Sayers assisted with the logistics. Patricia Maloney of the American Council on Education provided assistance in Washington.

Prof. Philip Altbach is organizing a research conference in collaboration with Harvard University's Harvard Project on Faculty Appointments, the University of Amsterdam, and the Gesamthochschule Universität Kassel, in Germany, on the changing academic workplace in Europe and the United States in late March. This research project, funded by the HPFA, will result in a book on faculty appointments and academic work.

The Center welcomes Dr. Julio Durand of the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a visiting scholar. Dr. Durand is a senior Fulbright scholar. Fr. Charles Beirne, SJ, the incoming president of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York and a longtime friend of the Center, will join the Center as visiting scholar in the late spring. Fr. Beirne was, until recently, the academic vice rector at the Landivar University in Guatemala.

The Boston College higher education administration program will welcome Fulbright-sponsored students from El Salvador, Cambodia, and South Africa to its master’s program. Under the leadership of Prof. Kathleen Mahoney, the program is beginning a special emphasis on religion and higher education. This will feature a "track" in our graduate programs and a special summer seminar for incoming senior administrators in Catholic universities. Professors Karen Arnold and Ted Youn have received funding for research on Rhoades scholars.

International Higher Education On-Line
Beginning with this issue of International Higher Education, we are offering an important new innovation--now you can sign up to automatically receive notice of upcoming IHE publications. Sign-up is easy. Simply log on to our website <http://www.bc.edu/cihe> and follow the instructions in the middle of the page. Once signed on, you will receive the table of contents of each new IHE publication, with links to the full text of every article. This new service will put in you touch with our articles immediately on publication, will permit you to send our articles to colleagues, and allow you to communicate with us through the Internet as well. We will continue to send you the print version unless you prefer to receive IHE only electronically.

You may not be aware that our on-line site also provides a comprehensive index of articles published in International Higher Education, to include links to the full text of each article. In this way, you can easily find past information concerning the countries, topics, and authors that have been previously published in IHE--a unique service valuable in research and policy analysis. In addition to the index, our website also offers links to other higher education sites, to publications related to the Center for International Higher Education, and to additional information concerning higher education.

These initiatives are just a part of our effort to provide our readers with efficient electronic access to the latest information and analysis concerning higher education worldwide. The programs of the Center are supported by the Ford Foundation and by Boston College as a service to the university community.

Report on Higher Education in Developing Countries Released
Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise has just been published by the Task Force on Higher Eduation and Society, in cooperation with the World Bank. The report, prepared by a blue ribbon panel of experts, focuses on the challenges faced by higher education in developing countries. The task force members examine such central issues as higher education and the public interest, the role of systems of higher education, governance, science and technology, and general education. Co-chairs Mamphela Ramphele of South Africa and Henry Rosovsky of the United States have stressed that they wanted to provide a fresh perspective in the report. In addition to the narrative, a number of "best practice" examples are provided and useful statistical appendices are included as well.

The Task Force and the World Bank are providing copies of the report to many of the readers of International Higher Education. Copies will be sent to a selection of names on our mailing list. In addition, the report is available from the World Bank's Bookshop, 1818 H St., NW, Washington, DC 29433, USA. It is also avaialble in full-text on the Internet. The Web site is: <http://www.tfhe.net>.

The specific citation to the report is: Task Force on Higher Education and Society, Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2000. 135 pp (paperback). ISBN 0-8213-4630-X.