E n g l i s h i n t h e U S A
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| American Universities: Educating the World |
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by Mark Rentz
Arizona State University |
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According to the Institute for International Education, the United States enrolls more international students than any other nation in the world. Recents statistics reveal that over 30 percent of all foreign students are studying at American colleges and universities. The United States last year enrolled 481,280 international students. More impressive than numbers, of course, is the fact that dozens of present world leaders are alumni of American universities. The next wave of world leaders will most likely have benefited from higher education in the U.S. as well. Many authorities in higher education readily agree with Lawson Lau, author of "The World at Your Doorsteps", when he states that one third to one half of the world's top positions in politics, business, education and the military will be filled in the next 25 years by foreign students presently studying in the U.S. Why are so many internationals coming to the United States to study? I put this question to hundreds of international world leaders who have gained a higher education degrees in the U.S. Here are a few excerpts from some of my interviews: Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister of New Zealand: When I got to the University of Chicago, I found I was confronted with a university of the highest quality, where the students were competitive, where the academic standards were extraodinary high, and where the level of stimulation was unbelievably high... I never had expected that an educational experience of that sort would have such a profound effect on my outlook on life. I think you can say without any exaggeration that the educational opportunity I had in the United States had a pretty profound impact on my political career. Quite possibly, I would have had no political career but for that education. Furthermore, it helped me in that political career by virtue of the contacts I had with people inother countries. From the point of view of graduate education, that's where the American Universities excel... The essence of it for me was exposure to first rate professors who had really something to teach of lasting value. It was an intellectual experience. Living in America is certainly a diverting and interesting thing to do. But that is secondary to the intellectual value of the education itself. America can make a tremendous investment internationally through education. In this way, it can have profound influence in the world. I would never become prime minister of New Zealand had I not studied at the University of Chicago.
I consider myself very fortunate to have studied in American universities. I have no doubt that American universities provide the best environment in the world as learning institutions and as living experience for personal growth. Perhaps the topnoch, dedicated student succeds antwhere, but the average student needs a more stimulating evironment. The environment provided to the average college student in the United States increases the likelihood of his success... Through my years of university study in the United States, I learned more about my culture, my country, and myself. By learning about other cultures, one becomes more independent and detached about one's own.
I believe that the friendships that are made during student days in the U.S. are, almost always, very solid and frequently long lasting. I know from experience... But the most important lesson I learned on these campuses and that has grown with years is the message of the American community: a society that stimulates, admires and prizes work, severly competitive, but where anyone who tries, almost always attains a pleasant life style and sense of wellbeing. I do not know another lesson that surpasses this one in this aspect. Many lessons are forgotten or are superseded but this one stays profoundly rooted througout my life. There is much human content in the phrase "The American Way of Life..."
Arias Sanches spent a few months at harvard Summer School between semesters where he was introduced to the thinking of the economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Of his time at harvard, Arias says: All of this really opened my mind and had a tremendous impact on my future.
Graduating from an American university will obviously not guarantee inclusion into the most prestigious list of Who is Who in the World, but for many foreign students who come to the United States for language studies and higher education, the experience is an academic journey that leads to new places, ideas, dreams, and opportunity. |
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