There is no question that the MBA is at the very heart of graduate business education, it has been established as a globally recognized degree, and that globalization is cast frequently, perhaps most frequently, in terms of business and commerce. This is reflected in an interesting article titled MBA programs and goals shift focus, in which the author, Mitchell Young, President of the University of Northern Virginia (UNVA) in Prague shares some of his insights about where he thinks the MBA as a program is going. In addition to sharing some market trends for the program and some demographic trends of MBA students, Young writes about how the globalization of MBAs is not just about going out into the global market, but has something to do with creating a multi-cultural environment that reflects the realities of international management.

Although Young’s perspective is primarily from that of resident-based programs, some of the challenges he cites are applicable to online education also. For example, he identified language as a potential barrier to a “globalized” MBA. He also points to the cost of a MBA education in the Czech Republic, which is about a third of the cost at the lower cost programs in the United States. This would prohibit many international students from traveling to US and Western European locations to study. Given economic and geographic access barriers, how do you attract a multi-cultural residential student body? How much value is there in a multi-cultural learning environment and what constitutes a multi-cultural environment? Is it a foreign location, far-flung internships, robust study abroad programs, a diverse student body, international faculty, a globalized curriculum, something else, or perhaps a combination of these and other factors?

I suppose that if we assume that more diversity is better and that having multiple layers of opportunity is also better, then a combination of all of the above is better. There are many examples of these activities and qualities at many residential programs. For example, in an earlier posting, I looked at an intensive international environment created at a very traditional French university involving study abroad, recruitment of an international student body, and taking advantage of being located in an international location. This looked very exciting, but a little exclusive. For example, combining work, family, and study, would be nearly impossible. Limiting access in this way reduces a certain form of diversity, which is preserved in many online programs. That said, I am not so familiar though of any online MBAs that pursue more than one or two “globalizing” factors. Why? It seems that all of the characteristics and activities listed above are not only within the grasp of online programs, but there might be lower barriers to achieve then through an online program. After all, when the world is your campus, anybody can study from home, or work, or on a business trip.

So, who is doing this well? If you know of an online MBA that is actively creating a globalized, international, and multi-cultural program through programmatic initiatives, I would like to hear about what they are doing.

The Natural Resources Distance Learning Consortium is one of the first collaborative programs that I was introduced to at Penn State.  I am incredibly excited about our involvement in this consortium because it so clearly illustrates one of the roles that online learning plays in achieving the modern land grant mission.

From my perspective, the Natural Resources Distance Learning Consortium is not only an opportunity to work with a number of great universities, but also an opportunity to illustrate the coherence within the World Campus family of programs. Our program offerings include Community & Economic Development, GIS, Turfgrass Management, and Weather Forecasting as they all support professionals working in the areas of natural resources.

Congratulations and thanks to the team who manages the Penn State World Campus offerings, and to our friends at the Virginia Tech Institute for Distance & Distributed Learning who develop and manage the new web site.

The World Campus Student Fund was born in May of 2004 out of the frustration of seeing distance education students struggling to pay for their courses. So many World Campus students are unable to meet the distance education requirements necessary for federal financial aid and some are simply ineligible because of the course type or number of credits. Most students are adults with families experiencing those things all adults must face - job loss, family illness, divorce and more. These life events often put an unbearable strain on family finances and sometimes students cannot continue pursuing their academic goals. The World Campus Student Fund makes a difference for them.

What is remarkable about the Student Fund is that it is entirely supported by World Campus faculty and staff. To date, over $10,000 in scholarships have been awarded to deserving students. The World Campus has such a generous, caring group of people who have seen the Student Fund as an opportunity to help our own students. We have had 100% participation in the Student Fund, whether it is through payroll deduction, making a one-time contribution, or buying a book at the book sale. The World Campus Student Fund is run by a dedicated group of volunteers.

To the Kentucky student who lost his job and thought he would have to drop out, to the single Pennsylvania mother with small children who thought finishing her degree was beyond her means, and to the disabled student in rural Maine who thought she could never earn a college degree, the World Campus Student Fund has made all the difference.

It is a great thing when you realize that what you do can make things easy. Important things, particularly. One of the really exciting things about online learning is its potential for lowering the barriers of participation in an academic program or with a community. The university can extend its community far from campus (or far from its servers) enriching the experience of its students by inviting participation from those who might never have even considered engagement.

I just came across France takes the plunge into globalized education, an article that describes a program at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris in which all undergraduates spend their third year of studies abroad, while the school accepts international students from 260 universities worldwide. This is interesting to me because it shows a real commitment to providing opportunities for international and multi-cultural experiences to learners aboard and in residence. That said, although the university makes some financial accommodation, this is not an inexpensive endeavor for the learners or for the institution.

In the article, Jean-Claude Lescure, director of the institute’s journalism school, states that “It (the program) is a way to promote competition within forms of being and thinking, … Competition is a good way to improve — to be confronted with the foreigner in order to improve yourself.” Obviously this is just one of many potential objectives and benefits of an international education and learner exchange program. How might online learning support this type of objective? Beyond this objective, should a type of “virtual study abroad” experience be a “no brainer” for distance or online education organizations like the World Campus, UMASS Online, or UMUC? Should we perhaps see at least some passing reference to “cultural enrichment” in the character of such organizations, and if not, is this a missed opportunity?

One last thought. I wonder if the term “globalized education” was used intentionally in the title of the article, rather than “internationalized education.”

There are ongoing questions about the impact on commercial enterprises on higher education and I would like your thoughts. This topic raised its head again for me just recently. As a follow-up to the recent posting titled “Higher Education Reform in Nigeria”, I was reading an article titled “Nigeria: Akingbola Advocates Radical Varsity Reforms” that touched on the investment that Intercontinental Bank is making in the Nigerian higher education system and specifically at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

I am thinking that this topic is not so cut and dry. There are issues around need, compromise, corporate intent as well as the nature of capacity of local governments and the impulse for “Globalization” as Akingbola frames it in the articles cited above.

Based on the “Nigeria: Akingbola Advocates Radical Varsity Reforms” article, your experiences, and your thoughts, do you think that there are dangers for Higher Education associated with commercial investment in institutions? What are they, and how might we manage them?

Please feel free to share experiences and insights. Here is one of mine:
Years ago while living in Europe I recall days of student protests in Vienna because the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture were considering applying a rather nominal tuition fee (by Anglo standards anyway) for nationals attending higher education institutions. I had mixed feeling about this. On the one hand tuition is a barrier and access to education is a cornerstone ideal in a liberal democracy interested in promoted an egalitarian society. On the other hand, it was impossible for learners to complete their undergraduate degrees in less than 7 or 8 years because of over-demand and under-supply of resources (class space, faculty, etc.). At the time the student-to-faculty ratio at the University of Vienna was reported to being over 300-to-1. In fact, many of the learners who I had at the International University of Vienna (IU), were there because it was taking them too long to get a free and frankly higher quality degree from the major Austrian Universities in Vienna. The very few Austrians attending IU were there because they wanted a western degree and saw this as a way of getting it done in 4 years. They felt that the opportunity loss associated with waiting a few extra years to get their degree was greater than the tuition costs from a private university.

In any event, I saw both sides of the story and asked a lot of people why then not adopt the US model of partnering with commercial organizations to attract and generate resources. I was thinking about the enormous investments that Texas A&M was making at the time to develop a corporate research park on campus to support industry sponsored research at the University. There seemed to be universal distain for the idea among my European colleagues. I was told that it would corrupt the educational enterprise and the threaten the autonomy necessary for pursuing truth. Fair enough. We have seen evidence of questionable corporate behavior in US higher education.

In a recently published testimonial on Ready Business, Dr. Robert Cherry, MD, lead faulty member and founder of the World Campus Master of Homeland Security and Public Health Preparedness, discusses his experiences serving as Director of a level-one trauma center in the New York City area on Sept. 11, 2001 and how he was inspired to develop a Homeland Security program at Penn State’s Medical Center.  The World Campus was selected as the delivery environment to meet the program’s requirement for flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness.