Leading the Way for Global Higher Education
March 31, 2011Francisco J. Sánchez is the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
Today we depart for Jakarta, Indonesia for the first leg of the largest Commerce-led education trade mission ever. I am excited for this mission as we are bringing 56 colleges and universities to explore the opportunities to recruit international students to study in the U.S. as well as possibly setting up partnership and student and faculty exchanges.
I was excited to host my very first Twitter chat earlier today and I was happy to answer questions such as, how are foreign students studying in the U.S. an export and why were Vietnam and Indonesia targeted for this mission. To each, I answered that when foreign students come to study in the United States, their tuition and fees, as well as their living expenses help support the local economy in addition to the national economy. Education services ranks among the top 10 U.S. service exports, right between environmental services and safety and security. These two countries place a high value on higher education and have tremendous potential for sending students to the United States. And, in Indonesia, boosting the number of Indonesian students studying in the United States is a top priority of the U.S. Embassy.
Building ties with international students not only helps our American students gain a greater level of international understanding—a critical skill for success in the 21st century global economy—but familiarizes future global leaders with the American people and U.S. society.
I think this mission is so righteous. I’ve actually been reading a lot about Vietnamese Education as, I’ve seen they have been integrating into Laos schools. I plan on moving to Laos in August to teach English…Linguistically, There is a HUGE difference between Laos and Vietnam but was there any mention of collaboration among south east Asian countries? Thank you for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you have any knowledge on the subject!
The Higher education sector was not unaffected when the global recession hit. There were varying responses from governments. Some higher education institutions enjoyed more funding, while others were left struggling hard with minimal financial support. Universities had to turn to other means for survival. As a result, concepts such as innovation and entrepreneurship begin to lead university activities with efforts stretching beyond those of teaching and research to include initiating collaboration with industry and community.
The education trade mission is really great. Bringing great opportunities for international students who wanted to study in the U.S and the local government are helping the students in their tuition and fees as well as in living expenses. Thank you for sharing this post, looking forward to your next update about the trade mission.
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How did the trade mission go?
Since it has been some time, i would love to see an update!