It was all going so well, until it wasn't. Greece. Crimea. Aleppo. Migrants by Land and Sea and the Little Boy who washed up on to our front pages. Paris. Immigrants. Ukraine. The Wall. Wikileaks. Assange and Hillary's server. Putin. Refugees. Nice. Erdogan. Bruxelles. Brexit. Orlando. Mosul. Trump. Bannon. Yemen. Breitbart. Wilders. Le Pen.
Is it the new normal, a new world order, a fundamental refashioning? Or is it rather a blip, a bump in the road, one of a series of crises that afflicts the globe periodically and cyclically?
In the nascent climate of populism, protectionism, alternative facts and uncivil discourse, of Us and Them, perceptions of International Education (IE) and its humanitarian kindred of immigration and support for the needy have never been so low. Not in living memory have our sacred cows been so prone to uncomfortable, misinformed, uncivil and malicious scrutiny. Our ability to pursue what we have believed to be the noble aims of our sector is in jeopardy, including the real and perceived safety of the students and faculty we welcome and those we encourage out into the world. The underpinnings of our IE value system are under question and threatened by despots and deplorables from every side. Or are they? Maybe we’re just talking to ourselves.
Our panel of global IE leaders will address and engage together with discussion on the role and responsibility of Higher Education (HE) institutions and international leader to engage on these issues and perhaps more importantly, on how to support and engage with the general public to assist them in managing their responses to globalization?
- Has HE fallen short in its ability to use the language that the broader public and community relate to?
- Are we truly engaged with a change agenda?
- What are we changing and to what end?
- Does it matter to our local communities?
- What are appropriate roles for HE in supporting the public and influencing public opinion?
- What would success look like?
- We have clearly incorporated internationalization into the teaching agenda of HE, and quite successfully into the research agenda of HE, but what about the third pillar, that of community engagement?
- In terms of consultation with local communities, are we relevant to them? If so, how?
- As internationalization evolves by culture, time and context, must we broaden our reach to greater community engagement?
Research now has to demonstrate impact and innovation, and so in IE we also should consider what is our impact. We should develop research questions that matter to our local communities and begin to demonstrate concrete, meaningful outcomes. We should clearly develop an understanding what are our "ends” and how will the public benefit.
- What are the roles and responsibilities of higher education and its institutions in helping the public address the impacts of globalization? In this regard are there higher education roles in public diplomacy and public education that need greater attention given the apparent more conflicted environment around higher education internationalization as well as the rise of populist reactions to globalization?
- If there are roles and responsibilities needing greater attention, what are the options for fulfilling these needs?
