News from the IHT: "University Ranking Shows Boom in Global Student Mobility"

The International Herald Tribune posted a blog a few days ago concerning the 'globalization of education.' The article speaks to the recent rise in the number of students studying internationally at the top 100 universities in the world. Given that these 3.4 million students are receiving an education away from their home country, what effect should this mobility have upon both the home and host countries for these students?

The Tribune article addresses the question but offers no definitive answer. Yes, there are economic incentives to this movement, most importantly the influx in (post-grad) highly skilled labor. Yet these students have the ability to return home following their graduation, leaving the country that has educated them to now face competition from their former pupils. Joseph Stiglitz suggests that in fact this is the best case scenario; more detrimental is the pattern in which students don't leave their host countries after their education has been completed. Instead, they are enticed by the jobs and opportunities that surround them and in turn their home nation loses another of its best and brightest. 

The above scenario can be most easily imagined from a decidedly Western perspective. It is easy to imagine an international student staying in the United States after graduation in order to take advantage of the US's technology and capital. Many US students, however, similarly travel around the globe (most commonly to the UK) in order to seek a superior education. The trend is worrisome on a number of levels. Not only is the United States now losing its best and brightest, but are students within the US losing faith in the value of an American education? No. Rather, schools around the world are catching up and globalization is the cause. 

When considering these counterarguments Stiglitz appears to contradict himself. Fair trade would push for an increase in labor mobility because the United States and Europe focus their attention on the liberalization of capital flow and foreign investment while continuing to impose limits on labor flow. Yet Stiglitz also impresses upon his readers that the US is losing ground in its educational superiority. What should be done? The Tribune article would suggest that nothing can be done, for as university rankings expert John O'Leary puts it, "global student mobility is on a seemingly unstoppable rise."