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Session code: 3-1-A205

Title: Globalization, Acculturation, & Innovation: Re-Thinking Higher Education Boundaries in the Information Age

Contributer/s: Leslie Bash, Suzanne Greenwald

Abstract : The increasing globalization of knowledge, a partial consequence of the possibilites established by information and communication technologies, tests the compatibility of national higher education systems. This in turn raises critical issues concerning globalizing higher education institutions (HEIs), among which are:

cultural tensions and adaptation to new pedagogic systems

knowledge transfer

values, ethics and ideologies

These issues are exemplified with reference to two specific cross-national innovative ventures. The first concerns a collaboration, at the undergraduate level, between an HEI in England and an HEI in the US. The second concerns a doctoral programme established sepcifically for students resident in Israel but delivered by an HEI based in England.

In the case of the Cambridge-MIT Institute, a transatlantic undergraduate partnership between MIT and Cambridge University, the main challenges concern: teaching and learning methodologies and transferable skills; student exchange; cross-national transfer of university-industry collaborative practice. Pedagogic elements under investigation include: the supervision system; student teamwork; and hands-on learning environments. In the case of the Anglia Polytechnic University (APU) Israel doctoral programme, the challenges concern: cultural and linguistic barriers; distance-based pedagogies; taken-for-granted knowledge related to learning and academic levels.

Ultimately, at the experiential level, individual participants in these programmes are confronted with questions concerning academic identity. Whether this signals the eventual formation of a single global identity with the sharing of academic norms, values and practices, whether the tendency will be towards multiple identities, or whether existing national identities are maintained, remains open to debate.