DrEducation: Trends and Insights on Global Higher Education

In last couple of years, Africa has been gaining traction in terms of transnational education. It includes a diverse range of models from traditional branch campuses with Webster to blended-learning models with Kepler. Likewise, in terms of home countries, universities from Australia, the UK and the US are engaging with Africa. Here are some of the recent developments with transnational education in Africa:

Webster University in GhanaLancaster University in GhanaCarnegie Mellon University in RwandaKepler in Rwanda (with Southern New Hampshire University)Laureate University in South Africa (through Monash University)

Higher education institutions are increasingly interested in not only expanding the number of international students on their campuses, but also diversifying the countries they come from. However, international student recruitment strategies have a major limitation: over-reliance on anecdotal evidences and hunches to formulate strategies.

Many institutions are missing the cornerstone of successful strategies--international students differ in their needs and preferences and treating all international students as same in terms recruitment strategies is inefficient and ineffective. These strategies are often grounded in a pre-social media era, which continues to transform student decision-making processes.

Earlier this year, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced an investment of $150 million in common stock of Laureate Education, Inc., representing IFC’s largest education investment. This was a landmark development in the world of international higher education, as it validated the model of Laureate with a significant investment. What made Laureate so successful?

The Foreign universities bill 2010 has attracted lot of curiosity and interest from media and universities to assess its potency and implications.  The bill is still pending after three years and it is pretty much written off. However, the recent executive order by the University Grants Commission allowing foreign universities to enter India has reignited the curiosity. In my commentary article "How to Engage Foreign Universities in India" published in Business Standard, I argue that the optimism is unfounded and it will again be a non-starter. The proposed order is not aligned with the reality of global higher education and the needs of Indian higher education. Here is the excerpt.