Higher Education (Globalization) Mcpherson, M.

Higher Education (Globalization)

McPherson, M. & Schapiro, M.O. (2002). Global Issues in Higher Education: What American Colleges Should Know. Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffpfp0302.pdf/

McPherson & Shapiro's work asserts that now more that ever, the need for higher education has intensified not only in the United States but in other parts of the world as well. Consequently, many countries have adopted America's higher education's financing structure. At present, numerous issues regarding higher education have surfaced. One of which is the increased privatization of universities reflected by lower budget coming from state source that it was years ago. Universities then seek private funds to maintain their operations. Shifts in demographic factors, like what happened in Japan, led on the other hand, to overcapacity of higher education with lesser student demographics and high number of universities. To be able to resolve issues in higher education, the authors recommended for a shift in policy interests towards improvement of knowledge and skills rather than on economy specifics as public university have been proven to be more vulnerable to economic changes.

This work mainly dealt with current and rather specific issues surfacing on higher education in light of globalization. It made no attempt to provide conceptual clarifications on globalization and instead went beyond by simply asserting the current need to expand education systems dictated by the intensified call for higher education. The work is heavily focused on specific issues such as privatization of universities as well as the implication of demographic shifts on education systems. The work concludes by providing recommendations on how to go about these issues by presenting recommendations by experts in the domain of education and world economy. Indeed, this article can be utilized as a springboard for more focused, narrowed down research works. Albeit brief, the recommendations provided can be further explored for the benefit of actionable research.