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Studying Global Higher Education

Global Engagement

by  |  on November 12th, 2010  |  1 comment
The University at Albany, State University of New York: Image Credit - SUNY

The University at Albany, State University of New York: Image Credit – SUNY

This year the University at Albany’s (SUNY) Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies created a new organization focused on global higher education.  The Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT) is co-directed by faculty members Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser.  Here is what they say about their mission and focus:

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in higher education institutions exporting their educational programs across geopolitical borders.  The Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT) studies this phenomenon from organizational, sociological, economic, and political perspectives.   As distinct from strictly virtual or online education, C-BERT concentrates on instances of physical cross-border teaching and research activities.  These broad interests inform more specific inquiries into regulation, accountability, quality assurance, institutional legitimacy, patterns of growth, and institutional failures, among other topics.  C-BERT does not promote or represent any institutions, sectors, or national systems engaged in cross-border higher education.  Rather, the mission is to advance understanding of these issues through the discovery, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge. In turn, this research aims to inform institutional development as well as public policy and discussion.

C-BERT’s website is “a clearinghouse of scholarship and news about the movement of educational institutions across international borders.”  It is easy to use and a good resource for anyone interested in this issue (the “news” section of the site gathers news articles from around the world and has an excellent array of sources well beyond the usual higher education publications).   I have posted before (here) about the dynamics of American universities in the Middle East (in whatever form) and that issue, among others, is being addressed by C-BERT in a way that is scholarly, policy savvy and timely. Check their site on a regular basis for updated news, interesting research and upcoming events.

 

Author

James Ketterer

James Ketterer is Dean of International Studies at Bard College and Director of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program. He previously served as Egypt Country Director for AMIDEAST, based in Cairo and before that as Vice Chancellor for Policy & Planning and Deputy Provost at the State University of New York (SUNY). In 2007-2008 he served on the staff of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education. He previously served as Director of the SUNY Center for International Development.

Ketterer has extensive experience in technical assistance for democratization projects, international education, legislative development, elections, and policy analysis – with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. He has won and overseen projects funded by USAID, the Department for International Development (UK), the World Bank and the US State Department. He served on the National Security Council staff at the White House, as a policy analyst at the New York State Senate, a project officer with the Center for Legislative Development at the University at Albany, and as an international election specialist for the United Nations, the African-American Institute, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is currently a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association and has also held teaching positions in international politics at the New School for Social Research, Bard College, State University of New York at New Paltz, the University at Albany, Russell Sage College, and the College of Saint Rose.

Ketterer has lectured and written extensively on various issues for publications including the Washington Post, Middle East Report, the Washington Times, the Albany Times Union, and the Journal of Legislative Studies. He was a Boren National Security Educational Program Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and in Morocco, an International Graduate Rotary Scholar at the Bourguiba School of Languages in Tunisia, and studied Arabic at the King Fahd Advanced School of Translation in Morocco. He received his education at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Fordham University.

Areas of focus: Public Diplomacy; Middle East; Africa; US Foreign Policy

Contributor to: Global Engagement


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