New Comparative Education Course at Northwestern University:
Invitation for Comments

This summer, Northwestern University offered a new comparative education course. The graduate level elective, "MS ED 451 Comparative Higher Education: The Impact of Globalization" was offered through the Master of Science in Education Program at the School of Education and Social Policy. The creator and instructor of the course was Dr. Bernhard T. Streitwieser (Columbia University, 2000), the Associate Director of Northwestern's Study Abroad Office. The introductory course was geared toward graduate students preparing for careers as university teachers, administrators, and educational policy makers and looked at how higher education systems in  a selection of other countries and regions have confronted the challenges of globalization over the past decade. Particular focus was on the European Community, India and China, but other countries were also analyzed through weekly student country study presentations. Issues examined included internationalization; massification; scholar and student exchange; disparities in access, equity, accountability; reform movements and management challenges; and the implications of pending trade agreements on the exchange of educational goods and services. Guest speakers were also invited from Germany, China, Argentina, India, Serbia, Nigeria & Ghana, and the Russian Federation. The reading consisted of Philip Altbachs 1998 Comparative Higher Education: Knowledge, the University, and Development (Ablex Publisers) and a reader with selections from the 1998 ASHE Reader Series Comparative Education, articles in higher education and comparative education journals, and chapters in the 2005 Forest and Altbach International Handbook of Higher Education, Volumes I and II (Springer). Dr. Streitwieser would be interested in getting in touch with anyone who is interested in discussing the content of the course and planned changes for the next iteration of the course.

Contact information:

Bernhard T. Streitwieser, Ph.D.
Associate Director

Study Abroad Office

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60201
b-streitwieser@northwestern.edu