Students contact us from time to time inquiring about direction for their educational experience. Today, a student called for some input after she had met with some recruiters for MBA programs in DC. She was disgruntled to discover that many of today’s MBA programs include an overseas component. How is a working adult supposed to manage a job and an overseas component to their education?
This presents an interesting dilemma for educators. It speaks volumes about the direction the American economy is heading. It may be a very difficult reality for many of us to face in the near future. It also presents the issue of how do we change our teaching styles in a changing global economy and still meet the needs of our students.
Many educators have heard for years that they needed to do a better job of accommodating the working students. Now, colleges are literally shipping our best and our brightest overseas when we need them more than ever here at home.
The job market is tight. Students admitted to an MBA program are often very successful in their chosen professions. The program is a means of advancing in their career, but will an employer really advance you if you are away for several months at a time or even a more complex split schedule of six separate two week trips outside of your home city to a foreign location.
However, if we do not prepare our students to compete in a global changing economy, then we have done an injustice as educators by not preparing them to compete in the future. China has over-taken all the major super powers economically, except the United States. Many people believe the overseas component helps our students compete in a changing global economy.
Would we better serve the country by teaching students to be focused on rebuilding the economy here in the United States? Have we given up on our country? Or is our educational system in such a shambles that we can no longer produce students who can compete without shipping them off to other countries?
The debate on this continues to heat up as the United States makes it tougher to get student visas; while other countries are opening their arms to our students. If a foreign students visa runs out they must scramble to find a company who will sponsor them in staying in the United States. If they cannot, then the education they got here in the United States goes back to their home country with them. As for our students studying overseas, well many of them go on to have successful careers in the countries where they studied; so it is a win for other countries and a major loss for our US economy. They get our students and their students. So who is left here in the United States?
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