Economic Crisis: Effects on Study Abroad

Last fall, the Forum on Education Abroad conducted a survey on how the global economic crisis has affected study abroad participation in the US.

Here are the published results.

Generally, most reporting institutions saw negative effects on study abroad.  At the University of Missouri we have not had this experience. (For example, see this recent post.)

The Future of Higher Ed in Haiti

This report from Inside Higher Ed...

A new study of higher education in Haiti -- the first to examine the state of the system in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake -- documents debilitating problems that existed before the natural disaster and have only been compounded by the lost lives and destroyed infrastructure.
The devastation in Haiti was so widespread that it was immediately clear in the weeks after the earthquake that all levels of education suffered the deaths and injuries of students and instructors, and the collapse of classrooms. But a study issued Tuesday by Haiti's Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development -- a respected think tank known by its acronym INURED -- documents the extent of the damage, and of the problems that existed previously.

Find the full report here.

For an eyewitness account of the January 12 earthquake, and the first response to calls for assistance, please see this event on the MU campus later today.

Rural Haiti Struggles Following Earthquake

This Wednesday we're co-hosting a campus-wide lecture on the challenges of aid and reconstruction following the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Much of the world's attention today is on health care reform legislation in the US.  Though it no longer occupies headlines, Haiti still struggles in the aftermath of January disaster.

Three different stories come to mind.

First, this article describes how rural communities in Haiti struggle to absorb city populations displaced by the earthquake.

Second, yesterday's  60 Minutes on CBS followed the efforts (and grief) of a few Haitian volunteers.

These stories remind me of an excellent book by Tracy Kidder, called Mountains Beyond Mountains.  This book tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, his visionary work on health and health care in Haiti, which has developed into Partners in Health.  I highly recommend the book -- and Dr. Farmer's work.

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At Wednesday's campus lecture, I'm sure we'll hear even more challenging stories about the struggle in Haiti.

Chinese PhD Students Stay in the US

This account published in the University World News...

More than nine in every 10 students from China who gained a doctorate in the United States in 2002 were still in the country in 2007, the highest percentage from any foreign nation. This compares with 62% of all foreign-born PhD recipients for that year, says a new report.

The figures come from a study by Michael Finn at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in Tennessee, published in the National Science Foundation's Science and Engineering Indicators 2010.

Five-year stay rates for students from other countries include 81% for India and 77% for Russia. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of PhDs in either physical or life sciences remained for five years after earning their degrees compared with 51% of those with PhDs in agricultural sciences.

The study found that while most foreign PhD students planned to stay in the US after graduation, among the 2004-07 graduates, about half had accepted firm offers of employment.

Between 2000-03 and 2004-07, however, the percentage reporting definite plans to stay on decreased among those with science and engineering doctorates from all top five countries - China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada. For all but Taiwan, the increases in the number awarded doctorates more than offset the declines in the percentage staying.

Read the full story here.

US Immigration Reform: Green Cards for STEM Students

Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are proposing US immigration reform that includes new incentives for the best and brightest students around the world to pursue graduate degrees at US universities.

In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, they say...

Ending illegal immigration, however, cannot be the sole objective of reform. Developing a rational legal immigration system is essential to ensuring America's future economic prosperity.
Ensuring economic prosperity requires attracting the world's best and brightest. Our legislation would award green cards to immigrants who receive a PhD or master's degree in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. university. It makes no sense to educate the world's future inventors and entrepreneurs and then force them to leave when they are able to contribute to our economy.

This bipartisan proposal is far from realization.  However, it represents a very important opportunity for students, universities and US employers.

Secretary Clinton and St. Patrick

Few Americans in history are more highly regarded than Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.  For many years she's been a champion of peace and an advocate for children in the North and South.  According to her speech at the American Ireland Fund Gala last night, she's never visited Ireland on St. Patrick's Day.

Tonight, she is en route to Moscow -- but her entourage will stop in Shannon for an hour - so she can enjoy that distinction.

Take a minute to read her keynote address last night and her official proclamation from today.

Ushahidi - Emergency Response in Haiti

We are co-hosting an important campus lecture next week. Dr. Valerie Kaussen, Associate Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures, will discuss her recent experiences working on Haiti aid efforts following the devastating earthquake of January 12. She will address what she sees as some of the challenges and pitfalls of helping in Haiti's reconstruction efforts as well as share her thoughts on proposed models for Haitian post-earthquake development.

Recently, the New York Times reported on a new approach used for emergency response in Haiti.

A brief excerpt...

Ushahidi suggests a new paradigm in humanitarian work. The old paradigm was one-to-many: foreign journalists and aid workers jet in, report on a calamity and dispense aid with whatever data they have. The new paradigm is many-to-many-to-many: victims supply on-the-ground data; a self-organizing mob of global volunteers translates text messages and helps to orchestrate relief; journalists and aid workers use the data to target the response.

Ushahidi also represents a new frontier of innovation. Silicon Valley has been the reigning paradigm of innovation, with its universities, financiers, mentors, immigrants and robust patents. Ushahidi comes from another world, in which entrepreneurship is born of hardship and innovators focus on doing more with less, rather than on selling you new and improved stuff.
Because Ushahidi originated in crisis, no one tried to patent and monopolize it. Because Kenya is poor, with computers out of reach for many, Ushahidi made its system work on cellphones. Because Ushahidi had no venture-capital backing, it used open-source software and was thus free to let others remix its tool for new projects.

Ushahidi remixes have been used in India to monitor elections; in Africa to report medicine shortages; in the Middle East to collect reports of wartime violence; and in Washington, D.C., where The Washington Post partnered to build a site to map road blockages and the location of available snowplows and blowers.

Think about that. The capital of the sole superpower is deluged with snow, and to whom does its local newspaper turn to help dig out? Kenya.


With every new application, Ushahidi is quietly transforming the notion of bearing witness in tragedy. For a very long time, this was done first by journalists in real time, next by victim/writers like Anne Frank and, finally, by historians. But in this instantaneous age, this kind of testimony confronts a more immediate kind: one of aggregate, average, good-enough truths.