[milken] Turning education into a global mill

I’m at a session called “Changing Post-Secondary Education to Meet the Needs of a Global Economy” with Greg Cappelli of Credit Suisse, Edward Guiliano, Pres of the NY Institute of Tech; Ted Sanders, chairman of the Cardean Learning Group; moderated by Ted Mitchell, CEO of New Schools Venture Fund. (As Liz points out, the room is full of people in black suits…including her!)

Overall: The panel said stuff everyone in the room already knows: Americans don’t know nuthin’ about them furren countries. And China is so cool! Sorry, but I don’t know anything about this topic and I still didn’t learn anything.

Greg talks about education in China. China’s GDP is growing rapidly, he says. Over 10% of total world foreign direct investment goes into China and Hong Kong. Plus, he points out that there are a heck of a lot of Chinese folks. (I missed the actual number.) They’re spending a lot on education. The population is enthusiastic because getting a degree vastly increases one’s income.

Ted says that the demand of higher eductiona will exceed capacity in many countries as well as in some states in the USA. People studying outside their country will go from 1.2M now to 7+M in 2025. So, the biggest opportunities in higher ed will take place outside the US.

Edward presents a list of dismal statistics about how stupid Americans are about the rest of the world. China is becoming the largest English-speaking nation in the world, and it’s doing it through policy. We need to be teaching our kids a second language when they’re young. We should be enticing more international students here.

Ted: The educational innovators will not be found at the Harvards and Sanfords. It won’t be at the public universities because they won’t spend tax dollars. We need to think global but serve local populations. We need consortia.

[First The World is Flat reference at 32 minutes in.]

Ted: “There are 10,000 Chinese students studying in British Columbia because they can’t get into the US.” [Maybe they landed there and had the good sense not to leave.]

Q: Where will the next generation of faculty come from?
A: (Ted) They won’t be Americans. We graduated 50,000 engineers last year while China graduated 300,000 engineers.

Q: What’s in place to help people get jobs, etc. People are still using resumes.
A: Nothing in K-12.

[Liz tells me I may have misidentified the speakers. Sorry.] [Tags: milken education]

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