U.S. higher education online courses and programs, as well as U.S. expertise in student recruitment practices, pedagogy, administration, course development and design, distance learning services, information and communications technology (ICT), and technology-mediated learning (TML) are in demand overseas, according to a report by Hezel Associates titled "Global eLearning Opportunity for U.S. Higher Education."

The full report, which sells for $1,475, cites numerous statistics, along with its own extensive research of 42 countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America, and concludes that there are highly feasible opportunities for U.S. organizations to take their education abroad. "If there is a need and the climate is right, these countries will want to import American education," says Hezel Associates President Dick Hezel.

Some of the data and other contributing factors that support Hezel’s conclusion are:

• Education receipts (including training) from transnational sales increased 10 percent in 2002 to more than $13 billion, according to the Department of Commerce.
   
• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported that the U.S. is the largest exporter of educational services among 11 countries surveyed for its 2004 report, "Trade in Educational Services."
   
• According to the institutional investment firm ThinkEquity, distance learning is slated to be the fastest-growing sub-sector of a $2.3 trillion global education market.
   
• ThinkEquity found that for every foreign student in the U.S., there are five students who would consume U.S. education online given access or resources. Hezel Associates estimates global online enrollments will grow at 12% CAGR over the next ten years.
   
• According to Miniwatts International, the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing the fastest rate of growth of Internet usage; among the 14 Asian countries featured in the Hezel Associates report, there are more than 250 million people with Internet access. In China alone, there are 87 million users, and that number continues to grow.
   
• An insufficient supply of higher education opportunities and a preference for foreign-obtained degrees is still common in many parts of the world, especially Asia, adds Hezel. According to the Institute for International Education, roughly 570,000 foreign students attend American colleges and universities each year. During the 2003-04 school year, the number of Indian students studying in the United States grew to nearly 80,000. India is not alone; South Korea sent more than 52,000 students to America the same year, while China sent approximately 61,000 students. However, Hezel cautions universities seeking to fill U.S. campus seats with foreign students. Recently published enrollment figures reveal that foreign enrollments in U.S. institutions declined by 2.4% in the 2003-04 academic year, in part because of U.S. Department of Homeland Security restrictions and tightening of visa requirements. So, the next place for possible foreign enrollments could be in online programs offered by U.S. institutions.
   
• With the passage of the Bologna Declaration in 1999, the European Union also looks to be an attractive market for U.S. higher education. "The Bologna Declaration is especially good for American universities wanting to enter the European market, because it mandates a bachelor’s/master’s system similar to the American system," says Hezel. Until 1999, European countries had widely varying diploma levels and requirements. The system now will be standardized in a fashion more closely aligned with the U.K. and the U.S. "This two-tier system — which will be implemented in full by 2010 — also encourages flexibility, provides more opportunities for lifelong learning, and opens the marketplace for students."
   
• The global market for online learning is currently estimated to exceed $215 billion in the next 20 years, and the U.S. currently educates one-third of all cross-border students.

For more information, see www.hezel.com.
 

"Prepare for the Global eCampus"

An interesting article that supports what Hezel says was published back in November 2001, by Donald Hirsch, Policy consultant to the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI). Titled "Prepare for the Global eCampus," Hirsch wrote about trends that are "converging to bring a global virtual education economy closer to reality." One such trend, according to Hirsch, is that "eLearning opens up new prospects of consumers who stay in their own countries and import a wide range of services from foreign suppliers. The US has placed the removal of trade restrictions in education on the table in the GATS negotiations on liberalisation of trade in services." To see the full article, visit http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/577/Prepare_for_the_global_e-campus.html
 

UMUC President Moving to International University

A May 5, 2005 news release from the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) announced that President Gerald Heeger is moving later this year to a new international educational initiative out of Texas, called Whitney International University.

Another news release, published at Inside Higher Ed, a relatively new online source for news, opinion and career advice and services for higher education, (founded in 2004), noted that Whitney International University "is being created by Best Associates, a Dallas-based merchant bank led by Randy Best" (see http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/06/whitney).