The peer-reviewed and psychometrically validated Test of Scientific Literacy Skills developed by Gormally et al. was used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a general education natural science program. By comparing the scores of students who had already taken at least one course in this area with the scores of those who had not, and by…

Critical reflection on the course of the Western university system has never been more important than at the juncture of its exportation around the world. The importation of Western academic institutions in the modernizing states of the Muslim world is fraught with contradictions, responding to the desire to craft a citizenship recognizable to the…

In this article, the author looks at several popular international relations textbooks in light of his experience teaching students in the Middle East. He finds that, for their many strengths, most of the books lack some key features that would make them more useful for students abroad.

Who benefits from the rapid development of transnational education institutions? Despite concerns of academic capitalism or neocolonial imperialism, both the sending institutions and the host countries can benefit from these educational initiatives. I suggest that American liberal education is uniquely placed to combine local and foreign expertise…

Qatar can afford to purchase pretty much anything--including top-quality American university education. However, given the vast differences in culture, dress, religion, and social mores, along with youth's global unemployment rates and their hankering for all things technological, does it make sense for Qatar to import a course in acting?…

The international branch campus is a relatively new but growing phenomenon that raises many questions of values, pedagogy, and culture and is also receiving increasing scrutiny. What an international branch campus imports unchanged from its home country, in terms of curriculum, student services, and culture, and what it adapts to local populations…

Western pedagogy and its preconceived notions of the non-Western world can limit scholars from developing accurate understandings of culturally different societies. Western academics teaching at foreign and Western institutions abroad must be mindful of how ingrained and subconscious Orientalist thinking can distort and hinder their interactions…

Examining the growth, incentives, and progress of overseas campuses of major American educational institutions is an important academic pursuit. To have a complete picture, one must also consider the impact these branch campuses are having on the lives of their students. The Northwestern University in Qatar's journalism program was invited to…

The lingua franca promoted at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar belongs to few as a first language. The implementation of an English-medium curriculum at Qatar's only medical school has proved a double-edged sword. Despite English being deployed out of necessity as part of a strategy geared to improve health care provision and medical…

This article explores some of the components of innovation that U.S. universities abroad can seize, or in some cases have seized, upon to maximize information flow, productivity, and idea generation at their overseas institutions. Using research in psychology, education, economics, and other fields, the article identifies the following as among…

The author looks at the traditional lofty goals set for students in study abroad programs in the United States, such as enhancing students' intercultural skills and helping them become global citizens. But he finds that students at Northwestern University in Qatar are already multiethnic and multicultural and speak at least two languages.…

Most students enter Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) poorly prepared to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of an American-style education grounded in the liberal arts owing to their inadequate preparation in grade school. NU-Q's mission is to produce graduates who will be leaders and innovators in the media industry and…

This article is critical of the implementation of massive open online courses (MOOCs) by institutions seeking the deep student learning often found in general education learning outcomes. Customized student interaction with an expert in the field is rendered impossible by the scale of mooc enrollment. Concerns are also raised about the economic…

Hyperspecialization in the disciplines and the rewards for that combined with the growing mantra for first job preparation are double threats to liberal teaching and learning. Given that circumstance, the sorts of synthetic lecture classes in the humanities and social sciences that once provided the foundations of liberal learning have evaporated.…

Traditional approaches to civic engagement have been marginalized and have had little impact on the core curriculum. "Critical civic literacy" is an alternative curricular approach to civic engagement that explicitly moves departments, disciplines, and degree programs to examine issues of social responsibility and social justice from the…