The liberal arts and the civic mission of higher education are under attack in this time of economic crisis and political polarization. But we can proudly and forthrightly make the case for the civic mission of higher education. The purpose of the liberal arts is to prepare people for responsible citizenship, and the best forms of civic engagement…

This study is grounded in the theoretical and conceptual frameworks that postulate diversity and collegiate experiences as triggers for the cognitive disequilibrium that fosters critical thinking (CT). With the assumption that CT is both a general and a discipline-specific facility, this longitudinal, single-institution study of 447 students…

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…

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…

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…

The United Arab Emirates is developing higher education institutions that will contribute to an educational sector providing premium degree programs. There was a belief that the recognition and achievements these institutions attained over decades in their native land would be transferable in the implementation of international branch campuses.…

Higher education institutions today are increasingly considered to be "means," serving as suppliers for employers, not "ends" that address "wicked" problems. This disregards their role in the generational succession of civil societies. Massive open online courses can strengthen higher education institutions by working…

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…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs ) are much less in the news today--but that does not mean that they are no longer important. Rather, their importance now derives from what they demonstrated about the fractured nature of college curricula. Almost all MOOCs were one-offs--a single instructor/performer and a well-bounded subject. MOOCs almost…

The component of the baccalaureate degree referred to as general education is at risk. General education is losing traction in the curriculum, as calls for graduate students on a faster time schedule and a desire to produce readily employable graduates head the list of higher education objectives. Little attention is paid to how students come to…

We in higher education have allowed the balance of the private and public purposes of liberal education to become skewed in our angst over fully embracing a central role in restoring prosperity and preparing our increasingly diverse population for the evolving responsibility of mending our fraying democracy. As we consider how best to reshape…

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.…