DOES THE CURRENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION MODEL DISCOURAGE AUTHENTIC CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENCES?

Much scholarship has been conducted on the purpose of international education programs in the wake of globalization. Researchers agree that economic integration, mobility, and multiculturalism through postsecondary international programs create long-lasting insight and knowledge. Nevertheless, some analysis has suggested that universities form international partnerships with postsecondary institutions that have similar socioeconomic, cultural, and academic backgrounds as the home university, reducing the likelihood that low-income students at less selective universities will experience the cross-cultural and socioeconomic development international education claims to offer. This paper seeks to uncover the extent to which the current international educational model discourages authentic cross-cultural experiences. Using the Shanghai and the U.S. News and World Report ranking classification systems, this paper reveals which universities form partnerships with one another. These well-respected ranking systems contain robust data from 700 institutions about a number of variables such as academic selectivity, class size, faculty prominence, scientific publication, Nobel Laureates, and so on. A simple random sample was conducted for each dataset (N = 30, U.S. News; N = 60, Shanghai) in order to perform analysis on a comprehensive and representative sample. The data shows that schools partner with similarly ranked institutions, creating fewer opportunities for students at less-selective institutions to interact with students and cultures that are not similar in educational background or socioeconomic status (SES).