Over the last decade there has been a move to formalising what is expected of our graduates

http://www.eait.uq.edu.au/graduate-attributes

I think much of the higher education strategy has to be aimed at ensuring alignment between teaching, learning and assessment such that these attributes can be realised in the process of undertaking a higher degree.

Globalization of institutions does not imply that teaching content is also globalized - e.g., a university in India might admit students from Europe and China, but still teach content that is India-specific , e.g. 'Problems and prospects of the Indian economy', alongside with classical, globalized content, e.g. 'Principles of Economics'.

In my view, as we also acknowledge, the world become "one village" through especially the internet. Once considered "very far", "foreign", "west" or "east", "oriental" or "occidental" is no longer the case. Every corners of the world now can be "reached", explored, "seen", etc. This, of course make us, professionally become one, because this has made us at least know what have been considered as "good-practices" in global world that made us, in local context, following these ideas or practices. Medical doctors in resource-limited settings, for example, although they face medical problems that are very specific in their area, but, they have to think, and practice as their other colleagues from other regions/countries would do.

First of all: is global-local (only) a contradiction? In an "increasingly globalized world" as you call it yourself, it is in any case necessary that higher education adjust to that. But, and maybe that is your question / worry: untill what extent do we globalize education, or (the other way round) untill what extent does higher education has to stay local?

A bad example: universities with local non English speaking students only, lecturing in the English language.

A good example: universities teaching in English for groups of students of various nationalities.

Dear Willem,

you put your finger on the spot if I may say. In the region where I live, universities use English as a means of teaching. The dominant majority of students are from other linguistic backgrounds mainly Arab speaking. a good proportion struggle with the language before even addressing the topics of their specialties... This is the dilemma of willing to be globalized in such contexts.

More than the language, most of the topics are addressed based on "international" textbooks and case studies, simply because research on local cases is still to be developed. There are some courses related to the context, they stay limited in number and specialization. So if I follow your categorization, is this situation is among the bad examples of globalization in higher education? How should we address it?

Dear Abraham,

I agree on your arguments, however, even in the specific case of Medicine there is a need and room to profess it in a local context and with local resources. Homeopathy or traditional medicine that is specific in each region should be taught at the level of universities and applied in hospitals and medical research. Don't you think so?

Dear Naima,

Thanks for your prompt response to my argument. Yes, indeed I agree with your views on utilization of local wisdom for example our herbal or traditional medicine. But, still I found out, that local wisdom has to be enriched with "global wisdom" in this case, we have to scrutinize which one of these herbal medicine are really clinically proven and has minimum side effects. In order to prove this, we have to use modern approach (e.c. scientifically-sound research methods, statistics, data management, etc.). Otherwise, the global world always considers our herbal medicine as "something from antique world" ... :-)

We have to carry our herbal medicine which is the fruit of local wisdom to the next level of "evidence" in order to be recognized in the global world.

To add a little bit...

China and India, with regards to bring their traditional medicine into global world has been quite advanced by applying modern techniques and standards and by publishing the results in respective peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, once known as traditional and local wisdom has been transferred into global wisdom. In our Faculty Medicine, we have been doing this effort by offering the medical students electively to take a herbal medicine course prior their clinical internship, just to give them some insights on our traditional medicine.

Some interesting ideas here already. I particularly appreciate Uzma tufail-hanif's mention of the importance/usefulness of graduate attributes at the organization/program level, and how this should be constructively aligned in outcomes, teaching/learning, and assessment (see Biggs for more about constructive alignment). I also agree with Abraham Simatupang that international insights can enrich local wisdom, even if things aren't directly transferable.

How are such ingredients able (are they?) to form professionals capable of practicing their job in local contexts, specifically for higher education in architecture?

No time to go into all three but here is a quick take on imported curricula which builds on what has been said already:

Local universities don't always have the resources for development of the scholarship of teaching and learning (including grants), teaching/learning centers, industry collaboration such as tracer studies, etc. Hence, by considering curricular advances in better funded universities they can adopt topics and practices which have been pioneered at other schools but adapted for the local context. Another benefit of importing international curricula, when considering graduate attributes, as that a local university can theoretically produce internationally desirable graduates without the expense of conducting the research into industry trends and needs.

What is also interesting to consider that we do not have to "copy" or follow completely what, for instance, Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford do, in order to be recognized as world class university. What I think important is, we still have our local-context which have been enriched with global touch that made the local context is more interesting and the transfer-of-knowledge not only goes from world-class universities (like Harvard, Oxford, etc) to us, but also from our resource-limited universities to them. That I think will, again, enrich the society, and we don't have to be scared of "brain-drain".

I don't know that I would use the phrase "form professionals." In higher education, we present the information and students construct their own meaning from it. In that light, the student is forming his/her own professional abilities. Because the local is so closely tied to the global, there should be increasing crossover contexts in which theses students can hone their skills. Having working professionals as instructors is an excellent way to not only bring information into the educational system, but also to give a real-world take on what it is like to be a professional in your field of study. Increasingly, employers are looking for problem-solvers and critical thinkers, not just people who received all A's. See http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/kay/2011-05-30-skills-employers-want-part-ii_N.htm http://www.naceweb.org/press/releases/what-employers-want-to-see-on-a-resume.aspx

Architects need to be adaptable people! One year they are designing bungalows, the next year mosques.This is why a generic education is more important than learning how to use ACAD.

I agree with Ian Kennedy mentioning the importance of generic education. Generic education provides transferable and employability competencies that increase relevance and flexibility in local and global labor industry. Professionals develop generic competencies through lifelong learning. . Professionals develop their own career trajectory through non-degree or degree graduate education.

The expression "globalized higher education systems" is part of the language of globalization, that encourage policies, regulations, and similar forms of goverrnance of what can be called "the global market of higher education (HE)". One of the key questions of this "globalization" is that HE has become the space for the reproduction of generic models able to produce generic professionals. The generic language of training has weaken the boundaries between local contexts and global contexts, and promoted generic skills and competences relevant to generic workplaces: competence has become the common language which supports the new basis for the culture of the new professionals (flexible, generic). This, in turn, has eroded not only the relevance of academic knowledge, relevant to specific national contexts, but the identity of national HE systems which now must respond to global educational policies of the global knowledge economy.