How do you see such exchange programs (High school and University level study, Research, etc.) as to influence the faith of the international economic and political stability? What will be the countries that need such practice the most? What areas of study / research do you think it will be more efficient? Do you see any countries that may be reluctant to such activity? Any past personal experiences are welcomed and useful if you share with us here. Please do not forget to vote member's comments / posts / participation.
Some of the today's students will be the leaders of tomorrow. A better understanding of cultures, today friendship among young students leads to contacts and political agreements tomorrow, continuous and profound cultural exchange, commercial and economic trade. Less conflicts.
I understand such programs are there already at GOVT to GOVT level. But perhaps such initiatives have not delivered what was expected. However, I feel that such student/teach exchange programs should be at institutional level, where the selection of student/teacher could be finalised jointly at their level only. Such arrangement could induce fresh initiatives towards inter-institutional/inter-country social/cultural/scientific/technological academic awareness/collaborations/exchanges. I think this model work.
exchange programs not only enhance education quality but it will also increase cross cultural and social activities. Such programs are really beneficial for students coming from underdeveloped countries who are exposed to not only high quality studies but also to different world in sense of thinking and approach to understand society & people. Having friends across the globe also increases the mutual understanding of different cultures.
I myself am organizing a Dual Degree Master program between a South Korean and a German university and further on, support a student exchange program joining universities (IS faculties) from almost 20 countries. From my humble experience, German students who come back from those exchanges (particularly when the countries were culturally very different, such as India or Korea) have a much widened cultural horizon (I hope one can say this in English ... it's rather a German term), e.g., their level of acceptance regarding differences from what they know is noticeable expanded. In consequence they do not understand differences as barriers or even a threat (what we are used to do and do always is the best way ...) but much more as something "normal" and/or a challenge (positive) as soon as they need to deal with the differences.
Back to your question, I doubt, international programs have a direct effect "to influence the faith of the international economic and political stability" but as Adrian already implied, it is a long-term change/investment because we form the future humans (I disagree we only should care for leaders or managers ... I am sure this is not what Adrian wanted to say). However, thinking about efficiency in this context seems to be rather ignorant from my perspective: From my feeling, developing cultural competency and efficiency anyways do not match with each other, because unless cultural competency is developed slowly or quick, it will help improving tolerance and cooperation.
Where we can talk about is effectivity: which intercultural activities are effective in order to help students developing cultural competence? Here I can only talk about my own experiences from various European and International projects: Simple digital contacts via e-Mail and video conference seem not really to help overcoming ignorance or prejudices but to some extent, even raise such in target-oriented scenarios. Before I lived in South Korea, I just realized what is not possible (with Korean partners), where restrictions are, and which rules I have to follow in order to successfully cooperate. To make it short, there have been restrictions, misunderstandings, and work was more complicated and time consuming than doing it alone. After I lived there for a year (and yes, there was a culture shock which took me three months to overcome), still, there were restrictions, misunderstandings, and work was more complicated than doing it alone ... but this was kind of "normal" (part of the setting) and including the different perspectives and ways of life was crucial for the quality of outcomes. International e-mail contacts fostered by schools may be something different in this context, because here, not the jointly produced outcomes are focused but the cultural exchange.
... my five cents
I am about to finish a research project on high school exchange programs in Germany. These are quite popular here, about 20,000 students each year go from German high schools to other countries, mostly USA, AUS, CAN, GB, France, NZ and Spain.
Different studies point out that besides the language, personal skills as well as social skills are furthered, especially intercultural competency.
In my research (online survey with about 3,000 participants, 30 intensive qualitative interviews), I focused on the further mobility of the former participants, with interesting results: nearly 80% of former exchange students stay abroad again for a period of longer than six weeks.
I see it as a part of transnationalization of society: for certain social groups (mainly well-educated middle and upper class), it is becoming a normal option to go abroad, often related to education. This leads to a society that is more connected with other countries, or more "transnationalized" by physical mobility, communication and friendship/family ties of its members.
If anyone is interested, Ill be glad to discuss this or to give more information on my research. There will be an article published in "Childrens Geographies" at the end of the year, Ill link it as soon as its out.
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