Yet despite burgeoning global opportunities, only a relatively small number of continuing education programs have internationalized their operations. Author John F. Ebersole, founder of the University of California s award-winning Berkeley Worldwide program and currently Associate Provost at Colorado State University, explains why higher education institutions must become active in global continuing education and where the most important opportunities lie. Contributions of international students to the economies of communities in which they study can be a powerful force in countering political or institutional criticism of a global education focus. When these latter categories are included, the California Office of Export Development estimates that international students make an economic contribution to California, alone, of over one billion dollars per year. This places education just behind tourism as an important source of revenues for the state.
International students can also make a substantial contribution to institutional income.
For institutions offering English language programs, Ebersole foresees an especially bright future. English has become the language of global business and technology with 80 percent of all the data in the world's computers in English. And with today's technologies, independent study is even more accessible to students. In fact, more than 400,000 students enroll in independent study courses each year. The new edition of this best-selling catalog published by Peterson's for the University Continuing Education Association in April 1998, explores over 140 accredited colleges and universities offering more than 13,000 correspondence courses.