NY Times: English as Language of Global Education

[asteriskea]

<p>Byline Paris</p>

<p>

…In the shifting universe of global academia, English is becoming as commonplace as creeping ivy and mortarboards. In the last five years, the world?s top business schools and universities have been pushing to make English the teaching tongue in a calculated strategy to raise revenues by attracting more international students and as a way to respond to globalization.</p>

<p>Business universities are driving the trend, partly because changes in international accreditation standards in the late 1990s required them to include English-language components. But English is also spreading to the undergraduate level, with some South Korean universities offering up to 30 percent of their courses in the language. The former president of Korea University in Seoul sought to raise that share to 60 percent, but ultimately was not re-elected to his post in December.</p>

<p>In Madrid, business students can take their admissions test in English for the elite Instituto de Empresa and enroll in core courses for a master?s degree in business administration in the same language. The Lille School of Management in France stopped considering English a foreign language in 1999, and now half the postgraduate programs are taught in English to accommodate a rising number of international students.</p>

<p>Over the last three years, the number of master?s programs offered in English at universities with another host language has more than doubled, to 3,300 programs at 1,700 universities, according to David A. Wilson, chief executive of the Graduate Management Admission Council, an international organization of leading business schools that is based in McLean, Va. …</p>

<p>?The French market for local students is not unlimited,? said Christophe N. Bredillet, the associate dean for the Lille School of Management?s M.B.A. and postgraduate programs. ?Revenue is very important, and in order to provide good services, we need to cover our expenses for the library and research journals. We need to cover all these things with a bigger number of students so it?s quite important to attract international students.?..</p>

<p>?Internationally, the competition is everywhere,? Dr. Bredillet said. ?For a master?s in management, I?m competing with George Washington University. I?m competing with some programs in Germany, Norway and the U.K. That?s why we?re delivering the curriculum in English.?

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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/education/11english.html?_r=1&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/education/11english.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[Logos]

<p>What about Latin? ;)</p>

[asteriskea]

<p>Well, after all, Esperanto tanked…</p>

<p>

Santiago Iniguez de Ozo?o, dean of the Instituto de Empresa, argues that the trend is a natural consequence of globalization, with English functioning as Latin did in the 13th century as the lingua franca most used by universities.

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<p>

Officials at Ewha Womans University in Seoul are also aware that they face a difficult task at the first stage of their Global 2010 project, which will require new students to take four classes in English, two under the tutelage of native English-speaking professors. The 120-year-old university has embarked on a hiring spree to attract 50 foreign professors.

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