Opening Opportunities in International Higher Education

By Joan Dassin. Access to higher education remains severely restricted throughout the developing world. Even though higher-education enrollments have tripled and even quadrupled in some regions, the gross enrollment ratio for the developing world population ages 20 to 24 is still half or even less than that of comparable participation rates in North America and Europe. From sub-Saharan Africa to South Asia and Latin America, poverty, gender, race, ethnicity, and rural origins all determine unequal access to education.
Those factors also limit participation and success. In Latin America, for example, the completion rate for higher education among indigenous people living in rural areas is half of 1 percent, one-tenth the rate for nonindigenous people. For disadvantaged groups in these societies, opportunities to study internationally are even more limited, since student mobility in general remains a privilege for those who can afford it or for the select few who are granted government or private scholarships.
Governments, higher-education institutions, aid agencies, and private foundations can all play a role in fixing these inequalities. Yet relatively few practical examples exist of how more equitable access and successful participation in higher education can be achieved.
The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program, better known as IFP, is one such example. Under IFP, more than 4,330 fellows from Russia and 21 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East have received support for master's and doctoral studies in fields ranging from social and environmental science to the arts. The fellowships can be used worldwide so that talented candidates are not excluded because of deficiencies in English—a major impediment to international study.
After a decade of selections, the population of fellows is 50 percent female; more than two-thirds of fellowship recipients come from outside of major urban areas. Religious or ethnic minorities constitute the majority of fellows in many countries. For the first time, a major scholarship program has been open to people with disabilities, many of them passionate advocates for disability rights.
The IFP fellows achieve academic results that show they can perform as well as their more privileged counterparts. Virtually all fellows are accepted to full-time master's, doctoral, or similar postgraduate programs in competitive universities in Britain, continental Europe, the United States, and other regions. Fully 98 percent of more than 3,000 alumni have successfully completed their fellowships, and more than 93 percent have earned advanced degrees. They also remain true to their social-justice commitment. The International Fellowships Program does not contribute to "brain drain." On the contrary, the vast majority of the alumni have returned home, where they utilize their new knowledge for the betterment of the most vulnerable groups in their societies. Based on its decade-long, global experience, the fellowships program provides some useful lessons for universities seeking to diversify their international-student bodies.
First, there is no "one size fits all" definition of underrepresented groups. Independent, credible professionals with deep knowledge of local conditions must participate in recruitment and selection; it cannot be done from afar. IFP worked with local nonprofit organizations, including research and teaching institutions, educational exchange organizations, and nongovernmental organizations active in health, education, and human rights. All selections were made in the specified countries, and selection panels were composed of independent scholars and representatives of civil-society organizations. These were key factors in recruiting women and in reaching candidates from minority ethnic groups and candidates from remote regions, and also in creating transparent and accountable selection processes.
Second, prior academic achievement is not the sole predictor of future academic success.
The usual criterion for international scholarships—selecting the "best and brightest" on the basis of a candidate's academic record—is insufficient. The program looks for indicators of intellectual and personal achievement in other realms—independent publications, whether candidates have founded organizations, or if they have shown extraordinary motivation and success in overcoming obstacles to further their education. Leadership capacity and social commitment are as important as academic performance. This holistic approach to selecting fellows is critical for identifying academic talent and potential among nontraditional international students.
That applies to university admissions, too. While the debate pitting diversity against academic standards has persisted for decades in the United States, it has focused primarily on domestic undergraduate students. IFP has shown that diversity can be achieved among international students at the graduate level, provided that the university is willing to develop flexible admissions procedures, at least in some cases. For example, standardized test scores may be added to a student's file after the individual has benefited from additional English practice, rather than be required at the outset. Alternatively, a student may be granted a conditional admission with the understanding that a regular admission will follow if he or she achieves a certain level of English proficiency.
We have seen other effective strategies as well. At the University of Texas at Austin, which has hosted more than 60 IFP fellows, the campus's international-student office plays a crucial role in presenting candidates to individual departments, supplying details about the students' backgrounds and the highly competitive fellowship-selection process. At Brandeis, where the sustainable international-development program at the Heller School for Social Policy has hosted nearly 150 IFP fellows, it has learned from accommodating a large group how to select fellows who are most likely to succeed in mastering its rigorous academic curriculum.
Third, universities can successfully design specific strategies and policies to help international students from underrepresented groups develop their full intellectual potential. This is especially critical for older students who have been out of academic institutions for some time. While rich in real-world knowledge and experience, those students are unlikely to be familiar with computer-based research techniques and inadequately prepared for academic writing, even in their own languages. In all regions, students from underrepresented groups tend to lack basic quantitative skills that are critical for economics and social-science disciplines. From a practical perspective, they may lack access to updated methodologies and the bibliography they need to prepare a statement of objectives or preliminary research proposal—required for many graduate-school applications.
Taking advantage of the lag time between selection and the start of academic programs, the International Fellowships Program has supported dozens of pre-enrollment training programs in the fellows' home countries. Typically offered by local universities or training institutes, these courses can be tailored to individual needs. One innovative example is a modular course first developed by a Chilean university that offers placement assistance and training in computer skills, academic writing in Spanish, and English for reading comprehension via an online platform for recently selected fellows based in Chile and Peru. The course proved so effective that it is now used to prepare students to apply to local universities in Chile.
Even with such pre-enrollment preparation, about one-third of IFP fellows require additional English and skills training at their host universities. In several instances, universities have developed "bridging programs" for the fellows that have then served other nontraditional students. One of the most successful is based at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, which has accepted nearly 170 IFP fellows, mostly from Asia. In addition to courses in English, the program has provided academic counseling for the fellows. This specialized assistance allows the fellows to ease into their full-time academic programs as their skill levels improve.
Equally important, the International Fellowships Program has learned that international students benefit from multiple support systems to help them deal with logistical, cultural, and health issues. This need can be particularly acute for students from traditional societies who have no financial cushion. The program's local partner organizations; campus-based health and student-welfare services; and the Institute of International Education, the British Council, and Nuffic (Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education) have all provided monitoring and support services to fellows. The vast majority of fellows are amazingly adaptable and resilient, but it is critical to recognize that their academic success depends on their personal health and welfare.
The main lesson of the International Fellowships Program is that equitable access and successful participation in international higher education are compatible, necessary, and achievable goals. While advocating for "open door" policies to increase flows of international students to the United States and other destinations, the higher-education community should take a much stronger role in diversifying its international-student bodies and offering more opportunities to students from disadvantaged groups. If these individuals, in turn, are deeply committed to improving conditions in their own countries, higher education will fulfill its potential to create equity, cohesion, and broader participation in all societies.
Joan Dassin is executive director of the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program.