ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a narrower slice of the wider international enthusiasm for American educational cachet. From the standpoint of American higher education and its global outreach, the crucial development centers on various new efforts at direct outreach, from individual institutions, to connect with global audiences and launch a growing array of collaborations with regional governments and programs. Shared degree programs, collaborative research ventures at institutional as well as faculty-to-faculty levels, and the effort to set up American operations directly abroad shape an increasingly varied and ambitious agenda. Sponsorship of educational "free zones," most notably in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates but prospectively in South Korea as well, testifies to the link between educational outreach, commercial exchange, and global interaction more generally. Campuses or programs designed primarily for foreigners can nevertheless provide locations for American visitors, studying the same subject areas as the international students or using the occasion for work on regional topics and language.
