Twenty-seven representatives from Australia, Canada, China, Europe and the United States met in Banff, Alberta, Canada, in late August, to lay benchmarks for better practices in graduate education. The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and the government of the Canadian province of Alberta took the lead on this major initiative, which, if carried forward, could lead to the establishment of best practices in graduate education globally.
Nine principles were adopted at Banff to guide the path of improved graduate education (see box). Coming in the wake of discussions last year at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., on the Bologna process and the three-year European degrees, the Banff principles are very encouraging.
Of the nine principles adopted at Banff, I believe that two in particular are most important. The first principle is, “Respect and learn from the differences in programs and their modes of delivery directed towards our common goal.”
There is definitely a need to understand, appreciate and accept the differences in academic programs around the world and to acknowledge that different is not better or worse than the U.S. system. Perhaps U.S. institutions will now look carefully, with a new perspective, at three-year degrees from elsewhere besides Europe when reviewing international applications for graduate studies in order to avoid a discriminatory approach.
The other principle states, “Establish an inclusive global platform for discussion of best practices in graduate education.”
An inclusive global platform needs to involve the major participants in graduate education globally. I would recommend that something similar to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which the Bologna process aims to create, be considered for Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, the Middle East, South America, the Pacific region and the United States. It could be called the Global Higher Education Area (GHEA). While the EHEA is concentrating on developing standardization of the educational systems within Europe, the GHEA could go further and respond to the challenges of the 21st century to ensure that access to higher education globally is not constrained by whether non-U.S. systems are similar to the U.S. system but whether these are qualitatively on par with the U.S. system of graduate education. The purpose of the GHEA would be to inform, understand, appreciate and accept the differences that exist in the educational systems globally so that there is a standardized and smooth exchange of students across countries.
