Why Does the United States Need an International Education Policy?
Globalization expands the nations need for international competence. To maintain U.S. security, well being, and global economic leadership, we need to increase the depth and variety of international expertise of Americans in government, business, education, the media, and other fields. While the Internet dramatically increases opportunities for global collaboration, technology alone cannot substitute for the expertise developed through serious study and substantive international experience. In addition to increasing the global awareness of Americans, our international education interests also encompass the presence of foreign students in the United States. In the 1998-99 academic year, nearly 500,000 international students studied in the United States at the post-secondary level. They and their dependents spent more than $11 billion on tuition, fees, and living expenses in U.S. higher-education institutions and communities, making international education the fifth-largest U.S. service-
