Seeking Smart Growth: The Idea of a California Global Higher Education Hub

Abstract

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2012-0019 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2013; 5(1): 1–29 John Aubrey Douglass*, Richard Edelstein, and Cecile Haoreau Seeking Smart Growth: The Idea of a California Global Higher Education Hub Abstract: In 2010 international students generated more than $18.8 billion in net income into the US economy. California alone had nearly 100,000 international students with an economic impact of nearly $3.0 billion. In this paper, we outline a strategy for the San Francisco/Bay Area to double the number of international students enrolled in local colleges and universities in 10 years or less, gene­rating a total direct economic impact of an additional $1 billion a year into the regional economy. The US retains a huge market advantage for attracting foreign stu- dents. Within the US, the San Francisco/Bay Area is particularly attractive and could prevail as an extraordinary global talent magnet, if only policy-makers and higher education leaders better understood this and formulated strategies to tap the global demand for higher education. Ultimately, all globalism is local. We propose that one or all three of California’s major urban areas consider devel- oping the hub idea, and specifically outline how the San Francisco/Bay Area, a region with a group of stellar universities and colleges, could re-imagine itself as a Global Higher Education Hub. It could help meet national and regional economic needs, and assuage the thirst of a growing world population for high-quality ter- tiary education. Other parts of the world have already developed their version of the higher education hub idea. The major difference in our proposed Califor- nian version is that foreign competitors seek to attract foreign universities to help build enrollment and program capacity at home, and are funded almost solely by significant government subsidies. Our model builds capacity, but is focused on attracting the world’s talent and generating additional income to existing public and private colleges and universities. Doubling international enrollment from currently around 30,000 to 60,000 students in the Bay Area is an achievable goal, but would require expanding regional enrollment capacity as part of a strategy to ensure access to native students, and as part of a scheme to attract a new gen- eration of faculty and researchers to the Bay Area and Califo­r n ­ ia. International students would need to pay higher than the full cost of their education, helping to subsidize domestic students and college and university programs. The result would be a self-reinforcing knowledge ecosystem. At the same time, we recog- nize that California may not have the political will and interest to take on such a venture. But we sense that some regions in the US will eventually grasp the model and its advantages. Keywords: California; higher education system; international students; San Francisco/Bay Area.