Interview Report

Interview Participant Information:

Gender: Male, age 22

Career: 5th year student at UGA majoring in Communications

Relationship: Roommate

Views on Education: Unknown but he is a noted critic of Georgia's "No Child Left Behind" law

Question 1: Do you think the increase in student mobility (i.e. studying abroad) ultimately helps the disparity issue currently plaguing the global education system? Why or why not?

Response: Students who choose to study abroad or follow a similar path are contributing to the disparity issue by furthering the narrative that the United States and Europe are the only places in which higher education is seen as sought after and valuable. If students were to remain in their home countries and get an education there, we could slowly, but surely, decrease the disparity of the global education system. Granted, this would not be an absolute solution, but rather a step in the right direction.

Question 2: Do you view higher education as a public good-benefiting society through educating citizens, improving human capital and boosting economic development-or as a private good-benefiting individuals with the implication that academic institutions and their students should pay a significant part of the costs?

Response: I stand firm in the belief that education, and higher education specifically, is not a public good. I believe that while it does benefit society through educating citizens, it is something that should be seen as a private good. I believe that students should have to pay for their education, in order to benefit themselves and the institution through the money provided. The money students put towards education will allow for them to have access to greater resources while simultaneously putting no deficit on the taxpayers and the government.

Question 3: Keeping in mind the fact that developing countries lag far behind in higher education participation rates, do you foresee a strategy that can reverse this trend and act as an incentive for young men and women in these countries to pursue higher education? Also, keep in mind that subsistence agriculture is a way of life for many inhabitants of developing nations and attending post-secondary school means not being able to help your family make ends meet in that regard.

Response: I believe that hypothetically, there are strategies that can be put in place to reverse this trend in these countries. However, the current culture and economy of those nations is in a place that makes it near impossible for that trend to be reversed, not only presently but also in the foreseeable future. With that in mind, the idea that these nations could have a higher participation rate in higher education is simply Utopian and unrealistic, especially given the way the governments of those nations run. I think world organizations should, hypothetically, set out to change this trend, but the obligation is on those nations and their citizens alone.