[Questions] To all Higher Education Students and Future Students

What are your motives of going to higher education program? *

If any, what are your short term goals and what are you long term goals by engaging in a higher education program?

* Is it more economic growth and vocational motives (e.g.
to give bigger chances of getting the desired job with high salary, etc) or more
on personal development motives (e.g. development of critical thinking,
self-evaluations, etc) ?

Just want to know what really matters to you the more. Is it economic reason or personal development?

I, myself, found it difficult to answer this question. What about you?

Democratization

"Republic of Indonesia now found himself in new phase of creating democratic society."

This is often heard form delegations or representatives of Indonesia’s allied countries when visiting this tropical country.

John Adams mentioned that in order to create a socially democratic communities it requires number of well educated people with three combining characteristics: virtue (good quality in morality), knowledge, and wisdom (cited in Walker, 2006). *

In Indonesia’s context, do we have those requirements?
If we had them, then why do we still have such aggressive and destructive behaviors among different groups of ethnicity, religious belief, sex, and socioeconomic status?
Then, what if it is true that we do not qualify** for transforming into democratic society but still persist in going to that direction? Are there any further destructive impacts? Democratization turns into DemoCRAZYation?

* Walker, Melanie. 2006. Higher Education Pedagogies. New York: The
Society for Research into Higher Education
** Only 3% of 220 million of
Indonesian have experienced and graduated from higher education. (check data at
Sampoerna Foundation’s website) And among those small number, how many people still inherit admirable quality and understand local wisdom?

[update] B2B: back to business

This web log is entitled ".....The Days Of My Life.....", but as anybody may well noticed, I have not update any news and information since last February.

Sorry for not sharing many information, and for not implementing information or knowledge sharing for such a long time.

Hopefully I can submit information routinely from this day and on and on and on.

America's Hot New Export: Higher Education

This article is retrieved (and shared by Surya Tjandra on A mailing list at Atma Jaya University) on February 17th at Chronicle of Higher Education or you can access at

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i24/24a04401.htm

Colleges rush to open degree programs overseas, for both academic and business reasons
By BURTON BOLLAG

When he started as vice provost for international education, in 1989, Stephen C. Dunnett's main responsibility was to make sure that foreign students at the State University of New York at Buffalo were adjusting to life in America and doing well academically. But in recent years his job has changed. Not only has Mr. Dunnett begun to recruit students abroad - he is also developing overseas degree programs for foreign students who cannot, or will not, come to the United States.

In 2003, Buffalo opened a branch campus in Singapore, where 250 students are enrolled in bachelor's and master's programs in business and communications. Last month the university signed an agreement with an institution in Bangalore, India, to run two master's programs in information technology there. Now Mr. Dunnett is negotiating an agreement in the United Arab Emirates and discussing a possible branch campus in China.

"We didn't expect so much demand," he says. "But since 9/11, many foreign students can't get to the United States, and they want UB degrees."

Buffalo is not alone. Despite several costly flops overseas, including the failures of about two dozen branch campuses in Japan in the 1990s, a rapidly growing number of American colleges and universities are setting up shop, from single graduate programs to entire campuses, in foreign students' own countries. The programs are costly to establish and must be tailored to local needs to succeed, say those who have worked on such efforts. Institutions must often work with foreign partners, whose integrity can be difficult to determine, and navigate a sea of national and local regulations. But many American colleges have concluded that the results are worth the trouble - and sometimes prove to be profitable, too.

No one knows exactly how many American colleges have expanded overseas. But the American Council on Education will soon survey its 1,650 member institutions. "It's an emerging field we don't have a firm handle on," says Peter D. Eckel, an official of the council. An analysis of colleges' experiences with such programs may help its members think strategically, he says.

While a few American institutions have maintained small overseas campuses for decades, often as study-abroad locations for their students back home, the growth of overseas programs for foreign students has taken off only in the past decade. In an era of increasing globalization, campus officials say the trend has also received an impetus from the tight restrictions placed on U.S. visas following the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The limits contributed to the first decrease in the number of foreign students in the United States in more than three decades. Many of the humiliating delays and much of the uncertainty has been resolved, but educators say the United States may take much longer to overcome its recent reputation as not welcoming to foreign students.

"Market research has shown a widespread feeling among Middle Eastern families that students will not be safe if they come to study in the United States," says Paul R. Greene, assistant dean for international initiatives at Boston University, which is considering opening branches in the Persian Gulf. "If Kuwaitis have these misperceptions, then the next-best thing is to have American programs in Kuwait."

A Crowded Field

As they consider new overseas projects, American colleges face stiff competition from their counterparts in other developed countries, especially Britain and Australia. While there are no reliable figures comparing the numbers of overseas campuses, Australia's institutions appear to be extraordinarily aggressive in planting their flag in other countries.

All but one of the 39 government-approved universities in Australia have established overseas degree programs or branch campuses, says Line F. Verbik, deputy director of the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, a research group associated with the Association of Commonwealth Universities, in London. Almost all those programs are in the Pacific region. A drop in government support for higher education forced the universities, most of them public, to "think more entrepreneurially," she says.

Many developing countries have experienced rapid growth in the number of high-school graduates seeking college educations. As international trade and investment expand, more and more young people want degrees from English-language, Western institutions. American, Australian, British, and Canadian universities are often seen as providing more modern and practical educations than those of local institutions, thus improving graduates' prospects of finding well-paying jobs. Foreign students who graduate from some branch campuses receive their degrees from the home institutions. In other cases they also receive second degrees from academic partners in the host country. And branch campuses of Western institutions in these developing countries often offer less-expensive alternatives for the swelling middle classes there than does going to college overseas, and allows students to remain close to their families.

Pressure to expand also comes from within the United States: preparing American students to compete in the global economy has lately become part of the core mission of many American institutions. Establishing overseas campuses for foreign students contributes to that goal, campus leaders say, by giving faculty members and students more international experience. For example, even after teaching for only a few weeks on Buffalo's Singapore campus (the university's partner is the private, nonprofit Singapore Institute of Management), SUNY professors "come back with an international perspective," says Mr. Dunnett.

The branch is also "a good source of high-quality students" who transfer to Buffalo's main campus or go on to enroll in graduate programs there, he says. And it makes the American institution better known to other students considering study in the United States. The campus "increases our brand-name recognition," says Mr. Dunnett.

Foreign branch campuses also provide trouble-free destinations for American students. Ten percent of Buffalo's students spend at least a semester studying in a foreign country; the university wants to double that proportion by 2010. What's more, since foreign branch campuses are under the direct control of the home institution, they offer a seamless study-abroad opportunity, educators say, with no credit-transfer problems or concerns about course quality.

There can be advantages for students on the home campuses of American institutions as well. The Rochester Institute of Technology opened a branch campus specializing in tourism management in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in 1997, and also runs the academic program at the more recently established American University in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia. This year it expects to start an undergraduate information-technology program in Suzhou, China.

"We don't expect to make money," says Stanley D. McKenzie, Rochester's provost. But the planned program, which is primarily for Chinese students, will provide a platform for arranging paid internships with Chinese companies for students from RIT's main campus.

Research institutions that develop overseas degree programs with foreign institutions often point to the welcome prospect of joint research. And branch campuses can open the way to paid research for multinational corporations operating in those countries.

Finding Top Students

The Georgia Institute of Technology, which has degree programs in France and Singapore and one opening this fall in China, is discussing possible programs with authorities in two Indian states. With the number of graduate students from China and India studying in the United States dropping sharply in recent years, "our faculty are keenly interested in opportunities to work with top students" from those countries, says Howard A. Rollins, associate vice provost for international programs.

Another potential benefit, he adds, is research that "could come out of that unique environment" and be further developed, and marketed, by the home campus. The program in China was developed with a leading technical institution, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In India, however, Georgia Tech is in talks with state officials, since they have shown more interest than local universities, says Mr. Rollins. Two states, Maharashtra, where Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is located, and Andhra Pradesh, where Hyderabad is located, are offering land and infrastructure in those cities.

"They're very interested in helping us," says Mr. Rollins, because the presence of a branch of a prestigious American university, producing top-notch graduates and research, would support local economic development.

American institutions have not always felt so welcome overseas. During Japan's economic boom of the 1980s, more than 30 American colleges opened branch campuses there, confident of enrolling large numbers of students seeking a Western alternative to the country's rigid, traditional university system. But by the mid-1990s, most of the branches had closed.

They fell victim to decreasing numbers of college-age people, an unfriendly regulatory environment, and often shoddy treatment by local business partners.

Today American colleges tend to be more cautious.
During the past four years, Carnegie Mellon University, for example, has opened degree programs in Greece, South Korea, Qatar, and Japan. But it has usually negotiated to have a local university or government pay for facilities and nonacademic support. "We go into this pretty comfortable that we don't have a lot of resources at risk if things don't go well," says Mark S. Kamlet, the provost.

In choosing overseas sites, Carnegie Mellon tries to provide something unique and to stay modest in its goals. It opened a graduate program in computer security in Kobe, Japan, last fall. In South Korea it plans to open a second graduate program this fall, in entertainment technology for the gaming and tourism industries. In Australia it will open a similar program this spring.

The university seeks out countries "thirsting for graduate degrees in areas we have a niche in," says Mr. Kamlet. "We don't want to be just another competitor."

It is often hard to find faculty members willing to teach at branch campuses. Like many universities, Carnegie Mellon has found that it must pay a premium to professors who do. In Qatar, for example, it pays them a 25-percent bonus and provides free amenities, including housing, car, and cellphone.

Still, in addition to the academic benefits, Carnegie Mellon hopes to earn revenue for its main campus from these ventures. For some American institutions contemplating foreign ventures, profit is a central concern. In recent years Troy University, a state institution in Alabama, has extended to foreign students its 50-year-old network of overseas campuses that have long served members of the U.S. military. Undergraduates on any of the 11 branch campuses pay 20 percent to 100 percent more than the average $8,000 out-of-state annual tuition they would pay if they enrolled on the university's main campus.

Delivering the programs overseas is more expensive than providing them at home, notes Susan C. Aldridge, vice chancellor of the university's branch campus system. But "each location must contribute to maintain the campus here in Alabama," she says. "They must be profit-making."

Big Business

Then there are corporations that open branches entirely on a for-profit basis. With its for-profit higher-education sector well established, the United States is a leading source of for-profit investments elsewhere, as Laureate Education Inc. (formerly Sylvan Learning Systems), Career Education Corporation, Kaplan Inc., and Apollo Group Inc., among other companies, compete to expand their overseas campus networks.

After first venturing overseas seven years ago, Laureate has spent some $1-billion to acquire the largest network of foreign campuses of any American company. Since the purchase of Anhembi Morumbi University, in São Paulo, Brazil, late last year, 190,000 students, in 14 foreign countries, are enrolled on Laureate-owned campuses.

Douglas L. Becker, Laureate's chief executive officer, says that among the biggest challenges the company faces are increasingly sophisticated competition and a lack of student loans overseas. Among the developing countries where Laureate operates, only Chile recently passed a law extending government assistance, formerly reserved for students of public institutions, to those at private colleges as well.

Many countries have banned for-profit higher education. Chile, where the Laureate-owned University of the Americas is the country's largest for-profit institution, has such a prohibition. But investors easily get around it, typically by establishing a company that owns the land and facilities that a not-for-profit college rents at above-market rates. A similar ban in Turkey is strictly enforced, but that has not prevented local foundations from establishing a number of high-quality nonprofit private institutions.

For-profit and not-for-profit institutions alike complain of myriad regulations in many countries. In 2004 Laureate shut down a two-year-old campus in India, citing an inability to obtain the accreditation that the country requires of all foreign higher-education programs. Even so, the costly experience hasn't soured the company on the potential of the Indian market.

Both India and China, where liberalization is transforming their economies into international powerhouses, are on the verge of becoming major markets for branch-college development. Many consider China more ripe in terms of the relaxing of its regulations and the interest of its own universities in foreign collaborations. "Everyone is starstruck with China," says John A. Douglas, a senior research fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, at the University of California at Berke-ley.

Some places have been especially welcoming to foreign branch campuses. With a number of foreign branches already established inside their borders, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore are striving to become regional hubs of higher education. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are seeking a similar position in the Middle East.

Mixed Experiences

Yet even among those prosperous and fast-modernizing countries, American colleges thinking of opening branches can encounter widely different conditions. Education City, in the tiny oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar, was established as an elite higher-education center with financing estimated at more than $1-billion, to date, from a foundation controlled by the emirate's royal family. A number of leading American institutions have been invited to set up branch campuses there, with all expenses paid by the foundation. Already, Virginia Commonwealth University has opened an arts-and-design program; Weill Cornell Medical College a medical program; Texas A&M University an engineering program; Carnegie Mellon business and computer-science programs; and Georgetown University a foreign-service program.

Antonio M. Gotto Jr., provost for medical affairs at Cornell University, says the branch in Qatar offers benefits to Cornell that include faculty and student exchanges and opportunities to carry out genetics studies and other medical research in the region. All in all, he adds, the project has gone very well.

Weill Cornell "is an American medical school with a Jewish name," he says, but the Qatari foundation said, "We'll pay for it. You do it exactly as you would in New York." Cornell insisted on the right to maintain admissions standards at the same level as on its home campus, and a guarantee that children of the extended royal family would not get special treatment. Mr. Gotto says the authorities have stuck to those agreements.

Cornell's medical school is now in discussions to open branches in South Korea and South Africa.

The United Arab Emirates, less than 250 miles away from Qatar, has opened its own center for foreign branch campuses, known as Knowledge Village. The site, in Dubai, is run more like a business. With branches of institutions in India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia as well as Australia and Britain, the center caters in part to the large immigrant-worker population in the region.

Boston University considered a proposal from a group of Middle Eastern investors to establish a campus in the village for 25,000 students capable of doing undergraduate studies in English. But the enrollment target was far too optimistic, Boston officials concluded.

After studying the project for months, they decided that the investors cared less about academic standards than about profiting from providing services like student housing and cafeterias, said John F. Ebersole, who stepped down recently as associate provost to become president of Excelsior College. "What concerns us," he added, "is that initiatives, initially presented as philanthropic, now appear to have a strong profit motive."

The rapid expansion of foreign campuses in the Persian Gulf region has raised other concerns.

The growing competition for students "will create pressure to lower standards," says Roderick S. French, a founder of the well-regarded American University of Sharjah, established in 1997 in the United Arab Emirates, and director of its Washington office. (American University in Washington helped to establish its academic programs.)

In fact, as the trend continues, countries around the world are becoming concerned about keeping out substandard foreign branches. Some authorities have begun monitoring the quality of degree programs. South Africa is perhaps the only country to have reduced the number of foreign campuses on its territory, having established stringent requirements that they contribute to local development goals.

Still, say American college officials, despite obstacles and disappointments, overseas branch campuses offer so many benefits to both home campuses and host countries that the phenomenon can only expand.

Even Boston University has gotten over having spent so much time in vain on the Knowledge Village proposal. "There has been some disillusionment," said Mr. Ebersole last fall, shortly after Boston turned down the proposal. "We're a little shy now, but we're not soured on international projects."

http://chronicle.com
Section: International
Volume 52, Issue 24, Page A44

Interconnection: reasons to study & goals

A great thanks need to be highlighted here to Wikipedia as a free online encyclopedia & google (of course) for really practising Knowledge Management (KM) in managing their sites.

Today I got all the reasons and interconnection between my currently-passioned field of study (KM) and the benefit for the organisation I work if I gain the expertise.

Now let me share to you all the overall ideas.

Knowledge Management (KM) principles recognize that it is important for organizations to "know what they know." All institutions inherently store, access, and deliver knowledge in some manner. The question is what value is added to the products and services they deliver by the effective use of that knowledge capital.

"Almost any institution in this country will make reference to the capturing of knowledge, the sharing of knowledge and the delivery of knowledge from faculty to students," explains Stevenson. However, KM involves much more, going beyond the inherent knowledge industry of colleges and universities. In the EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies volume entitled Information Alchemy: The Art and Science of Knowledge Management, Bernbom explains that KM involves the "discovery and capture of knowledge, the filtering and arrangement of this knowledge, and the value derived from sharing and using this knowledge throughout the organization" (2001, p. xiv). It is this "organized complexity" of collaborative work to share and use information across all aspects of an institution which marks the effective use of knowledge.

Higher education institutions have "significant opportunities to apply knowledge management practices to support every part of their mission," explains Kidwell et al (2001, p. 24). "Knowledge management should not strike higher education institutions as a radically new idea; rather it is a new spin on their raison d'etre" (p. 24). The problem is that it is such a "wide open area of study that it is difficult to understand the implications of knowledge management for an educational setting" (Thorn, 2001, p. 25). This digest offers a basic introduction to the potential of KM for higher education.

REASONS TO ADOPT KM
Two universities with identical numbers of faculty, degree programs, expenditures, and enrollment may vary widely in how successful they are in rankings such as those conducted by U.S. News and World Report. The difference is often intangible value that is added by effective knowledge management. Organizations that reward collaboration and information sharing are "outperforming companies that discourage these practices..." (Microsoft, 2000, p. 1).

The 2001 survey by Knowledge Management and IDC found that of those companies that adopt KM, the top reasons are to:

--Retain expertise of personnel (51.9%)

--Increase customer satisfaction (43.1%)

--Improve profits, grow revenues (37.5%)

--Support e-business initiatives (24.7%)

--Shorten product development cycles (23.0%)

--Provide project workspace (11.7%)

As public, private, and for profit higher education institutions alike respond to the phenomenal growth of online courses, cyber colleges, and virtual universities, these same reasons to adopt KM apply. It is with KM that colleges will be better able to increase student retention and graduation rates; retain a technology workforce in the face of severe employee shortages; expand new web based offerings; work to analyze the cost effective use of technology to meet more enrollment; transform existing transaction-based systems to provide information, not just data, for management; and compete in an environment where institutions cross state and national borders to meet student needs anytime/anywhere.

CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING KM
There are obvious challenges to the implementation of KM. The Knowledge Management magazine/IDC survey (Dyer and McDonough, 2001) documents the following:

--Employees have no time for KM (41.0%)

--Current culture does not encourage sharing (36.6%)

--Lack of understanding of KM and benefits (29.5%)

--Inability to measure financial benefits of KM (24.5%)

--Lack of skill in KM techniques (22.7%)

--Organization's processes are not designed for KM (22.2%)

--Lack of funding for KM (21.8%)

--Lack of incentives, rewards to share (19.9%)

--Have not yet begun implementing KM (18.7%)

--Lack of appropriate technology (17.4%)

--Lack of commitment from senior management (13.9%)

--No challenges encountered (4.3%)

Can you now tell what I would like to do and why is it beneficial for the organisations?

Sources:
Millam, John H., Jr. (2001). Knowledge Management For Higher Education,ERIC DIGEST. Retrieved at February 2nd, 2006 from http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-1/higher.htm

Knowledge Management

Because knowledge has become the single most important factor of production, managing intellectual assets has become the single most important task of business.

Thomas A. Stewart

Enjoyed myself, did I?

Last weekend was hectic day for me.

Beginning with having another classroom activity. It was the first time to enter a classroom at my office. It had been more than 6 months since the last time I came into a room full of university students.
It was not bad, although I had some neurotic anxiety (since that day was also the Graduation day of my girl).
--Done--

Next thing is to get to the ceremonial events (of the grad day) which located about an hour trip from my first departure points. Waited for while to get a bus, only to get more anxious 'coz the bus didn't take the highway/toll road. They took the heavily bad traffic route of Buncit. I was worried that I could not reach the points of meeting on time as I had promised before.
--Done--

Reaching the next arrival point, dress up for a while and just in time to see my girl. Only for 5 minutes or so, but still I managed to keep my promise.
--Done--

Waiting for my parents to come. They would like to meet my wife-to-be (Amen ;p) and her fam to congratulate them. They came, but still the figures they'd like to meet still not there, at the meeting point. After about 30-45 minutes waiting, we all finally met there. We took some pictures together. ==> this activity impose a huge thread of GOSSIPS among my friends.
--Done--

Would like to attend the ceremonial events held at my campus, but restricted to parents' of graduates only. So I waited outside.
And here came the problem. A great man who should have actually moderated a meeting with alumni on the same time as the ceremony pointed me out at the spot to lead the discussion for alumni's forum. Knowing nothing about the goals and no one of the alumni I was terribly shocked and angry.
I came just to become the grad's accompanion. Just wanna enjoy the day. The gossips invoked has already a bit ruining that goal. But this accident really ruining my moods. Trapped between two poles (focussing on being there at the ceremony and fulfilling the sudden request)

Result?
Two friends of mine gave me reminder that I shouldn't have been here with the 'you-don't-know-who-they-are alumni'. But in another pole, the actually-responsible-people also cannot do their tasks.
--Not done properly--

==> And I got very upset about this. I was disappointed that I had to do two things at a moment and I could not do it all. Wort, I share and showed my anger 'bout this vividly to most people (sorry to all; and thanks to all who could understand that position: Vem, King, Bang Ju, Bri, and surely 'Nge)

Hectic and emotionally tiring.

Intention <--> Action missing bridges

On a course I took during my college' life I learned some expert (in psychology I guess) believe that people's behavior are better explained from their intention to do so, and intention is a function of normative belief and ..... (something I forget)

==> Sorry ('coz it seems that I have difficulty accessing to the knowledge trace) to Fishbein & Ajzen (who first talked about it) and 'Mrs. Susi' (the lecturer of my course from which I got the idea to write about this)

Therefore, to predict or even making intervention to change a man's behavior, one need to assess their intention.

Well, I thought for a while their formulation of how to change a man's behavior is something accurate. But now, realizing myself that I have all the intentions needed for my own development but still lacking at steps I take, I see it as an overcalculation of the so called intention.

How do I come up with this?

First of all, I'd like to share that I have target (that is not specific enough) for this year 0f 2k6. Though it's not as specific as it can be, but still I have some goals to be achieved. To put it in a very global level, I would like to be a permanent staff of my office and would like to go on a journey expanding myself at a world class universities (through somekind of scholarships).
And to achieve the goals, I have put my plans into smaller parts that will end (if all goes well) at the goals I mentioned above. I have put those parts into specific actions need to be done soon enough.

The main problem was it has been a month since we all first enter the year of 2006 but I haven't seen any light of hope (that my goals are getting closer to me).True, it is true that I haven't done of give good enough effort to get my dreams realized. I have not followed up the process to talk to the person in charge, still not preparing the documents needed to be assessed,etc.
Why? I have the intention, I have the need, I have it all.

So why is it so? That I have the intention but still lacking of action. There must be somethin' missing here.
Or I got it all wrong (I mean I missed something in the courses). Is this intention only predicting 'predictions'? Or only measures likelihood of possibility?

So what is or what are the missing bridges?

Seriously High Risk Infection to Your PC & Network

These days your computer might be at risk of another virus spreading via internet (including brontok). But today there is another serious viral thread. This virus, classified as worm, is named Nyxem or Kama Sutra or MyWife. This cruel and nasty virus is able to erase you documents in the format of: .exe , .zip, .ppt , .xls. etc.
(See, it attacks most of our file formats used for daily activities)

Click Here To find out more about the symptoms, what it does, and how to cure your computer manually (it requires a bit of registry editing and could become to complex for those not familiar with this stuff)

But if you choose to automatically remove this thread download a virus removal tools provided by bitdefender here.

See you and good luck.

Tragic....

Do you know that American Government spend more than 20,000 US$ funding per student annually for tertiary-level education? Still the percentage number of high-school leavers continuing their education to universities and colleges is outnumbered by their Scandinavian fellows.

[Andreas Schleicher--in his article for Newsweek Special Issues 2006 Edition]

Hmmmmm what about Indonesia?
Well, according to Sampoerna Foundation only 3.39% of total Indonesia's population are higher education graduates. (so tiny percentage huh?)
And even more, we are lacking of higher education graduates with high competitive skills produced by world class universities.

The difference between Developed & Developing Countries

In the future the world shall not be classified into: developed, developing & underdeveloped countries. But we shall put them into: smart, smarter, and smartest countries.

[Sir John Rose--Director of Rolls-Royce, quoted by Thomas L. Friedman for his article in Newsweek Special Issues Edition of 2006]


This implies the fundamental position of knowledge and innovation in a global competition.