MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah.
The program will quintuple the number of Saudi students and scholars in the United States by the academic year's end. And big, public universities from Florida to Oregon are in a fierce competition for their tuition dollars.
The kingdom's royal family -- which is paying full scholarships for most of the 15,000 students -- says the program will help stem unrest at home by schooling the country's brightest in the American tradition. The State Department sees the exchange as a way to build ties with future Saudi leaders and young scholars at a time of unsteady relations with the Muslim world...
As always, I suggest you read the full article.
I guess I'm in a mood today, but my first thought when I read the above passage was "Oh, are there public universities in the country still teaching 'the American tradition'?"
Cattiness aside, I do hope we're being careful about which schools get these students. The last thing we need is yet more Arabs landing in places infamous for decrying Western Civilization. No?
In short, I suspect this could be a very good thing, or a very bad thing, depending primarily on the experience of the Saudis once they get here, both in the classroom and in the broader community.
Update: Captain Ed looks at pros and cons.
No comments:
Post a Comment