In our present day and age, degrees are seen as a necessity. It is a commonly held belief that without a degree, we lack status and will have little success when it comes to acquiring high paid jobs. How true is this and what is the value of international degrees?
Parents and students invest in international degrees with the hope that they will hold the key to a long and fruitful professional career. It is true to say that in terms of future capitalization, the benefit of international degrees far outweighs their initial cost. International degrees provide students and their employers with the skills they require for success both in the present day and in the future.
In the years to come, some of the world's top providers of international degrees will find that their qualifications slowly lose their value due to the sheer volume of graduates who pass through their doors. But, with the wide range of academic institutions offering international degrees, it is no longer a requirement to attend a top academic institution in order to attain a degree of this kind.
In the past decade, the United States of America has led the way when it comes to providing the best international degrees. This brought an unprecedented number of foreign students to the USA solely for the purposes of acquiring international degrees. In the past five years however, the number of foreign students choosing to study for international degrees in the USA has fallen dramatically. Several factors have contributed to this change, including a downgrading of the examination processes for international degrees and the inability of U.S. educational institutions to develop comparisons with educational systems in foreign countries. Furthermore, due to the United States' stance on the war against terrorism, it has become harder for international students to gain entry into the country for the purpose of gaining an education. This may have also affected the motivation of many foreign academics to enter the USA to become teachers.
The development of the European academic system has caused students from the EU to lean more heavily towards academic institutions in Europe as opposed to those in the USA. Chinese and Indian students are flowing towards Europe and Australia to earn their international degrees, while China has seen an increase in the number of foreign students flocking to the country for their education. The popularity of international degrees from U.S. educational institutions has suffered as a result. For all these reasons, the professional value of international degrees earned in the US may be falling, and the majority of major academic institutions of tomorrow may be developed outside of the U.S.
While a degree of any kind may be valuable, today's employers are looking for those individuals whose skills go beyond those learned through more traditional education. Employers seek future employees who are capable of communicating in numerous languages and who have the capacity to stand up to and question authority. With regards to international degrees, excellence no longer belongs to any one single academic institution; it belongs to a whole network. According to trends analysis, Europe and Asia are at the forefront of academic networking. It is no longer necessary to ask yourself whether a provider of international MBA degrees is reputable, but whether this provider collaborates with other distinguished institutions.
If you want to earn an international degree you will quickly realize that international degrees offered by European academic institutions will not only cost less, but will provide greater future profits than degrees earned in the USA. While Asia is becoming increasingly popular for international degrees, the connections between academic institutions remain limited at present. If you live in the U.S. you may be wise to invest in a degree from a U.S.-based institution, especially if you want to work in the U.S. However, it is likely that in the years ahead, even U.S. based companies will value international degrees from European and Asian institutions.
