UW News

May 1, 2008

Globalization and graduate education subject of discussion May 7

A panel discussion from 4 to 6 pm. May 7, on the effects of globalization and the labor market for graduate students will conclude the Graduate School’s theme for the year, the internationalization of graduate education.

A reception following the panel discussion will recognize the publication of a major book on the globalization of graduate education.

Brain Drain, Brain Gain or Brain Circulation: Doctoral Education and the Global Divide will be discussed by three experts in the Walker Ames Room of Kane Hall.

The panelists are:


  • Devesh Kapur, director of the Centre for Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. Kapur has conducted research on international skilled labor migration and the role of higher education and research in developing countries.
  • Alfred Watkins, science and technology program coordinator for the World Bank. He is charged with helping to develop World Bank science, technology and innovation capacity building programs, which include higher education components, in developing countries.
  • Rune Nelson, professor and director of the Centre for International Health at the University of Bergen, Norway, where he previously was deputy rector. Nelson also is an advisor to the Norwegian government on issues of doctoral education in developing countries, specifically in Africa.

Following the panel discussion, a reception will recognize the launch of a book from UW Press and the UW’s Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education. The book, Toward a Global PhD? Forces and Forms in Doctoral Education Worldwide, is by Maresi Nerad, the center’s director, associate dean of the Graduate School and associate professor for higher education in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Program of the College of Education; and Mimi Heggelund, coordinator for the center.

The reception is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Suzanne Ortega, dean of the Graduate School, and Provost Phyllis Wise will host the event.