Young people today represent all kinds of diversity, while the current President-elect and his administration represent everything that opposes it. Nowadays, we celebrate being different. In fact, being different is normal and always has been, since no two people are the same. However, today’s society has lead us to believe that because someone likes something that the majority of the world doesn’t, they are different in such a way that has a negative connotation.
Earlier this month, I came across an article in The New York Times titled, “A Guide to Getting a Bachelor’s Abroad”. When I first came across this article, I hadn’t yet learned the results of the presidential election. Based off of the reactions of Americans after the election, I’m assuming that the guide started circulating more after high school and college students across the country found out who their next president would be since many began to look for alternatives to attending college in the US out of fear for their lives and futures living under Trump’s administration. In fact, on the night of election day, the Canadian immigration website crashed. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that all the Americans who visited the website will be moving to Canada, for college students, moving to another country to study for the next four years is an easy solution.
At least it’s easy if you’re an American. But for the majority of the rest of the world, studying abroad is simply a dream, one that too many times remains unfulfilled due to financial reasons.
The guide I mentioned earlier lists the United Kingdom, Ireland, Continental Europe, Australia, Singapore and China as cheaper, easier-to-get-into alternatives to American colleges, stating that, “The Department of Education website lists nearly 900 foreign colleges and universities where Americans can use federal financial aid.” What that means is that if you still can’t pay for a year’s tuition in the UK (where costs are higher than other European countries but are most likely cheaper than out-of- state tuition to a public university in the US), you can receive financial aid.
‘Why wouldn’t that work the opposite way around?’ you might ask yourself. Why couldn’t someone from a foreign country who wants to study in the US receive the same type of federal aid? The answer is simple: federal financial aid simply doesn’t exist in a multitude of countries. And because the US economy is superior to a lot of other countries, even those doing well financially in their own country couldn’t afford to send their children to attend college in the Unites States. Without federal financial aid from their country, a lack of scholarships available to them in the US and without the ability to receive US federal financial aid because they’re not citizens, many people are left without the same opportunities as Americans.
With the US out of the question, citizens of countries that are part of the European Union turn to universities in other EU country and take loans that cause them to go into debt. Of these people, many are looking for courses taught in English. While these courses are currently available, the number of students will soon outgrow these type of spaces and result in issues. In addition, Brexit (the UK’s decision to leave the EU), has limited the number of universities in the EU available for students to attend, causing students to have fewer options and to turn their attention towards other countries, like Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands. While this is currently working, this not a permanent solution.
With Brexit and the future of the US still in question, many of us have questions left unanswered. Because really, who knows how much longer the European Union will last? And who knows what’s to come for immigration, both in Europe and America? People are saying that this is the end of globalism, but now more than ever, globalism is needed. How will education survive without it?
