In 2025 higher education (HE) has been confronted with challenges that may soon upset the very foundations of what we have long understood to be the traditional goals, purposes and processes of the academy. In the short term, some aspects of the underlying dynamics of US HE may hold, but bigger challenges are also afoot: the US is quickly losing out as an attractive destination for study, for research, for travel, for business and for investment; ultra-conservative forces seek to assert total control over independent institutions or to shutter them completely; alternative HE options beckon as cheaper and equally good options; the allure of alternatives outside of HE are growing, and progressive faculty, dissenting students, and international students feel under assault. In this masterclass, we will touch on international education in this new context and ask ourselves what internationalization means in the current environment.

The class will be led by Dr. Bernhard Steitwieser, Associate Professor, International Education and International Affairs.