Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:53:23.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The State of Undergraduate Education in International Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2016

Grant T. Hammond
Grant T. Hammond*
Affiliation:
Rhodes College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There can be no doubt about the increased attention focused on international relations. There is a need for, and interest in, undergraduate programs of instruction in the subject. Such initiatives are important to enable the U.S. to compete in the increasingly interdependent world of the 21st century. In the last few years, there have been a number of reports by various educational associations, task forces, panels and commissions all underscoring the need to do more in international studies and foreign language instruction. A number of colleges and universities have responded by changing curricula, starting new programs, and expanding existing ones. All this is admirable.

Yet, it is possible to graduate from most colleges and universities in the country and know nothing about international relations. Students are woefully ignorant of world geography, recent world history, the importance of international economics in our daily lives, the circumstances in which the rest of the world lives, and how to communicate in another language. This situation is compounded by their lack of knowledge about different political systems and how they operate as well as the significance of many important political issues in the world today. We are in our education, if not our circumstances as a nation, essentially uninformed and isolationist towards other nations. Certainly this is a challenge to American undergraduate education.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Political Science Teacher , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Winter 1989 , pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. This information was compiled from Ottinger, Cecilia A., 1986–87 Fact Book on Higher Education, (New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Co., 1987)Google Scholar, Chart 193 and Cass, James and Birnhaum, Max, “Comparative Guide to American Colleges,” 13th ed., (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), “Comparative Listing of Majors,” pp. 623–777 Google Scholar. Data in both these is based on the U.S. Department of Education “Earned Degrees Conferred,” 1982–1983 for Ottinger and 1983–1984 for Cass and Birnbaum.