Colleges without walls are also colleges without national borders. Professors are beamed in through teleconferencing. Students pursuing degrees online and otherwise are able to establish worldwide networks. As rising numbers of international students enroll in colleges and universities throughout the United States and elsewhere, the buzzword in higher education is “global”. Those obtaining a distance learning degree really do come from everywhere.
American colleges and universities during the 2008-2009 academic year saw a record high of nearly 672,000 international student enrollments, according to an annual Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education. Most students hail from India, China and South Korea, and most major in business and management and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) studies, the report noted.