Where Is the Best Education - Essay Example

Is it better to study abroad or in your home country? Since the beginning of time people have strived to get more education, and for that there were times when they used to study in any place, in any corner of the world, regardless of what hardships they might face. We live in the 21st Century and the world has become a global village, in which, if we have the resources, we can move around the world quite easily with much time. The advantages of the world turning into a global village has profound benefits on people from all sorts of life including merchants and world leaders but the field which, for its own purpose, has sucked all the benefits from this trend is education. Student nowadays are from all walks of life whether engineering, medicine, fine arts etc. and they have been travelling abroad for quality education. But there are both advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or one studying in his or her own country. Students who do not wish to study abroad have plenty of advantages. First of all they get to stay in a country in which they were born and they love. Second, they get to study amongst their friends with whom the student will be well connected socially and culturally. There are no language issues, like if a person is studying in Russia, he’ll have the option of studying all the subjects in Russian except the languages that are optional for him. The financial conditions are always good unless there is a recession or the student’s financial provider like father or guardian loses a job or dies or any other reason. But there are also disadvantages of studying in their homeland, like in any third world country in Asia or Africa, the standard of education is not very good and even if he or she gets the best grades in his respective field, there is no guarantee that the student will get a good job because of the poor level and quality of education in his country. For the sake of an example, according to a 2002 survey produced by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, the best educational systems around the world were from South Korea, Japan and Finland and the degrees of those countries will be the most widely recognized around the world. (http://news.bbc.co.uk). Now let us take a look at the educational standards in Pakistan. The quality of education is almost indescribably bad, there is only one Pakistani university included in the list of world’s top 500 universities and that is on no. 350 (www.topuniversities.com). Judging by the rank of the university, any one can imagine the standard of education in Pakistan. Corruption is also an issue. Students without even giving test papers clear their examinations. Students get fake degrees for some $1000-$5000 at most. As for people who want to study abroad, like in the USA, the UK and Australia, there are positive as well as negative issues. As far as positive points are concerned, the standard of education in those countries (without mentioning) is at its excellence. Harvard University, Stanford University, University of California – Berkeley all in the United States of America occupy the top three positions in world university ranking, followed by University of Cambridge in United Kingdom (www.allaboutuni.com). The degrees offered by those universities are recognized in every part of the world. The academic freedom given in those countries is very commendable. The student goes to a new society, so he gets to learn about new cultures. Also, the life style in those countries is very admirable, stress-free environment, great night life etc. But there are also downsides of studying in a foreign country, like one of them is that he will be in a completely new environment, he will not be in much contact with his family and that can be very painful if the guy is family oriented. Money is also an issue, to be more precise, the fees of these countries as compared to third world countries like Pakistan is considerably high, and migrating students from both countries like Pakistan and India, have to do jobs, sometimes two jobs, and frequently overtime because they have to pay fees, as financial situation gets tight at the end and parents cannot support the high fees of their child (Gear and Gear, Page 547). Students think that once they reach abroad, they will just study, but they end up getting a blue collar job in those countries because the of the difference in value of both currencies, like the US $1 is equal Rs.85 in Pakistan, British pound somewhere near Rs.131 (www.finance.kalpoint.com) and they start thinking why study when they can do a job that will pay an amount equal to the money they will get when they will graduate. Also, the issue of Halaal and Haraam food is also there, western countries have slaughter houses and their way of slaughtering animals is not considered right by Muslims, which is why obtaining food is also quite difficult at times. One of the things faced by students who go abroad is that of cultural differences, meaning them finding it difficult to adjust in the existing norms of the society. Racism is also an issue that is considerably faced by foreigner students, especially since 9/11, people specifically from Middle East and the Indian sub-continent are specially targeted because of their color in the United States of America, and students from Muslim countries are facing religious prejudices. Similarly, the Muslim student population in the universities faced particular discrimination in the UK after the July 7 bombings of commuter trains in London, England. The racism in Australia has particularly spiked since the end of 2009, with violent attacks directed against people of South Asian origin, from white supremacist groups and neo Nazi groups; including the death if an Indian student naming Nitin Garg, which sparked massive protest from Indian embassy in Australia. (www.asiaone.com) All in all there are advantages and disadvantages of both options, whether or not a guy wants to study in his homeland or study abroad it depends upon his own psyche, and his pace to adjust in a different society. References All About Uni. (2008). Universities search results table. [Online] Available at: http://www.allaboutuni.com/site/serv_search_result.php?list=top100&order=ranking&sort=a [Accessed March 6, 2010]. Asia One. (2010). Australia condemns Indian student death. [Online] Available at: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20100104-189550.html [Accessed March 6, 2010]. BBC News. (2002). Britain seventh in global school table. [Online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/2520303.stm [Accessed March 6, 2010]. Gear, J., & Gear, R. (2006). Cambridge preparation for the TOEFL test. Cambridge University Press. Top Universities. (2009). 2009 World University Rankings 301 – 400. [Online] Available at: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2009/results/301-400 [Accessed March 6, 2010]. Read More