Globalization is common to business. In only the last 10 years, markets have become global. Durable goods, personal mobility, improved healthcare, and high-quality housing are within reach to a larger world population. As a sign of the times, General Motors is forecasting that roughly 70 percent of future automotive growth will come from 10 emerging markets.

In response, multinational companies like GM have initiated technology development that occurs seamlessly around the globe. This makes it possible for companies to increase productivity and reduce costs by sharing technology solutions across multiple products and applications. Since the cost for technology development for individual markets is prohibitively expensive, the future rests in creating unique technology backbones with sufficient embedded flexibility to create local variants with equivalent functionality.

Innovation will be managed globally and will utilize the best minds, regardless of location, to provide customers a greater variety of products with higher quality and lower costs. This will require local engineers to understand and respond to local preferences and support local manufacturing operations within an overall global framework. And the global diversity of an organization will become its competitive advantage.

Although the digital age has removed boundaries for technology and information flow-and has enabled the fast-to-market phenomenon-the education system remains predominantly local and does not train students for this new operational paradigm. This is especially true for science and engineering. The educational model needs to change to prepare students for expanding career opportunities, since it is highly unlikely that a person’s work career will occur only in the United States. Simply put, why should educational standards in the U.S. and at Purdue differ from those at equivalent universities located elsewhere?

A push to globalize education provides an opportunity to promote skills such as creative thinking and innovation. Just mastering textbook knowledge will not be sufficient for global employment. Students across the world will need to develop the ability to be innovative and creative. Global education will also lead to an efficient delivery of the total educational experience, including knowledge about international safety standards and environmental issues, and will foster best practices in teaching. The concepts of being a student anywhere, being a teacher anywhere, and accessing classes that are always available are likely to become more pervasive in the near future.

Global education will also alleviate current corporate recruiting challenges and shorten the time for companies to grow industry-specific competencies within engineers who work around the world. Being exposed to diverse cultural skills, developing a global network of peers, and gaining a new perspective on differences and similarities in customers will become an indispensable part of a well-rounded education. With this opportunity, students will gain invaluable international experience: a must-have for a successful career.

Our work now is to break down boundaries and embrace global collaboration, whether it is in education, research, technology, or social development. The goal is to leverage the best minds with the best solutions to drive the highest quality of life-globally!

- Anil K. Sachdev