Ethical Dilemmas in International Expansion

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on a key challenge facing U.S. colleges and universities in their effort to “go global”: how to preserve their academic integrity, while generating the financial resources needed to support their activities in the realm of ideas. Associated with this challenge are four ethical dilemmas that occasionally arise in the course of international expansion: namely, the righteousness of (1) providing international higher education services only to those who can afford them; (2) engaging in foreign practices that contravene U.S. normative standards; (3) providing services in countries whose policies conflict with American liberal values; and (4) compromising academic freedom to remain in good standing with a repressive regime. The chapter offers a few thoughts on how the dilemmas can and should be addressed. It concludes by placing academic freedom in a broader philosophical context.