The Special Problems of the Foreign Student

Abstract

The Developed nations might be seen to have a debt to those other nations, which were often former colonies and which are now struggling to emerge into the sophisticated technological age of the twentieth century and a debt that can be repaid in educational terms. Lacking adequate primary and secondary educational processes, these countries’ problems are even greater when it comes to adult, further or tertiary education. Universities and colleges in the underdeveloped countries are largely staffed by expatriates, their students are a specific élite privileged often only by their family’s economic background and they probably reflect today, through no fault of their own, the situation that existed in European society some fifty years ago. A country with a poor and underdeveloped economy cannot afford free-for-all education, and yet ironically it is probably only through this that the economy and administration of the country can be lifted up to its rightful position.