India
I've just returned from a month in India. I'll get back to blogging about standard Public Engagement topics soon, but first some reflections from the trip.
A renewed recognition of how much our research universities depend on Indian graduate students, especially in engineering and computer science. We met many college students on our trip, most of them anxious to come to the USA for further education. When we define public engagement as a reciprocal exchange of resources between universities and publics, we shouldn't forget bright, motivated students as a key public resource.
A sense of how powerful India and China, each with well over one billion inhabitants, will become as they modernize their educational and economic systems. We may only hope that their competition with "the West" and with each other will be basically peaceful; and that they can find ways to minimize environmental impacts as they enhance their standards of living.
A recognition of how important it is to find ways to keep people productive in the countryside, rather than having them flock to the cities where overcrowding and poverty are uncompensated by the intricate support systems of traditional village life. We see similar issues in the USA, as the viability of rural America is challenged. Perhaps nations can find ways of learning from each other, and perhaps universities could play a role in such exchange of knowledge and ideas.