In the final part of our series, WBFO's Joyce Kryszak takes a look at where higher education is headed next.

Walk into any UB lecture hall and you'll find foreign students gazing intently at their professors, listening with strained ears to words they sometimes have trouble understanding. All international students at UB must demonstrate advanced proficiency in English through the TOEFL or other standard test of English as a foreign language.

Still, it's hard to comprehend why these students, many of whom struggle with English as a second language, would want to come to the United States to study - or to UB's offshore campuses either for that matter.

Singaporean Kristy Winata knows why. She reads and speaks English perfectly. But the undergrad has shared classes with some students who very willingly struggled.

"Because people in those countries are hungry for knowledge, they will bleed for it," said Winata.

Universities are responding to that strong desire. The principal of supply and demand are at work as universities compete to satiate the global hunger for education.

UB alone has graduate programs in China, Bangalore and Singapore, as well as a full undergraduate program in Singapore. And there could soon be others. Stephen Dunnett is Vice Provost for International Education at UB. He said an undergraduate program in China is possibly on the horizon. Still, he said they are not interested in franchising UB.

"I don't seee us having a kind of McDonald's type chain of oversees campuses," said Dunnett, "They are difficult to administer and we wouldn't have enough faculty to provide for a lot of branch campuses."

But UB's Singapore campus is growing. About 800 students study there - up from about 50 when the program started. And new degree programs are being added. But resident director Kevin McKelvey said they don't want to grow too quickly. He said that maintaining quality is most important, and making sure the market can support new graduates into the workforce.

With more than 7,000 multi-national corporations, Singapore can probably handle the influx of graduates. But some developing countries might not have as many jobs to offer.

And yet, some of these developing countries are cashing in on the higher education industry.

The University of Cairo in Egypt takes in ten times more students than originally planned, according to Alan Goodman, who is president of the Institute of International Education.

The not-for profit group monitors education trends. Goodman said jobs and universities on a global basis might not be well-matched. He said that is why so-called "open door" policies that allow easy mbility for students is key, so they can go where the jobs are now.

For example, there are millions of IT jobs available in parts of India. That's according to UB management professor Ram Ramesh. He heads UB's graduate programs in Bangalore and Chennai. He said the year-old program shows great promise. Ramesh sees incredible demand for adding an undergraduate program as well to help fill nearly three million jobs at IT companies and call centers.

But Ramesh said tighter educational regulations and quotas to deal with India's cast system could get in the way.

"I don't think anyone in the Indian government has the political will to do that," said Ramesh.

But there are people trying to create that will. Ravindran Parthasarathy is a UB graduate from India. He has worked in many countries helping to build businesses. But Parthasarathy is working now to help rebuild people demoralized by poverty.

Parthasarathy wants UB to bring an undergraduate program to India. He believes education can bridge the divide between wealth and poverty.

Goodman with the Institute of international Education thinks so too. Goodman said the more mobility we have globally, the more scientific and technical progress that can be made. He said "open door" educational policies are the doors to everyone's future.

If you'd like to learn more about the impact of higher education on economies and people you can go to wbfo.org and look for our link to globalized higher education. You will find this and all the stories from our series there, as well as many photos of the places and the people who provided insight.

Click the "listen" icon above to hear Joyce Kryszak's story now or use your podcasting software to download it to your computer or iPod. © Copyright 2009, WBFO