I am en route from the UK to the US, and was interested to read an article by Gordon Brown, Enlarging the Anglosphere, in today’s WSJ Opinion pages.
He is talking about how to renew and extend relationships between the US and the UK and proposes a list of areas for attention.
I was struck by the fact that Brown placed greater links between universities at the top of his list,
Already some universities are planning to require all of their students to spend some time abroad as part of their degree. The principal of King’s College in London and the president of New York University will convene a group to examine how cooperation between U.K. and U.S. institutions can be intensified, starting with the potential for expanding faculty and research exchanges. And I can give a commitment that British students who need financial support to pay the travel costs of taking up a term of study in the U.S. will receive that support. [Enlarging the Anglosphere – WSJ.com]
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and has a reputation for being cerebral. He is also somewhat embattled at the moment, and under attack in the UK media. All that said, it is interesting to see a Prime Minister put education at the top of a list like this in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
