Globally Competent at NAU?
Many college students aren’t aware of international news hapenings around the world. To test this theory, a poll was conducted on campus to see if how educated NAU students are on international news.
Greece’s Bankruptcy, the Charlie Hedbo Shooting and ISIS have been the major international news topics for the past three months.
While many working adults understand these topics stated above, when it comes to college students across the nation, how well would they fare if they were tested on such international topics?
The Pew Research Center is a think tank located in Washington D.C that studies American trends and opinions.
Three weeks ago, PEW put our a quiz called, “How well do you know the news?” This quiz covers not only US news, but international topics as well. Once finished with the test, you are compared to 3,147 adults that were randomly tested across the United States with the average being 8/12 correct.
At Northern Arizona University, I recently conducted a similar poll, testing the knowledge of ten random students walking through the University Union on international news.
Unlike a 12 question test as PEW put out, my quiz only consisted of three questions that went as followed:
1. Do you know what’s going on with the Greece Economy? And if so, can you elaborate.
2. Can you explain what the Charlie Hedbo shootings are?
3. Who is ISIS?
The poll consisted of 5 women and 5 men between the hours of 12pm — 2pm.
Seven out of ten students had no idea what was going on with Greece’s economy. Nine out of ten students had no idea what Charlie Hedbo even was, let alone the shootings that happened at the French Satire Newspaper. All students were aware of who ISIS was, fresh off the death of Kayla Mueller, an NAU graduate who was captured by the Islamic State.
Even with one topic at 100%, if these questions were on a test, the ten students scored a %46 cumulative.
Joshua Wells, a Masters candidate for Sociology at NAU, only knew about ISIS, and was fine with that.
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t pay attention to the news,” laughed Wells. “My time is devoted to my graduation classes. That’s my news, my girlfriend and my best friend.”
Kyrell Wright, a senior majoring in biomedical sciences, who was familiar with all three topics, believes international news is an important subject for everyone.
“If we don’t know what’s going on in the world, then how do we expect to succeed?” Wright said. “Being able to talk to someone about anything that’s going on in the world should be required.”
Daniel Palm, director of Asian Academic Engagement here on campus, elaborated on why he believes students on campus lack the knowledge of international news.
“First and foremost, lack of exposure. They simply do not come in frequent contact with international-related events or people,” stated Palm. “Learning a perspective held by others can be uncomfortable, as it forces one to challenge their own preconceived ideas. Feeling uncomfortable can be a learning barrier and leads to complacency.”
Palm went on to explain that, “if more students are exposed to international ideas and issues both inside and outside the classroom, this can help better their understanding.”
NAU holds International Week every year with different events around campus. Attending these events can help make students more globally competent by learning about different cultures they possibly haven’t been exposed to.
“It’s a lack of exposure,” said Palm. “Students have to figure out a way and they have to be presented with international ideas that make sense to them…it really comes down to professors and university leaders really helping students to understand that these things matter.”
