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This article argues that California colleges and universities should make a concerted effort to work together to attract more foreign students by forming education hubs. The authors argue that such “EdHubs” can relieve the intense pressure on schools’ budgets by enrolling more higher-paying out-of-state students, while schools in the same geographic regions can share the burden of supporting such students, particularly with investment from local industry. The authors argue that schools that work together can increase their capacity to educate more students, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, thereby increasing opportunities not just for foreign students but Californians as well.

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2012-0019 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2013; 5(1): 1–29 John Aubrey Douglass*, Richard Edelstein, and Cecile Haoreau Seeking Smart Growth: The Idea of a California Global Higher Education Hub Abstract: In 2010 international students generated more than $18.8 billion in net income into the US economy. California alone had nearly 100,000 international students with an economic impact of nearly $3.0 billion. In this paper, we outline a strategy for the San Francisco/Bay Area to double the number of international students enrolled in local colleges and universities in 10 years or less, gene­rating a total direct economic impact of an additional $1 billion a year into the regional economy. The US retains a huge market advantage for attracting foreign stu- dents. Within the US, the San Francisco/Bay Area is particularly attractive and could prevail as an extraordinary global talent magnet, if only policy-makers and higher education leaders better understood this and formulated strategies to tap the global demand for higher education. Ultimately, all globalism is local. We propose that one or all three of California’s major urban areas consider devel- oping the hub idea, and specifically outline how the San Francisco/Bay Area, a region with a group of stellar universities and colleges, could re-imagine itself as a Global Higher Education Hub. It could help meet national and regional economic needs, and assuage the thirst of a growing world population for high-quality ter- tiary education. Other parts of the world have already developed their version of the higher education hub idea. The major difference in our proposed Califor- nian version is that foreign competitors seek to attract foreign universities to help build enrollment and program capacity at home, and are funded almost solely by significant government subsidies. Our model builds capacity, but is focused on attracting the world’s talent and generating additional income to existing public and private colleges and universities. Doubling international enrollment from currently around 30,000 to 60,000 students in the Bay Area is an achievable goal, but would require expanding regional enrollment capacity as part of a strategy to ensure access to native students, and as part of a scheme to attract a new gen- eration of faculty and researchers to the Bay Area and Califo­r n ­ ia. International students would need to pay higher than the full cost of their education, helping to subsidize domestic students and college and university programs. The result would be a self-reinforcing knowledge ecosystem. At the same time, we recog- nize that California may not have the political will and interest to take on such a venture. But we sense that some regions in the US will eventually grasp the model and its advantages. Keywords: California; higher education system; international students; San Francisco/Bay Area.

Though the United States is the number one destination for international students, a shift to other countries might occur because of an explosion of a demand for higher education worldwide as well as an emergence of new competitors. Some countries use higher education to accept educated immigrants for national workforce. Foreign students, who often used to choose to stay in the US after their graduation, are going back to their home countries. Therefore, the United States should set a national strategy on international higher education.

This article reviews the results obtained from treating over 800 cancer patients withCorynebacterium parvum in various clinical situations. No fatalities or severe complications occurred.C. parvum is a very safe agent, although it may induce temporary fever and chills, especially when given by the intravenous route. Its use as a single agent has induced some regressions of established tumors when given intravenously, and has always significantly increased the duration of response in chemotherapy responders as shown by 4 distinct randomized studies. These studies and others lead to the conclusion that nonspecific immune stimulation has a role to play in the treatment of disseminated tumors as well as of minimal residual disease, and that far from conflicting with the use of cytostatic agents, it may increase their effectiveness. The mechanisms by which this can be accomplished are discussed and some unsolved problems are reviewed relating to the proper scheduling of immunochemotherapy, the monitoring of nonspecific immune stimulation and the exact place ofC. parvum in a multi-modality approach to established tumors. It is emphasized that the concepts derived from the use ofC. parvum are more important than the agent itself, which is only one of numerous immunopotentiators that can be used in various combinations.

Twenty terminally ill patients with various disseminated tumors were treated with daily iv infusions of Corynebacterium parvum given alone at doses of 4 mg/day, 5 days/week, for 4-16 weeks. In 8 patients (40%), the lesions partially regressed to less than 50% of their original size. Another patient who did not improve with C. parvum therapy had a complete remission after the first course of chemotherapy. Skin tests, total leukocyte counts, and T- and B-cell counts revealed variable and unpredictable changes. Phytohemagglutinin- and concanavalin A-induced blastogenesis tended to increase. Of 10 patients, 8 had a significant decrease in serum C3 levels after completion of C. parvum therapy, possibly due to an increased C3 consumption by macrophages activated by the immunostimulant. That nonspecific immune stimulation after repeated iv infusions of an immunostimulant can by itself induce regression in disseminated disease does not agree with the current concept that immunotherapy can be effective only against minimal residual disease. The therapeutic procedure proposed here, though frequently associated with moderate short-lasting side effects, is devoid of serious toxicity.

Acute-phase reactant proteins reach abnormally high levels in patients with cancer, and correlate with the extent of disease. In this study, several acute-phase glycoproteins, and serum albumin as a control, were tested at different concentrations for their ability to modify the blastogenic response of lymphocytes from 30 normal donors to PHA and the chemotactic response of monocytes from 15 normal donors to casein. In high concentrations approximating those found in cancer patients, but not in normal concentrations, haptoglobin and fibrinogen inhibited both functions to different degrees. Orosomucoid inhibited only monocyte chemotaxis, while ceruloplasmin and alpha 1-antitrypsin affected neither function. Increasing concentrations of PHA did not overcome the blocking effect of haptoglobin and fibrinogen on blastogenesis, suggesting that PHA-protein interaction was not responsible for the effect observed. The three proteins that did not suppress blastogenesis individually did so strongly when combined. It is suggested that these glycoproteins, synthesized by the liver in response to an inflammatory stimulus, may act as 'non-specific blocking factors' protecting tumors against the host's immunological attack. This non-specific blocking activity of the acute-phase proteins may contribute to the 'immune escape' of the tumor.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and regional lymph node lymphocytes (LNL) were isolated by mechanical disaggregation and density gradient centrifugation from 30 untreated human lung tumors and 12 BCG-injected human lung tumors. Lymphocyte populations were characterized by their ability to form erythrocyte (E)-rosettes, erythrocyte-antibody-complement, and erythrocyte-antibody gamma-rosettes, by their proportion of esterase-staining cells, and by their responses in mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC), cell-mediated lympholysis (CML). and natural killer (NK) assays. TIL from untreated tumors had low proportions of E-rosetting cells (mean, 27.3%), relatively high proportions of "null" cells, and poor responses in MLC-CML and NK assays. There were no significant differences between primary lung tumors and lung metastases in rosettes, MLC-CML responses, or NK activity. In contrast, TIL from tumors injected with BCG 14 days before resection had higher proportions of E-rosetting cells (47.8%) and vigorous MLC-CML and NK responses. LNL from 11 patients with untreated tumors had higher proportions of E-rosetting cells (40.5%) than LNL from 9 patients with BCG-injected tumors (35.0%) and LNL from patients with untreated tumors had higher responses than LNL from treated patients in MLC-CML assays. These results suggest that the BCG injection induced an infiltration of functionally reactive NK and T-cells at the tumor site without an associated increased activity of T-cells from regional lymph nodes.