Posts Tagged: international

In honor of International Education Week (IEW), we wanted to spotlight one of our many member institutions doing exemplary work in the field. Although SUNY Oswego has a study abroad participation rate of over 20 percent—more than double the national average—campus leaders have recognized the need to deliver global learning to all students.

In the increasingly globalized world of the 21st century, colleges and universities are recognizing the need to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to live and work across borders. The big problem, however, is that in the United States, few students ever have this type of experience. Robin Helms looks at the options to give students international experiences beyond study abroad.

On Dec. 17, 2014, President Obama announced that he was restoring full diplomatic relations with Cuba, a historic decision that is ending over 50 years of frozen relations. Higher education has been one of the main beneficiaries of these early efforts. Beth Stroble, president of Webster University in Missouri, explores the future for continued cooperation between U.S. and Cuban institutions.

Each year, ACE offers the Institute for Leading Internationalization, a professional development experience designed for campus leaders who have a critical role in advancing internationalization on their campuses. Cari Vanderkar Moore, director of the Cal Poly International Center, discusses her experience attending the Institute.

ACE’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement’s 2014 report, Mapping International Joint and Dual Degrees: U.S. Program Profiles and Perspectives explores the landscape of such programs in the United States, including characteristics and policies, academic focus areas, partner locations and programmatic challenges, and their role in broader institutional strategy and planning.

Robin Matross Helms, associate director of research for ACE’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement, on the three main takeaways from Monday morning’s session on “Global Learning for All: Modest Budgets and Creative Strategies.”

For many United States colleges and universities, increasing international student enrollment has become a strategic priority. Such students often pay full tuition, and amid state funding and other cutbacks, admissions offices are increasingly reaching across national borders in their recruiting campaigns. But that’s not the only reason to go international, writes Robin Matross Helms.

“We’re in a society that’s on a collision course with itself if we don’t figure out how to really live together across differences to create a world community,” says Yolanda Moses, associate vice chancellor for Diversity, Excellence, and Equity at the University of California, Riverside.

Prospects for alternative measures of institutional achievement have been welcomed by many for their potential to focus on institutional progress through the lens of student learning outcomes assessment. Several international organizations have taken an especially strong interest in this aspect of accountability, particularly the OECD, write Brad Farnsworth and Patti McGill Peterson.

Higher education leaders too often look to the recruitment of students from abroad as the single cure-all to create an internationalized campus. While that is one of several steps institutions can take, it’s not enough on its own. By only recruiting students from abroad, institutions are missing a vital part of campus internationalization: The experiences and preparation of U.S. students.

Montgomery County Community College (PA) recently formed an innovative partnership with Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea. The partnership, Montco’s first and the only global community college agreement of its kind in Pennsylvania, will allow students to easily transfer to Dongseo to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

The New York Times reports that Texas A&M leaders and Israeli officials, joined by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, will assemble in Jerusalem Wednesday to announce the creation of Peace University, to be built in Nazareth. It will be the first branch campus in Israel opened by an American university, The Times writes.