These are fluid, dynamic times for partnership
development, in which institutions are rethinking what they want from
partnerships, recognizing both the value and the responsibilities that
come with linking to another institution, exercising more intentionality
and prioritization, and re-imagining themselves not as ensconced
scholarly communities but as participants in a global community of
higher education. —Jane Gatewood and Susan Buck Sutton,
Internationalization in Action (2017)
ACE’s Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses
report released earlier this year showed a substantial uptick in
international partnership activity since 2008. U.S. institutions are
using international collaboration to make progress toward their goals
for student learning, education abroad, international student
enrollment, research production, and more.
But we see big differences in the level of partnership activity across U.S. higher education sectors. For example, the Mapping report
found that 63 percent of doctoral institutions responding to the survey
have increased partnership activity in the last three years, whereas 44
percent of associate-level institutions reported having no partnerships
at all.
A number of new initiatives at ACE’s Center
for Internationalization and Global Engagement (CIGE) aim to support all
types of institutions seeking to create new international partnerships
and strengthen existing ones. Here is a glimpse of what we are doing:
Bilateral Dialogues
On Oct. 5, CIGE joined with the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education
(SIU) to organize a dialogue between 11 university representatives from
Norway and 10 from the United States interested in greater cooperation
with the other country.
The group discussed a range of shared goals
and interests—from student exchange to climate science research—as well
as some key differences and challenges to expanded activity. Susan Buck
Sutton, ACE senior internationalization advisor and a leading expert on
international partnerships, noted the potential for Norway to become a
more popular destination for U.S. students because of courses offered in
English, the availability of student housing, and the overall high
quality of Norwegian higher education.
Some institutions around the table, including
George Mason University (VA), have received funding for their
partnership activities from SIU, an agency of the Norwegian Ministry of
Education. ACE and SIU are exploring ways to further support this type
of collaboration.
The U.S.-Norway dialogue was the latest in a
series of partnership-focused meetings that ACE has organized with
counterpart national associations. As part of ACE2017, ACE’s 99th Annual
Meeting in Washington, DC, CIGE and Universities UK
arranged a dialogue between U.S. attendees and a delegation of
international education leaders from the United Kingdom. CIGE also
worked with the Association of Colombian Universities to
facilitate networking for a group of Colombian university rectors
attending ACE2017 whose participation was supported by the U.S. Embassy
in Bogotá.
CIGE Global Connections
In December, CIGE will launch its first Global Connections program, a four-day site visit to London for selected U.S. higher education leaders organized in partnership with Universities UK International
(UUK). During the “U.K. Networking Intensive,” U.S. participants will
meet with counterparts in London, deepen their understanding of the
British higher education system, and spend one day on a university
campus. CIGE director Robin Matross Helms will lead the program, along
with Sean O’Conner, head of international engagement (non-EU) at UUK.
The idea for the Global Connections-U.K.
program grew out of the U.S.-U.K. dialogue that took place during
ACE2017 and follows recommendations from CIGE’s May 2017 report, U.K.-U.S. Higher Education Partnerships: Firm Foundations and Promising Pathways (2 MB PDF).
Research and Resources
A number of recent CIGE publications focus on
good practices for developing and managing international higher
education partnerships and on specific bilateral relationships between
U.S. institutions and partners abroad.
The current series of CIGE’s "Internationalization in Action"
online reports explores four key aspects of international partnerships:
definitions and dimensions, strategic planning, institutional support
structures, and individual partnerships. Two of the four installments
are now available, and the others will be posted soon. Each installment
includes links to institutional programs and policies, and recommends
good practices. Authors for the series are senior international
education leaders who have primary responsibility on their campuses for
managing partnerships.
Two recent CIGE Insights reports take stock
of existing higher education partnership activity between the United
States and Mexico and the United States and the United Kingdom, with
recommendations for strengthening and expanding collaboration with both
countries:
The next in this series of CIGE Insights reports will look at the status of U.S.-Japan higher education relations.
The 2017 edition of CIGE’s signature report Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses documents trends in partnership strategy, staffing, guidelines, geographic focus, and scope of activity.
CIGE’s online Internationalization Toolkit features a section dedicated to collaboration and partnerships, with examples of programs and agreements, policies, and assessment methods from a wide range of higher education institutions.
ACE Working Group on Global Partnerships
Nearly a third of institutions that responded
to the 2016 Mapping Internationalization survey said they employ a
staff member whose primary responsibility is developing and managing
international partnerships.
In 2014, ACE began informally convening a
group of these professionals with the goal of learning more about their
roles on campus, emerging issues and trends in the field of partnership
management, and the group’s needs for professional development support.
Several members have contributed their insights to the current series of
Internationalization in Action focused on partnerships.
COIL/Virtual Exchange
The use of online communication for
internationalizing student learning is rapidly expanding: In 2011, 20
percent of institutions responding to the Mapping survey reported
activity in this area, and by 2016 that had increased to 32 percent.
Collaborative Online International Learning
(COIL) is a pedagogical approach developed and promoted by the State
University of New York’s COIL Consulting Center
that involves shared teaching and learning between faculty and students
at partner institutions in two or more countries. In April, CIGE and
COIL Consulting organized the first-ever ACE COIL Leadership Academy for
campus teams interested in establishing or strengthening campus-wide
programs. On Nov. 1, ACE announced the U.S.-Japan COIL Initiative,
a two-year pilot project aimed at strengthening relations between U.S.
and Japanese institutions through new COIL collaborations, with funding
from the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo.
To learn more about CIGE’s resources and programs to support international higher education collaboration, contact us at cige@acenet.edu or +1-202-939-9300.
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