The Institute of International Education
The judge of international education innovation in this instance is the Institute of International Education. According to their website, the Institute of International Education (IIE) is a private nonprofit organization founded in 1919 in order to counter growing isolationism in the United States. In collaboration with governments, foundations and other sponsors, IIE creates programs of study and training for students, educators and professionals from all sectors, including their very well-known Fulbright Program and Gilman Scholarships. IIE also conducts policy research, provides resources on international exchange opportunities, and offers support to scholars in danger who require safe haven and assistance from political persecution or environmental crises, for examples.
The IIE Innovation Awards: Who Won, and Why
First, it is instructive to understand what IIE values as innovative international education. Per their site, they are "particularly interested in highlighting initiatives that remove institutional barriers and broaden the base of participation in international teaching and learning on campus...and innovative ideas that will help international education professionals create and sustain new opportunities for students and faculty."
The Institute of International Education held their tenth annual Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education this past March of 2011, as part of its conference for campus professionals, the Sixth Annual Best Practices in Internationalization Conference. The awards honor the most outstanding initiatives in international higher education among the members of their IIENetwork, IIE’s membership association of more than 1,000 higher education institutions. This year’s awards recognized (so-called) best practices in the categories of Internationalizing the Campus: Business Education; Best Practices in International Partnerships: U.S.-Spain Academic Cooperation, co-sponsored by Fundación Universidad.es; Internationalizing the Community College; International Partnerships; and Study Abroad.
This year's winner of the Internationalizing the Campus with a special focus on business education award was the College of Wooster (Ohio-small liberal arts college of 2000 students) for design and implementation of their Global Social Entrepreneurship (Global SE)program. It began in 2009 when students, faculty, staff and alumni collaborated to design an innovative program that would reach all majors, specifically in under-represented fields like business. The program has two components: an on-campus seminar in Wooster, Ohio and a six-week experiential-learning consultancy with social enterprises in Bangalore, India. Students and faculty design a problems-based curriculum that is then studied from each student's disciplinary perspective and through the lens of the social enterprise they work for. Global SE aims to promote “global citizenship and entrepreneurship for the global good.”
The winner of the Best Practices in International Partnerships: U.S.-Spain Academic Cooperation Award (the first award to include a category distinguishing academic partnerships between the U.S. and a specific country) was the University of Nebraska Lincoln & University of Castilla-La Mancha, Harold E. Spencer Exchange in Teacher Education. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL- a land grant and research institution; over 17,000 undergraduate & over 4,700 graduate students) and the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) are partners in the Harold E. Spencer Exchange in Teacher Education. The program consists of three components: immersion in language and culture; academic course work in pedagogy; and a teaching practicum in elementary and secondary schools. This integration of academic work and service learning refine students’ understanding of pedagogy and second-language acquisition as these disciplines are applied cross-culturally between the U.S. and Spain.
The Internationalizing the Community College Award winner was Houston Community college's combined International Business and Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management program (Houston Community College is one of the largest institutions of higher education in the country with more than 70,000 students each semester, including more international students -nearly 8%-than any community college in the country, according to their website). Innovative ideas contributed to its students and the Houston community include the Export Fellows program, which began in 2006 and introduced students to basic exporting concepts presented by active practitioners and led students to form their own export companies (one exporting used cars to Kazakhstan, and another exporting medical equipment to Tunisia). The program helps students enter the marketplace with new skill sets in demand in the Houston area.
The Georgetown University Law Center's Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS) won this year's International Partnerships Award. This professional studies center now links 24 leading law schools on five continents. Each school sends students, and in many cases faculty, for a one- or, in limited cases, two-semester-long program focused on a specially designed transnational curriculum. The Center’s academic purpose is to examine transnational legal issues from within a transnational educational context. While the school is located in London and instruction takes place in English, there is no “host school”, “local faculty”, or “domestic legal context.” In time, the Center aspires to become a global legal crossroads, engaging not only academics but practitioners and others as well.
The Study Abroad winner was Northeastern University's Dialogue of Civilizations Program that connects Northeastern University students with their peers around the world for a series of meetings on specific themes, such as language, conflict resolution, public health, civil engineering or music industry. With some 950 students and 50 faculty participating in five-week summer study abroad annually through Dialogues, faculty and students return to the Northeastern campus each fall with a greater understanding of global issues and determination to bring that knowledge into classroom and campus activities. In 2010, there were 49 Dialogue programs at Northeastern (a private research university with over 15,000 undergraduates and over 3,000 graduate students).
In summary, the IIE Innovation Awards seem to recognize institutions across Carnegie classification categories, and focuses particularly on innovation that promotes both growth and creative enterprise with respect to international higher education.
What UNC Offers
What does our institution offer in the way of international programs and services? A broad array, upon inspection of the UNC Center for International Education website. Our center provides academic, cultural and educational support for international and American students and advocates for a global perspective on the UNC campus. Programs include: Per the departmental website, staff work both individually and collaboratively to provide the services necessary to support both international students and scholars as well as the growing numbers of UNC students and faculty involved in education abroad. Their goals and mission as stated are identical: to enrich the education of all UNC students by providing an enhanced awareness of our interconnected world.
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