If your institution is seeking to develop strategic institutional partnerships with higher education institutions in Colombia, please consider applying for IIE's International Academic Partnership Program. IIE’s Center for International Partnerships is pleased to announce the Colombia international partnership initiative for the 2014-2015 cycle. For more information, or to download the IAPP application, please go to: www.iie.org/iapp.

IIE’s International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP) will guide a select a group of U.S. higher education institutions over the course of a year in strategic planning activities focused on implementing partnerships with counterparts in Colombia. Since 2009, IAPP has engaged over 100 U.S. higher education institutions in comprehensive, year-long programs aimed at increasing the number of partnerships between U.S. higher education institutions and their counterparts abroad. Past participants have increased faculty exchanges, implemented strategic partnership plans, initiated or expanded joint research efforts, and expanded study abroad offerings. 

Application Deadline: June 27, 2014 

Program Cycle: August 2014–July 2015 

Study Tour to Colombia: January or February 2015 (tentative) 

Program Cost: IIENetwork Members $12,500/Non-members $14,000 (This includes all in-country costs for one representative from your institution to travel on the IAPP study tour, not including international airfare.) 

1. Strategic planning process, including guidelines for assessing on-campus international partnership capacity and developing practical strategic plans for partnership activities in Colombia. 
2. Expert advice and guidance on developing or expanding a strategic plan for partnerships with Colombia by one of the members of the IAPP Advisory Board and IIE staff in the United States and abroad. 
3. A study tour to Colombia that will include visits with select higher education institutions, and representatives from the U.S. Embassy, EducationUSA, the Colombian Fulbright Commission, and other educational exchange organizations and government agencies . All in-country expenses for one representative from each institution will be covered as part of the program fees. Participants are responsible for covering their international airfare. 
4. A series of training webinars, focused on topics such as implementing strategic partnerships, faculty engagement, developing a consolidated partnership strategy, and higher education in Colombia. 
5. A suite of information resources on the higher education system in Colombia, and IIE publications and policy research reports. 

Morgan Clark 

Program Officer, Center for International Partnerships 

Institute of International Education 

Tel: +1 (212) 984-5405

Email: mclark@iie.org

A report entitled Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up was recently released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. "The expansion of graduate education across Asia is driven largely by the explosive growth in undergraduate enrollment over the last two decades. From the perspectives of many governments, expanding graduate education has an attractive secondary benefit: universities as centers of research will yield positive economic returns to the country. Through case studies and a wide range of data sources, the report examines policies and practices intended to improve university rankings and research outputs." This report also analyzes pockets of research excellence and international scientific collaboration across Asia.  

The Rockefeller Institute of Government of SUNY and the United Nations Academic Impact invite you to a forum, MOOCs in the Developing World: Democratization of Knowledge or Academic Hype?, on Thursday, June 19, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at the United Nations in New York City. (Please note: Attendees must report to the UN Visitor's Center entrance located at 1st Avenue and 47th Street at least 45 minutes prior for security screening and to be escorted to the conference venue. To facilitate the security screening process, each participant will need a form of valid photo identification.) The event is also sponsored by the Institute for International Education (IIE).

 

Will massive open online courses (MOOCs) provide worldwide access to quality higher education, as advocates maintain? Or will MOOCs, as critics fear, foster Western academic dominance, fail to serve those most in need, and undermine local institutions? These questions and more will be considered in a probing conversation featuring prominent global thought leaders offering a range of views on the pros and cons of MOOCs.

 

Moderating the conversation will be Ben Wildavsky, director of higher education studies at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, policy professor at the University at Albany (State University of New York), and author of the award-winning book The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World.

 

• Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, the high-profile MOOCs founded by Harvard and MIT. Agarwal will begin the forum with short remarks making the case for the benefits of MOOCs in the developing world. Agarwal taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, which drew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He has served as the director of CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. His work on Organic Computing was selected by Scientific American as one of 10 World-Changing Ideas in 2011, and he was named in Forbes' list of top 15 education innovators in 2012.     
• Philip G. Altbach, research professor and director of the Center for International Higher Education in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Altbach has been a senior associate of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and served as editor of the Review of Higher Education, Comparative Education Review, and as an editor of Educational Policy. He is the author of Turmoil and Transition: The International Imperative in Higher Education, Comparative Higher Education, Student Politics in America, The Road to Academic Excellence: The Making of World-Class Research Universities, Leadership for World-Class Universities: Challenges for Developing Countries, and (with Jorge Balan) World Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia and Latin America.   
• S. Sitaraman, senior vice president of the Ritnand Balved Educational Foundation, secretary general of the Amity Synergy Forums, and senior vice president of Amity University. Possessing global experience in management, Sitaraman has served on the faculty at leading higher education institutions throughout India and has lectured on the subjects of management and economics globally. 

To RSVP, please contact Michele Charbonneau at the Rockefeller Institute at (518) 443-5258 or by e-mail at michele.charbonneau@rockinst.suny.edu by June 10th.

 

These issues have attracted media attention in recent days. If your institution or organization is proactive about considering these and other significant issues, then it is vitally important to attend the 5th Annual Standards of Good Practice Institute on "Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety, Security and Risk Management."

 

This event is a one-day conference, conducted at an advanced level, with plenary and concurrent sessions. The Standards Institute intentionally features experts from outside education abroad, whose experience in related fields will inform our discussions. The Forum’s signature format of lively collegial dialogue fosters participants’ sharing strategies and tactics. 

 

To register for the Standards Institute, go to www.regonline.com/forum2014institutedenver. Additional details can be found at www.forumea.org/HealthInstitute14.cfm.

The Fulbright S-I-R Program assists U.S. higher education institutions in expanding programs of academic exchange. By supporting non-U.S. scholars through grants for teaching at institutions that might not have a strong international component, both the U.S. institution and the scholar grantee benefit. S-I-R gives preference to Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), community colleges, and small, liberal arts institutions.  There are opportunities for other campuses to partner with preference institutions. You are invited to learn how S-I-R can help advance your institution’s international presence, assist in faculty and curriculum development, and diversify the educational experiences of its students, scholars and surrounding community.  

For more information, visit our website or contact Cecilia Kocinski-Mulder.  

Application deadline: August 1

The Foundation for Educational Exchange Between Canada and the United States is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Norlien Foundation in Alberta. The Distinguished Research Chairs in Brain Science, and Child and Family Health and Wellness will support U.S. scholars interested in making an impact on health and wellness outcomes. Together with Alberta’s three research-intensive universities, the partnership will allow extraordinary American scholars and top-tier applied researchers to spend one semester working in a targeted area of academic inquiry. Of particular interest are the areas of mental health and addiction specifically, organizational management/health and social system improvement; addiction care and recovery; and child trauma.

Selected scholars will be encouraged to engage in collaborative research, and focus on practical implementation and policy innovation with scholars from three universities in Alberta. Candidates should be interested in outreach to community groups, NGOs, and the Government of Alberta.

Three chairs will be appointed annually, beginning in the fall of 2015. Interested candidates should contact Katrin DeWindt. 

The Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Program for Education Leadership will hold its fourth annual workshop in Doha, Qatar from November 1 – 3, 2014 and is currently accepting applications. The goal of the WISE Program is to enhance leadership skills for new university presidents and emerging higher education leaders from developing countries. Applicants must fulfill all of the following criteria in order to apply:

• The applicant must be a Vice Chancellor, Rector, President or chief executive officer at the university. The applicant must not be a subordinate official.
• The applicant must represent a higher education institution in a developing country
• The applicant must have assumed their current leadership position on or after January 1, 2013

The World Innovation Summit for Education was established by Qatar Foundation in 2009 under the patronage of its chairperson, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. WISE is an international, multisectoral initiative for creative thinking, debate, purposeful action and empowerment through education. Through ongoing programs and the annual Summit, WISE is a global platform for promoting collaboration and new approaches toward building the future of education.

If you are a current university president, vice-chancellor, rector, or other chief executive officer, or you would like to nominate someone to participate in the 2014 WISE Program for Education Leadership, please download the application and send, together with the applicant’s bio and CV, to nup@wise.org.qa by June 13, 2014.

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program is pleased to announce the fall 2014/AY 2014-2015 awards offered.  Eighty selection panelists from various colleges and universities across the nation met at the IIE office in Houston, Texas to review over 2,700 applications.  More than 800 outstanding students were selected to receive the scholarship to attend study abroad programs and career-oriented internships eligible for academic credit in countries all around the world starting this fall.  To view a list of selected Gilman Scholarship recipients, please visit www.iie.org/gilman.  

The Gilman International Scholarship Program is a congressionally funded program sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. Department of State and is administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE) through IIE’s office in Houston, Texas.  The Gilman Scholarship Program offers U.S. undergraduate students of high financial need grants of up to $5,000 to participate in a study abroad program or international internships eligible for academic credit.  Students studying a critical need language could be eligible to receive a grant of up to $8,000. The Gilman Program aims to diversify the kinds of students who study and intern abroad and the countries and regions where they go by supporting U.S. undergraduates who might otherwise not consider these unique and valuable opportunities due to financial constraints.