The American Council of Education's Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement (CIGE) has released of the first two editions of CIGE Insights: Global Higher Education—a series of papers exploring key issues and themes faced by higher education institutions around the world.

This paper explores issues discussed by North American and European institutional leaders at the summer 2012 Trans-Atlantic Dialogue, including the impact of the economic downturn on internationalization efforts, the role of student mobility, curriculum and co-curriculum in internationalization, language and cultural issues inherent in global engagement, and student learning assessment.

This paper explores key issues surrounding the global engagement of higher education and asserts that institutions are better served in partnerships abroad if they have undergone the process of comprehensive internationalization first. Topics include models for collaboration, institutional "foreign relations" policies, fiscal motivations for global engagement, and higher education's role in national interests and public diplomacy.