U.S. university officials, who took part in a historic delegation to Cuba Oct 25–Nov 1 led by IIE, found that Cuban higher education officials expressed a resounding desire to develop partnerships with their U.S. counterparts. The delegation, which is part of IIE’s Cuba Higher Education Initiative, was a first step toward cultivating relationships and exploring potential areas of cooperation. The U.S. campus representatives have returned to their colleges and universities with the intent to develop strategic plans for increasing partnership activities with Cuban institutions. Expected outcomes include new study abroad programs, faculty exchange, joint conferences or symposia, joint publications, and faculty-led courses to Cuba. 

Following the recent broadening of diplomatic dialogue between the United States and Cuba, IIE invites you to attend an IIENetwork National Conference Call on Advancing U.S. – Cuba Higher Education Collaboration. This call will provide first-hand information from delegates on recent historic higher education delegations coordinated by IIE and AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) in October and September of this year, respectively. Speakers will discuss opportunities, challenges, and potential models for increasing U.S. – Cuba academic cooperation. 

Allan E. Goodman, President and CEO, Institute of International Education 

Anny Morrobel-Sosa, Provost, Lehman College, CUNY

Muriel Howard, President, American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)

Shawn Conner, Associate Director, International Partnerships, Indiana University

Congress is currently working on an FY16 omnibus bill to fund the federal government past December 11, when the Continuing Resolution currently keeping the government running expires. As the House and Senate Appropriations Committees finalize their work on this omnibus bill, they must be reminded of the importance of strong exchanges funding in FY16. The Bipartisan Budget Act reached by Congress in late October will increase non-defense spending, which includes Department of State activities such as exchanges by $25 billion this year. Consequently, the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittees, in charge of the exchanges appropriation, will have additional resources to allocate to priorities. Please urge Congress to ensure that State Department exchanges will be among those priorities. Many thanks for your help and for raising your voice for international exchange!

The Assistant Director, Outreach and Publicity is a new position with the dynamic Fulbright Outreach and Publicity team. This position is an exceptional opportunity for a candidate with supervisory skills and proven experience with social media marketing strategy. The Assistant Director focuses on four key areas: day-to-day management of the Fulbright Student Outreach Division; ensure that key milestones/deliverables are met internally and externally; manage two to three direct reports and respond to time sensitive ad hoc reports as requested by the sponsor or IIE senior management.

The Language Flagship is a national initiative designed to change the way Americans learn languages through a groundbreaking approach to language education for students from kindergarten through college. Started in 2002, it is an initiative of the National Security Education Program (NSEP), managed by IIE, which leads the nation in designing, supporting, and implementing a new paradigm for advanced language education. As the Program Director, you will work with the sponsor and university colleagues to identify institutions that are the best fit for the program and working with them as they implement new curricular designs.

The Pershing Square Foundation is seeking a Program Director to oversee all foundation operations under direction of, and reporting to, the CEO. The Foundation supports exceptional leaders and innovative organizations that tackle important social issues and deliver scalable and sustainable impact. It is a private family foundation based in New York, founded in December 2006 by Karen and Bill Ackman. Candidates should have at least a BA/BS, seven years of experience, and must be familiar with nonprofit finance and accounting issues and regulations. Contact: otflatto@persq.org.

In collaboration with the Boston College Center for International Higher Education, ACE's Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement announced the release of two new reports:

This report analyzes the array of government-initiated higher education internationalization programs and policies in place around the world. The report presents numerous policy examples and examines issues surrounding their implementation and effectiveness.

This companion piece takes an in-depth look at internationalization-related federal policies in the United States and includes recommendations to improve their effectiveness. It addresses the question of whether the United States needs a comprehensive national policy for internationalization.

Universities in Africa and African-born academics in the United States and Canada can now apply for funding to take part in joint projects as part of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP). Carnegie Corporation of New York has announced a renewal grant to IIE that aims to support 140 collaborative projects in 2016 and 2017, building on the success of the first two years of the program. Project requests from universities and applications from scholars are due by December 8, 2015, and projects can begin as early as May 2016. The CADFP Advisory Council seeks applications for innovative projects, and specifically encourages projects that involve collaboration among multiple institutions or from groups of faculty who are addressing related topics.

Project GO (Global Officer) gives student credit and supports overseas semester or summer abroad language study for ROTC students. There are 25 higher education institutions that offer Project GO scholarships. Students receive credit from the higher education institution and, depending on the program, can receive anywhere from 6 to 12 language credit hours for their summer language study.

Project GO is an initiative of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office and administered by IIE. It provides fully funded scholarships to students commissioning through Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC to study critical languages domestically and abroad. Since 2007, Project GO has awarded scholarships to more than 3,500 ROTC students. Students can apply to study the following languages in summer 2016: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.