The Institute of International Education led a U.S. higher education delegation to Myanmar last week to explore potential partnership opportunities. The delegation was part of a broader IIE Myanmar higher education initiative which seeks to help the country rebuild its higher education capacity. Allan Goodman, the Institute’s President and CEO, led the delegation, together with Meghann Curtis, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs, and representatives from the U.S. Embassy. 

The delegation visited universities, organizations, and government entities in Yangon, Mandalay, and Naypyidaw. Participants visited nine universities throughout Myanmar and engaged in in-depth discussions with several government ministries, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Health. To build academic engagement between the two countries, delegation members gave lectures and workshops for hundreds of faculty and staff members at the universities they visited. 

To learn more, read Allan Goodman’s posts about the trip on IIE’s blog Opening Minds or read the press release. 

ELS Educational Services has established a scholarship program to provide English language training to scholars supported by the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF). Most SRF scholars in the United States have visiting fellowships to teach or continue their research. Since a majority of the rescued scholars do not speak English as their native language, ELS will provide full tuition scholarships to the SRF scholars and their spouses at any of the 63 ELS Language Centers across the United States. The ELS scholarship will play a key role in ensuring the scholars’ academic contributions to their host institutions while also helping them better navigate their new environment.

The Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund assists professors, researcher and public intellectuals who are at risk of imprisonment or physical harm due to war, terrorism, political repression, human rights violation, or issues of gender, religious belief or denial of the right to express their views. Since its inception in 2002, SRF has assisted nearly 500 scholars from 48 countries, placing them at nearly 300 safe haven universities in 40 countries around the world, so they can escape from the harassment, discrimination and repression when they faced in their home countries. 

Click here to read the press release. 

For the first time, Times Higher Education magazine has included India in its World Reputation Rankings. According to the rankings, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, is top, followed by IIT Bombay, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi respectively. The reputation rankings are based on the expert judgment of senior, published academics. For the full rankings, visit the Times Higher Education website.

Over 100,000 international students studied in Canada in 2012, Canadian Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced. This is the first time that so many students have studied in the country, a 60 percent increase from 2004. Read more at the Canada Ministry of Citizenship of Immigration’s website.

Emerging economies have been working hard to expand their research and development capabilities, and are showing significant advances, according to a new Thomson Reuters report. The report, "Building Bricks:  Exploring the Global Research Impact of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Korea," tracks global research publications, R&D expenditures and patent filings over a 10-year period to gauge benchmarks of economic innovation in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Korea. The study finds that China and South Korea have made larger investments, produced more published research and filed a greater number of patent applications over the past decade than the rest of the group. The full report is available on the Thomson Reuters website. 

The Institute of International Education and Syria Deeply will host a panel discussion and networking reception on March 12 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. on the occasion of Open Education Week. 

The event will bring together school leaders, teachers, university faculty, government, business sector, nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders to explore how to infuse U.S. classrooms with foreign policy and global awareness to ensure that students are prepared for life and work in the globally interconnected 21st century. This discussion will explore frameworks for change, including what to teach and how to teach (i.e. how does technology affect teaching and learning); the role of funding agencies and government in promoting and leading change; and how to use technology. 

R.S.V.P. by March 8, 2013.

The Institute of International Education’s Center for International Partnerships invites you to attend the first annual IIE Strategic International Partnerships Workshop.  This day-long event will feature hands-on strategic planning exercises, country-specific updates and strategies, and best practices on building strategic partnerships. Designed for both U.S. and international education leaders, this workshop will help higher education institutions articulate and advance strategic partnership goals. Conference sessions will be led by experts in the field. Representatives from Embassies will be invited to provide updates on new initiatives in key countries. Registration opens June 2013.  

If you would like to receive an email when registration opens, please email cip@iie.org.

This year’s theme, Global Imperatives – Local Realities, will focus on the key global, regional and local drivers that influence and shape international education. Call for session proposals closes April 5. For more information, visit the conference website. 

Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego

The four-day conference is devoted to planned programs of scholarly papers, roundtable discussions, workshops, and panel sessions on a wide range of issues in research and teaching, and on Asian affairs in general. For more information, visit the conference website. 

The Whitaker International Undergraduate Program provides undergraduate biomedical/bioengineers (and those in a related field) funding for a semester or one academic year to pursue coursework, research, or an internship, in an international setting that is approved by their home university, which is relevant to biomedical engineering (BME).  Award amounts range from $7,500 for a semester program to $10,000 for an academic year program.

To be eligible for the award, an applicant must:

• Have U.S. citizenship or be permanent residents of the U.S., and

• Be enrolled as a Sophomore (2nd year), Junior (3rd year), or Senior (4th or 5th year), with at least one semester remaining, in an undergraduate BME (or related major) degree program with good academic standing.

Students who already have the cost of the program fully covered may not apply for the scholarship and receive duplicate funding.  However, if the program is only partially funded by another source, the applicant may apply. A student may apply to attend any overseas academic institution that is endorsed by the student’s study abroad advisor. The advisor must certify that the program is approved by the home institution. The advisor must also certify the student’s financial aid.

The Adobe Foundation Creativity Scholarships program, a new scholarship managed by IIE’s San Francisco office, is now accepting applications. The Adobe Foundation Creativity Scholarships program provides financial support to students from around the world who have participated in Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) and will attend an accredited post-secondary degree or certificate program. The scholarship is intended to help AYV participants continue their education, pursue creative careers, and find innovative ways to improve their communities.

 

AYV is Adobe’s global Corporate Social Responsibility initiative focused on teaching youth from underserved communities the power of creative self-expression and global citizenship. The AYV network includes more than 800 sites in 52 countries. The application is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi, Japanese, Kannada, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

 

For more information, please contact Stacey Chapple at AdobeScholarship@iie.org. 

IIE/India is pleased to announce the launch of the Avery Dennison InvEnt Scholarship Program in India and China for the year 2012-13. This program is designed to recognize and reward invention, innovation, and excellence in high-achieving students in the field of science, engineering and technology at select higher education institutions in India and China. In the second year of the program in India, ten undergraduate students will be awarded scholarships, and in the fifth year of the program in China, ten new scholarships and twenty-two renewal scholarships will be awarded. IIE’s New Delhi and Hong Kong offices will engage in outreach and selections, followed by administration of the award ceremony in the next few months.

Young Explorers Grants help cover field project costs for individuals ages 18 to 25 pursuing research, conservation and exploration-related projects consistent with National Geographic's grant programs, including: the Committee for Research and Exploration (CRE), the Expeditions Council (EC) and the Conservation Trust (CT). With the support of the Henry Luce Foundation's Asia Program, National Geographic has expanded the Young Explorers Grant program to include more opportunities for fieldwork in 18 Northeast and Southeast Asian countries. 

Through the existing Young Explorers Grant program, National Geographic is accepting applications from hard-working, passionate, creative young individuals from all over the world who are interested in doing fieldwork in Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

From March 7-10, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with the Institute of International Education (IIE), will host a Fulbright Enrichment Seminar in St. Louis, Missouri, for over 100 first-year Fulbright Foreign Students from more than 70 countries. St. Louis was chosen as the host city for the event because of its rich role in the development of the United States and its current urban revitalization efforts, which the students will experience firsthand. 

Seminar participants will explore the theme, "Impact of 19th Century Westward Expansion in Contemporary St. Louis," examining its historical and contemporary impact on the development of the community. Fulbright Foreign Students will also donate their time and skills to assist a variety of local organizations through community service projects involving neighborhood revitalization. Read the full press release. 

The Fulbright Scholar Program is pleased to announce an exciting new innovation for applicants in the field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).   For the 2014-15 competition, U.S. scholars wishing to apply for teaching or teaching/research grants will be able to broaden the number of countries in which they can be considered for a grant. Due to the perennial interest across the globe in strengthening programs in English-language instruction, scholars in TEFL are being sought in each of Fulbright’s six world regions:  Western Hemisphere, Europe and Eurasia, South and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Middle East and North Africa. 

While most Fulbright Scholar applications are for a single country program (with the exception of Regional Research Programs), candidates for the Fulbright Global TEFL Awards are encouraged to consider a wider set of options.  Applicants may select up to three countries, one world region, or simply indicate no preference, leaving placement open to any country.

For more information, visit the Fulbright Scholar blog. 

The Fulbright UK Summer Institutes provide the opportunity for U.S. undergraduates (aged over 18), with at least two years of undergraduate study left to complete, to come to the UK on a three, four, five or six week academic and cultural summer program. Participants will get the opportunity to experience an exciting academic program at a highly regarded UK University, explore the culture, heritage and history of the UK and develop their academic ability by improving presentation, research and communication skills.  

Full details, selection criteria and application forms are available on the UK Summer Institute website. 

 

For further information, please contact Valerie Schreiner, Programme Coordinator-Summer Institutes at Valerie@fulbright.org.uk.