Please join us for the 10th Annual IIE Best Practices in International Education Conference on March 20, 2015, in New York City. This event will cover many exciting keynote, plenary, and session themes, and will feature high-level experts, including presidents, provosts, and international education administrators from institutions around the world. In addition, a special awards portion of the conference will honor the winners of the 2015 IIE Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education. 

 

Please register at your earliest convenience, as registration is limited to space capacity. IIENetwork members receive a registration discount. 

 

Conference sessions will feature best practices in the following areas:

• Opening Keynote by James B. Milliken, Chancellor, The City University of New York
• Afternoon Keynote by representative from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State
• Strategic Planning for Comprehensive Internationalization
• Best Practices in Expanding Participation in Study Abroad
• New Strategies for Global Engagement and Partnerships

IIE Vice President for External Affairs and IIE Initiatives, Daniela Kaisth, shares her experience at the expert seminar "Higher Education in Emergencies," organized and hosted by the Global Platform for Syrian Students. The event—which was co-organized by IIE, the Arab League, British Council, and Council of Europe—brought together NGOs, multilateral agencies, governments, and universities to discuss ways to combine humanitarian efforts with support for higher education when responding to conflicts and other emergencies. "Getting a scholarship is just one step in a long road," Ms. Kaisth is quoted saying in an Al-Fanar Media article on the event.

A Chronicle of Higher Education article by Madeline Will reports on Berkeley’s plans to open a "global campus" partnered with universities from around the world in nearby Richmond Bay, CA. "The Berkeley Global Campus, officials say, will offer a ‘global citizenship’ curriculum—with a focus on topics like governance, ethics, health, and sustainability—for graduate students from the United States and abroad," writes Will.

In a recent edition of International Higher Education, Rahul Choudaha from World Education Services argues for international recruitment strategies based on rigorous research and assessment. "Lack of thorough examination before designing strategies often results in inefficient, expensive, and unsustainable enrollment strategies," writes Choudaha. "Institutions can better inform their strategies if each one intentionally assesses needs, behaviors, and profiles of international students in its unique context."

A recent article in PIE Weekly shares highlights of a policy paper by the education company EF, which links top innovative economies with English proficiency. The report "identifies key skills that are required by companies in order to be innovative and contribute to the creation of healthy economies," according the the article. "The framework it proposes focuses on short and long-term strategies industry and government should work together to implement including improving English proficiency, communication skills and dialogue between policy and business needs."

A recent New York Times "Room for Debate" asks whether setting up U.S. branch campuses, degree programs, and research centers abroad are hurting or helping American higher education. Stacie Berdan, author of IIE’s A Student Guide to Study Abroad, argues that satellite campuses don’t provide many of the benefits that traditional study abroad would, such as in-depth cultural immersion. "Although U.S. students attending these satellite campuses are actually living in the host country, they’re still part of the American education system," writes Berdan.

DAAD invites representatives from universities, research institutions, and funding agencies in the United States and Canada, as well as colleagues from the fields of education policy and politics to join the "Germany Today" Information Tour 2015.

DAAD’s information tour "Germany Today 2015" is designed to give participants both a broader overview of Germany’s higher education landscape and a more in-depth understanding of recent developments on the government level as well as within individual institutions. The program will explore funding opportunities, internationalization strategies, and the potential for co-operation between German and North American institutions. 

North American participants in this program are typically senior administrators at leading universities in the U.S. and Canada (such as vice presidents for international affairs or heads of international offices), policy makers in federal and state/provincial governments or associations, and other experts in the higher education field.

Please contact Ms. Uta Gaedeke at DAAD’s New York Office at 212-758-3223 x209 or at gaedeke@daad.org for further information.

The deadline for the Confucius China Studies Program (CCSP) Joint Research Ph.D. Fellowship is coming up on February 12, 2015 for awards beginning in the fall of 2015. The CCSP Fellowship provides generous funding for doctoral students in the Arts, Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences who are specializing in the study of China. Awards range from a minimum of 6 months to up to 2 years. 

The Fellowship is open to both U.S. citizens and international students (although citizens of China will not be eligible.) 

The CCSP Fellowship includes:

• An annual living stipend of 80,000 RMB (approximately 13,000 USD)
• Host university tuition 
  
• Reimbursement for the cost of roundtrip, economy class airfare 
• Insurance coverage 
• Pre-departure orientation at IIE’s headquarters in New York 
• An annual research stipend (20,000 RMB, approximately 3,200 USD)
• Airfare coverage for a research visit to China by the recipient’s home university advisor

For more information, contact Steven Dale at sdale@iie.org.

The Institute of International Education (IIE) invites you to submit a proposal to host a 2015 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Summer Orientation. 

Scheduled throughout the month of August, the Fulbright FLTA orientations are designed to provide the Fulbright FLTA Grantees with an introduction to the academic and social cultures of U.S. institutions, a platform for networking with fellow FLTA Grantees and facilitation of their transition into the program before arriving at their host institution. 

For 2015, the Division of Foreign Fulbright Programs at IIE plans to select approximately seven orientations that will accommodate between sixty to sixty-five Grantees each. Applicants are requested to administer a five-day program that will include two travel days and three core days.  

All Applicants who intend to apply to host a Fulbright FLTA Summer Orientation Program will be required to submit:

• A Proposal Narrative via an online survey.
• A budget plan (figures inserted into a provided template) to FLTAEvents@iie.org.
• A program schedule (as per a provided template) to FLTAEvents@iie.org.

Please email Lauren Graves (lgraves@iie.org) with questions or to request a copy of the official Request for Proposal and copies of all aforementioned required documents. Budget Templates and Program Schedule outlines must be submitted electronically to FLTAEvents@iie.org by February 16, 2015. After review, each applicant will be notified by March 11, 2015, if his or her application has been accepted or declined by IIE.

 

Are you responsible for international partnerships at your institution? If so, please take a few minutes to participate in a new survey conducted by the Institute of International Education in cooperation with Freie Universität Berlin. 

 

Strategic international partnerships are a relatively new but growing phenomenon in the higher education sector. This global survey seeks to assess the nature and dynamics of such transnational arrangements between higher education institutions in various countries and regions. The responses collected from this survey will provide the higher education community with the latest trends on strategic international partnerships from a multitude of perspectives, and contribute to the growing body of empirical data on this topic. The results will also be synthesized into a chapter in the upcoming IIE/DAAD publication, Global Perspectives on Strategic International Partnerships (May 2015).

Should you have any questions about the survey, please contact cip@iie.org.

Lisa Saltagi provides advice to on the Go Overseas blog to students, advisors, and parents on how to encourage more students with disabilities to study abroad. Saltagi references IIE research, which indicates a rising interest among these students, but argues that numbers could be higher. For advisors, she recommends ways to spread awareness and understanding. For students she suggests ways to research opportunities and key questions to ask. Go Overseas is a Generation Study Abroad Commitment Partner.

On October 1-2, 2015, the inaugural IIE Summit on Generation Study Abroad will bring commitment partners together in Washington, D.C. to highlight their progress and create positive new solutions. The Summit is an exciting opportunity to engage and showcase commitment partners from all sectors and will feature high-level plenary debates, action-oriented sessions, think tanks and networking opportunities, as well as an engaging expo hall, to mobilize commitments and inspire new actions. 

The 2015 IIE Summit on Generation Study Abroad will explore best practices and lessons learned and how institutions and organizations are advancing their commitments to Generation Study Abroad through the framework of four major themes: 

• How does study abroad build a globally minded workforce?
• How can study abroad be redefined and rebranded for today's global economy?
• What is the impact of study abroad?
• What innovative solutions are most effective in increasing study abroad participation? 

IIE invites proposals that highlight best practices, ideas, and innovations that address these themes and advance the collective Generation Study Abroad goal of significantly expanding and scaling education abroad. We also encourage proposals that reflect the spirit of collaboration across sectors. For more information, or to submit proposals, visit: www.iie.org/Programs/Generation-Study-Abroad/Generation-Study-Abroad-Summit/Proposals.

IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) encourages nominations from universities and other partners who know of professors, senior researchers, or public intellectuals facing threats to their lives or academic work. Fellowships support temporary academic positions at colleges, universities, and other research institutions outside the scholars' home countries anywhere in the world.

IIE-SRF formalizes an unwavering commitment to preserve the lives, voices, and ideas of scholars around the globe. Since IIE-SRF's founding in 2002, the program has awarded fellowships to nearly 600 scholars from 52 countries, arranging visiting academic positions at more than 300 partner institutions in 40 countries.

Please refer eligible candidates to srf@iie.org.