How to Enhance Your Internationalization with Existing Resources at Your University
- ivana104
- Sep 26, 2023
- 3 min read
Are you looking for ways to boost your internationalization efforts at your university? Do you want to achieve quick and tangible results with minimal resources and time? If so, you are in the right place!
In this blog post, I will show you how to use some of the existing resources that you already have at your university to enhance your internationalization. These resources are:
Your international faculty: They are a great asset for your university, as they can bring their expertise, connections, and interests to your internationalization efforts. You can start by conducting a faculty survey to map out their interests by country, area of expertise, and preferences for teaching, research, projects, or grants. This will give you a clear picture of the opportunities and potential partners that you can pursue. Then you can provide them with encouragement and support to develop and lead international programs.
Your existing programs and partnerships: They are already successful and have proven their value. You can expand them to other disciplines that both universities offer, such as engineering or science. You can also add a joint course in business as a precursor to the study abroad program, so that the students and faculty can interact online for a full semester before meeting in person. This will add more value and depth to your programs and partnerships.
Your visiting scholar or internship programs: They are excellent ways to enhance your international research and build long-lasting research teams. You can take these programs to another level by setting clear expectations and goals for each program, such as producing a manuscript or a report. You can also encourage each program to have a co-supervisor from the home and host institution, so that they can work together and continue their joint research or teaching in the future. You can also try to organize some multidisciplinary programs for scholars and interns, which can open doors to invitations to participate in various international development projects.
Your joint courses: These are courses that you offer to your students in collaboration with an international partner university. Do your students have direct interaction and collaboration with their counterparts from the other university? You can make these courses more engaging and impactful by organizing a workshop at the end of the course, where the students can present their work and meet each other in person. You can also include another partner from a third country and create teams of students from three different countries and universities. This will give your students a unique opportunity to learn from different perspectives and cultures. This will also increase your at-home internationalization and let you include students who cannot or do not want to travel abroad. Your joint international events. These are events that you organize with your international partners, such as conferences, symposia, or workshops. These events can showcase your research, outreach, and engagement activities to international audiences and stakeholders. You can start small by organizing an online event with one partner, where you can invite students and faculty to present their work and interact with each other. You can then scale up by inviting more partners or organizing face-to-face events.
Don’t forget Your International Office! Your colleagues are very knowledgeable about highly functioning partnerships, regions eager to collaborate and proven partners with established track record. Acquiring understanding of the most productive international programs, best university practices, faculty models, as well as available logistical support brings fast results with least effort. Working with international offices at your home and partner university can streamline access to research funds, cut through internal processes and assist during the international engagement itself! Some of the best strategic partnerships are the ones with closest engagements with international offices at universities.
What about Your international alumni? They are a valuable resource for your university, as they can share their success stories, offer opportunities, and open doors for your students and faculty. You can engage your international alumni by inviting them to share their experiences and insights with your current students, either online or in person. You can also ask them to provide opportunities for practical engagement, such as internships, workshops, small research projects, or mentoring. For your faculty, you can connect them with your international alumni who have relevant expertise, network, or influence in their field or region. This can lead to new collaborations, partnerships, or grants.
These are some of the existing resources that you can use to enhance your internationalization. Start implementing them today to enrich your students, faculty, partners, community, and reputation.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post and found it useful. Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you and start a conversation.
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