The Nuts & Bolts of Research:Internationalizing the Campus

NAFSA Annual ConferenceWashington, DC25 May 2008

Richard C. Sutton, Ph.D.Assistant Vice Chancellor for International Programs and Senior Advisor for Academic AffairsUniversity System of Georgia Board of Regents

What is “Internationalizing”??

Knowledge?Skills?Attitudes?

Ambiance?Flavor?Style?Weltanschauung?Purpose?Diversity?Richness?Atmosphere?

What is “Campus”??

Students?Faculty?Staff?Senior Administrators?Courses?Facilities?Services?

What do you mean by “the”??

It depends…TimePlacePeopleResourcesCommitmentTrustIncentivesRewardsConsequences

External Efforts to Define Terms

Goldman Sachs PrizeIIE Heiskell AwardsNAFSA Paul Simon AwardsAmerican Council on Education (ACE)

Much of this conversation driven by identification of “best practices”

New ACE Report Raise Questions about the Success of Internationalization

Despite increased attention and rhetoric to support internationalization, declines since 2001 in:

Global courses in the core curriculumForeign language requirements

Fewer than 50% have full-time IE staff, 40% have IE reference in mission statement, 10% include IE in tenure and promotion criteria

Internationalization RubricsPractitioners’ (and presidents’) model—programs and services, participation rates, etc.

Curricular model—foreign languages, area studies, international affairs

Intercultural competence model—assess individual progress on a scale (many options)

Mestenhauser model—globalization of disciplinary knowledge

Common Elements of ITC

Study abroadInternational studentsCurriculum, degrees & majorsCo-curricular activitiesFaculty developmentSenior administrative leadershipMission, policy, strategic plan

Less Common Elements of ITCStaff developmentInternational orientation of campus servicesImmigrant students other than Fs and JsNon-trad students w/international experienceLocal community cultural resourcesLocal community business interestsVolunteerism, civic engagementAthletics & the artsCareer & life choices

What elements should take priority?

Small group exercise (2 minutes):

Decide as a group

Rank top three elements that define an internationalized campus

Identify your top three priority elements

Study abroadInternational studentsCurriculum, degrees & majorsCo-curricular activitiesFaculty developmentSenior administrative leadershipMission, policy, strategic planOthers:_______

Staff developmentInternational orientation of campus servicesImmigrant students other than Fs and JsNon-trad students w/international experienceLocal community cultural resourcesLocal community business interestsVolunteerism, civic engagementAthletics & the artsCareer & life choices

Ha, Ha—You’re Wrong!!No single construct to determine what “things” make a campus international

It depends…On campus cultureOn local resourcesOn environment

University System of Georgia’s “Internationalizing the Campus” Program

Annual competition among 35 colleges and universities

Awards up to $60K

Three-page application

Day-long campus site visit for finalists

History and Rationale

Used to give $3-10K seed-money grants to support “projects” and “programs”

Larger investment and more intensive review process intended to focus on “plans” that have sustainable impact

Not intended as a “reward” for best practices, but as investment in future development

How ITC WorksOnly in existence two years, but has generated proposals from 1/3 of USG institutions each year

Finalist selection based on potential impact and sustainability

Elevates and deepens each institution’s internal dialog about how international it is

Being selected as a finalist and earning a Regents’ site review itself advances the conversation, even without funding award

“Moving the needle” of campus internationalization

Every campus can compete, because there is no absolute measure

Change is the key metric

To measure change, need to know where you are beginning

Change over time, rate of change, volume of change, etc.

ITC Proposals funded to date:Internationalizing lower-division coursework in core disciplines

Internationalizing majors in all colleges at a public liberal arts university

Internationalizing the first-year experience (required seminar) at a research university

Creating international learning communities of thematically linked courses and co-curricular activities

But how will we know if they were successful in “internationalizing” the campus?

Contractual Responsibilities: Doing what you said you would do in proposal

Going Beyond Implementation to Achieve Results

Models for Emulation/Stimulus

So what do you measure, and how does that fit into an institutional research agenda?

What is your measure of change?

Compared to what?

Who cares?

ITC Research Questions typically bigger than the capacity of any single unit

Depending on nature of research question, need to involve

Provost/chief academic officerChief student affairs officerDeans & department chairsOffice of institutional researchOthers who might have a direct interest in the findings (admissions, career placement offices, etc.)

The Georgia Tech exampleAdopted “global competence” as theme of their institutional accreditation plan

Administering Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to matriculants and graduates

Tracking IDI changes by large number of variables

Research driven and funded by Office of Institutional Research & Assessment

Integrating international into institutional research

What is your institution currently researching about itself, and how is it conducting those assessments?

Can you place an international lens on those research questions?

Why are your questions more important than others? What are their practical implications? What are their policy implications?

Policy

Poly (adj.) = many

Sea (n.) = large fluid environment where most things sink to the bottom

Politics

Poly (adj.) = many

Tics (n.) = blood-sucking leeches

Measuring ITC: Inputs/Benchmarks# of students abroad# of international students# of students taking foreign language courses# of international journals/newspapers in the library# of faculty/staff with international experience# of faculty/staff with international expertise# of internationally focused events on campus (films, lectures, performances, etc.)

Measuring ITC: Outputs/Deliverables

# of degrees awarded in international fields# of degrees awarded in foreign languages# of international scholarships and awards received (Fulbright, Rhodes, Gilman, etc.)# of international research and program grants received# of books/articles published on international topics

Measuring ITC: Outcomes/ResultsOutputs become inputs for outcomes

Students and faculty choose to attend/work there because of its international characterStudents pursue careers/life choices with international focusState/local community looks to the campus as an international resourceInternational outputs create critical mass to drive campus culture, decisions, and funding

Approaches

Single variable analysisMultivariate analysisDemonstration pilot projectsResearch project grantsInstitutional investigationsMulti-institutional investigations

Questions?Comments?