In an effort to become a top contender in the international arena, the university's new strategic plan calls to launch a slew of new initiatives in the next ten years focusing on the world beyond American borders.
Although the university was one of 55 ranked on U.S. News and World Report's list of study abroad programs to watch, Jonathan Wilkenfeld, who chaired a committee focusing on the international aspects of the university's new strategic plan, admits the university is "a little bit behind the curve" compared to peer institutions.
"There is no room for isolationism," said Saul Sosnowski, the director of the Office of International Programs.
The first draft of the plan, which aims to be the guiding document for the university over the next ten years, calls for the university to become the "public institution of choice for students, faculty and staff committed in engagement with the global community."
The plan calls for a new global studies minor, an international focus on the undergraduate curriculum and an increased push for study abroad and exchange programs.
The university also aims to create a center to oversee these programs, and in a rare
proposal hitching on a recent higher education trend, officials considered setting up an overseas campus for foreign students.
"Events all around the world affect the United States and the university," said Roberto Münster, a senior economics and finance major who was on the committee.
The idea of opening an overseas campus aimed at students in the host country would have distinguished the university from its peers, but officials opted against including such a risky proposition in the plan, Wilkenfeld said.
A number of universities have set up campuses abroad. In Qatar alone, Cornell, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth and Texas A&M have campuses. However, none of the university's peer institutions have set up full campuses abroad.
"It would be a pretty pricey undertaking," Wilkenfeld said, adding that universities have had "mixed results" with overseas campuses. He said the idea will continue to be explored.
The proposed Global Studies minor would allow students to study culture, governance, development, conflict management, the environment or science and technology on a global scale, Wilkenfeld said.
As its peer universities generally send more students abroad and invite more foreign students to study on their campuses, the plan also calls for 2,000 students to study abroad annually in five years and 3,000 in ten. To accomplish this, the university needs to remove financial roadblocks, Sosnowski said, adding the university will look to a mixture of private fundraising and money from the state to pay for new scholarships.
According to the Strategic Plan, in the 2006-2007 academic school year,the university sent 1,270 students abroad - the 29th most in the nation. Still, the university's ranking trailed the University of North Carolina, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois and the University of California at Los Angeles. The only peer institution the university had more students studying abroad than was the University of California at Berkeley.
"If you have a large contingent of international students, you can bring their history and culture to campus," Wilkenfeld said.
Other international aspects of the plan include:
- Increasing the percentage of international students in the undergraduate student body to five percent within five years and to eight percent within ten years. (Right now, international students only make up 2.2 percent of the undergraduate student body.)
- A new general education plan aims to put an international focus on the university's CORE classes.
- A Center for Global Engagement to manage the assorted international programs.
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