Standards of Good Practice For Short-Term Education Abroad Programs

Today, The Forum on Education Abroad released their Standards of Good Practice for Short-Term Education Abroad Programs and made them available on their website. The Forum Standards Committee states in the introduction that “the intent of the Standards for Short-Term Programs are not a substitute for the more general standards” and that they “are intended to be utilized together as companions to provide the most comprehensive guidance for short-term program management.” The Forum Standards Committee notes that they chose not to deliver the Standards for Short-Term Programs in the query-based format which is found in the Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad and instead chose to write these standards in a direct way. Thanks should be given to the Forum Standards Committee and the staff at The Forum on Education Abroad for bringing this important publication to market.

Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy

The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy has scheduled the national launch of their Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy scheduled for Thursday, February 5, 2009 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the National Press Club. You can read more about this initiative here. The reception will ffeature commentary by:

David H. Roe, Ph.D., HostPresident, Board of Directors, U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy

Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann President, American Academy of Diplomacy

Ambassador Uri Savir President, Peres Center for Peace, Tel Aviv, Israel

Ms. Harriet Mayor Fulbright President, J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center

Mr. Doug Wilson Board of Directors, The Howard Gilman Foundation

The Honorable Barbara Lawton Lieutenant Governor, State of Wisconsin and Chair, National Lieutenant Governors Association

Mr. Amr Badr Managing Director, Egypt and Middle East, Abercrombie and Kent, Cairo, Egypt

The Honorable James A. Leach (TBC) John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Mr. Aaron S. Williams Vice President, International Business Development, RTI International

Mr. Anicet G. Dologuele (TBC) President, Central African States Development Bank, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship

The fellowship is intended for American college/university students who express an interest in international collaboration but as of yet had not been afforded many opportunities to travel abroad. The length of time for the travel is expected to be between 4 and 6 weeks and should include interaction with individuals from other nations. During his/her travel, the recipient should be willing to participate in public diplomacy events arranged with the pertinent U.S. State Department Consulate, Mission, and/or Embassy. Following the travel, the recipient agrees to submit a report describing experiences and analyzing objectives achieved; share his/her experiences with others; and be available to make a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.

Funding:Funding for this fellowship has generously come from private donations.

Eligibility:
Must be a U.S. Citizen eligible for foreign travel
Must be at least 18 years old and not older than 25 at the time of application
Must be currently enrolled in an accredited U.S. college or university in the United States

Call for Applications:
The United States believes that peace depends upon building strong foundations of knowledge that bridge nations, enlarge freedoms, and promote democracy. The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship was established in 2008 to enlist young Americans to work toward this end. The Fellowship provides supplemental funding for applicant designed proposals to conduct brief activities in a foreign country related to the mandate of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – using education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and/or communication and information to build strong ties among nations.

On September 12, 2002, President George W. Bush addressed the United Nations General Assembly and announced the intention of the United States to return to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ending nearly a twenty-year absence from the organization, to further help build these foundations. In February 2003, First Lady Laura Bush was designated by UNESCO as an honorary ambassador, and seven months later Mrs. Bush led the ceremony raising the United States flag at the 32nd UNESCO General Conference, officially marking the return of the United States to UNESCO membership. It was in the spirit of this dedication to international issues and to furthering human dignity that the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship was created.

The Fellowship is intended for American college/university students who express an interest in international collaboration but as of yet have not been afforded many opportunities to travel abroad. The length of time for the travel is expected to be between 4 and 6 weeks and should include interaction with individuals from other nations. Thus far, U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellows have traveled to and conducted meaningful work in: Honduras, Guatemala, India, Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, and Kyrgyzstan.

The Commission has opened the next call for the Spring/Summer 2009 round of applications for the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship for those traveling between May and August 2009. The deadline for applications will be March 1, 2009 (5:00pm EST). Eligibility and details about the application process are posted at: http://www.state.gov/p/io/unesco/c25426.htm

Northern Virginia Community College Welcomes Jill Biden as Adjunct Professor of English

The NOVA GEOBLOG announced on January 27th that Jill Biden has joined the Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria Campus as an adjunct professor of English. The Washington Post reports that Dr. Biden is teaching an English as a Second Language course and a developmental English course. This, of course, will not only bring attention to Northern Virginia Community College but also to policies related to community colleges in general. It’s nice to see that she is teaching an ESL course.

National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y)

I briefly touched on the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) in a previous post but wanted to come back to discuss the program with this post. While cultural and educational exchanges have been a part of the U.S. secondary school landscape for decades the NSLI-Y, which was started in January 2006 as part of the larger National Security Language Initiative, not only provides an opportunity to infuse mutual understanding and foreign language competency into internationally engage secondary students but it is also a way for the U.S. Government to begin the recruitment process for internationally competent and fluent employees who understand and speak such critical languages as Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Russian and Turkish and understand the people and cultures of these languages (see my previous post on this).

Those of you who are interested in learning more about the NSLI might find the following report Enhancing Foreign Language Proficiency in the United States: Preliminary Results of the National Security Language Initiative (2008) by the U.S. Department of Education to be of interest.

Obama’s Top Advisers – A Team of Expatriates

I came across a very interesting article from the January 26, 2009 issue of Newsweek on the importance of and value placed on the international experiences of many of President Obama’s top advisers. The international living experiences of retired Marine General James Jones (incoming national security adviser), Timothy Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury) retired Major General J. Scott Gration (potential NASA Administrator) and Valerie Jarrett (top Domestic Policy Adviser) and Barack Obama played an important role in shaping their view of the world and their understanding of and respect for different perspectives. Our diplomacy efforts extend well beyond the Department of State…

You can access the Newsweek article here.

Post-World War II Federal Interest in International Education Exchange

As I was organizing many of my research documents on my computer I came across the following text I was working on some time ago that never found a home so I thought I’d post my notes to the IHEC Blog.

The post-World War II higher education environment in the United States had changed considerably from the first half of the twentieth century. Upon the conclusion of World War II there was a fundamental shift in orientation of the foreign policy of the United States. The Presidents Committee on Higher Education (1947) reported that:

"the need for maintaining our democracy and peace with the rest of the world had compelled our initiative in the formation of the United Nations, and America’s role in this and in other agencies of international cooperation requires our citizen’s knowledge of other people, their political and economic systems, and their social and cultural institutions"

As the Committee’s purpose implied, the GI Bill (otherwise known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) was a way to maintain our nation’s democracy while maintaining peace with the rest of the world. The United States and her citizens took on a new sense of responsibility in world affairs. During this time period, the United States worked to build bridges to connect her higher education system to the rest of the world. In 1945, as a direct response to the tragedy of World War II, Senator J. William Fulbright introduced legislation sponsoring exchange programs for students and faculty between the United States and foreign countries that was eventually signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on August 1, 1946. Further, the international educational exchange and foreign language components from additional legislation such as The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (also known as The Smith-Mundt Act), amendments to The Mutual Security Act of 1951, and The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 were consolidated into The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (better known as The Fulbright-Hays Act). The Fulbright Act set in motion a new and renewed focus on international educational exchanges between the United States and the rest of the world.


Higher Education for Democracy: A Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education. (New York, 1947)

K-State Podcast on International Students

Many institutions of higher education have embraced various technology to promote international education efforts on campus. Kansas State University is one institution that has highlighted their international efforts by podcast. My colleague Sara Thurston-González, (Director of the International Student and Scholar Services at Kansas State University) leads off this podcast on the “Buddies” program on campus. How are other institutions using technology to promote their internationalization efforts?

H.R. 416 To Authorize the Establishment of Educational Exchange and Development Programs for Member Countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

On January 9th, Representative Barbara Lee [D-CA] introduced H.R. 416 to the 111th Congress. The bill currently has 13 democratic co-sponsors. Related legislation can be found in the H.R. 176: Shirley A. Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act which was passed with bipartisan support by the 110th Congress.

The Caribbean is one of the most underrepresented regions of the world for academic exchange and collaboration with the United States. It's good to see legislation focusing on increasing such activities between the Caribbean and the United States.

To be an International Student in the U.S. on Inauguration Day

On November 4th my German host brother, from when I was an exchange student in Rosenheim, Germany some twenty years earlier, was visiting me and my family here in Hyde Park, Chicago and he was able to head down to Grant Park to take in the sights and sounds of the celebration for Barack Obama on the night he was elected the 44th President of the United States. He was able to witness the United States in a way he had never imagined he would and certainly different than he would have from watching on television back home in Germany. He felt it was a truly special moment and one that he was thankful he could witness in person.

Barak Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States provided international visitors a similar opportunity. I watched the inauguration on television like most people around the globe. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be in Washington, D.C. to witness that event. Of the millions of people who were fortunate enough to find themselves in Washington, D.C. yesterday many were from abroad and I imagine that many felt the same way about the inaugural celebration as my German host brother felt about the celebration at Grant Park on November 4th. Insidehighered.com published an interesting story today entitled “The Foreign (Student) Perspective on America’s Historic Day” that I think many readers will find of interest. You can access this article here.

Aberdeen City Council Investigates Economic Impact of International Students

During my research efforts I came across a very interesting document and the type that I have never seen before in the field of international education. The Economic Impact of International Students in Aberdeen City: Aberdeen City Council Briefing Paper 2008/03 is quite interesting in that it is the first time that I’m aware of where a city has investigated the impact of international students studying within its boundaries. The Aberdeen City Council, at the request of the Migrant Worker Action Plan Working Group, investigated the economic impact of international students on the city and considered the number of international graduates that remain in the city upon conclusion of their studies “by examining issues and challenges that need to be considered when predicting future trends in international student numbers.” You can access the Aberdeen City briefing paper here.

Renewing American Diplomacy – The Agenda on Whitehouse.gov

While he has been President for less than five hours, Barack Obama and his administration have already transformed the White House website into well oiled machine (much like the website for his campaign). I was pleased to read the administrations positions on The Agenda and in particular his foreign policy. President Obama highlights the following six points in renewing American diplomacy:

- Renew our Alliances
- Talk to our Foes and Friends
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Expand our Diplomatic Presence
- Fight Global Poverty
- Seek New Partnerships in Asia

You can read more on President Obama’s ideas for renewing American diplomacy and his broader foreign policy agenda here.

Unintended Consequences of Internationalization of Higher Education

Jane Knight, a leader in the field on the Internationalization of Higher Education joins the “Collegial Conversations” this week on the NAFSA IELD (International Education Leadership Development) network on the International Education Leadership Network as a special collaboration between the ICC and IELD NAFSA networks. Her topic will be: Unintended Consequences of Internationalization of Higher Education. Please join in the conversation (which will take place either today or tomorrow). If you are not already a member of the NAFSA IELD network then please join so you may be alerted when the conversation occurs. The URL is: http://tinyurl.com/74vn4j

State of the Field Survey 2008 by The Forum on Education Abroad

Last week the Forum on Education Abroad released their State of the Field Survey 2008 on their website. I’m not going to analyze the report in this post other than to say that I think it’s very well prepared and an important contribution to the field of education abroad. The last in State of the Field Survey was released by the Forum in 2006. While there is a tremendous amount of volunteer hours put in by members of the Committee on Data Collection as well as many hours of hard work by staff at the Forum, I think that the Survey should continue to be conducted every other year so that we can better understand how the field has changed over time. For those of you who are interested in the data behind the report (like me) you’ll be happy to know that the Forum has made their Data Tables available on the Toolbox section of their website.

A Little Pride On MLK Day

On this MLK holiday I feel that a little Pride (In the Name of Love) and City of Blinding Lights fom U2 at the Inauguration Concert yesterday is appropriate. You can watch U2's contribution here.

Some of you might also enjoy watching their rehersal from the night before. You can watch that footage here.

More Peace Corps

Today I’m posting twice on matters related to the Peace Corps. This second Peace Corps post is to bring attention to the More Peace Corps movement which is working to collect 25,000 signatures on a petition to support, actually remind, Barack Obama of his frequent pledge during the presidential campaign to double the number of Peace Corps volunteers. If you are in support of increasing the Peace Corps I encourage you to visit the More Peace Corps website to learn more about the movement and to sign the petition.

While navigating the website I came across a very interesting (and telling) statement from the January 13, 2009 article on the News & Events page entitled Two Hundred Peace Corps Volunteers to March in Inaugural Parade. The sentence follows:

“Representatives of the Peace Corps Community have applied for each Inaugural Parade in recent history and last participated in 1997.”

A clear statement of the Bush Administration position on citizen diplomacy on his very first day in office.

University of Chicago Top Producer of Peace Corps Volunteers for Second Consecutive Year

For the second consecutive year, the University of Chicago is the top producer of Peace Corps Volunteers for Small Colleges and Universities with 35. This accomplishment not only demonstrates the achievements made by Chicago students but also the global engagement of the students in their service and scholarship. The University of Chicago has also been very successful in recent years in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program with more students and alumni from the undergraduate College receiving Fulbright grants than the graduate students. You can read my previous blog post on the top producing institutions of Fulbright U.S. Student grants for 2008-2009 here.

The University of Washington (large college and university category) with 104 volunteers and George Washington University (medium college and university category) with 57 volunteers should also be congratulated on being the top Peace Corps Volunteer producers for their respective categories. You can download the 2009 Peace Corps statistics here.

Analysis of U.S. Approach to International Education Legislation

I've started preliminary research on my dissertation and I will be focusing on international education and public diplomacy and soft power. I still need to do much more research before I can narrow down my topic and formulate a question. An early observation I've made in this area follows:

Throughout the United States’ history of international education legislation and funding it is clear that soft power is an underlying objective of the federal government. The legislative language and the language used in the related literature during the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s focused more on “mutual understanding between cultures” while the language used during the 1990’s up to today has had a much stronger tone and emphasizes the benefit to U.S. “national security.” An exception to this is the National Defense Education Act of 1958 which encouraged and supported international education exchanges but the focus was more on U.S. national security and competition with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

International Education and the “Quiet Game”

I just read with much interest a January 9th post on the U.S. Department of State blog DIPNOTE written by Melvin Hall that was promoting their National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program. The NSLI-Y program provides U.S. youth, between the ages of 15 and 18, funding to study Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Turkish overseas for a summer, semester or academic year. While this program is very interesting and worthy of its own blog post I was introduced to the very interesting concept of the “Quiet Game.” In contrast to the “Great Game” which Hall quotes as “the struggle that takes place between states, nations, political groups, and national leaders for power and influence”[1], the “Quite Game” is the “everyday game of life where families get up in the morning, have plans for themselves, their children.”[2] Hall ties the “Quiet Game” nicely to international education exchanges and states that “when we engage in the ‘Quiet Game’ with people from around the world, we take advantage of a wonderful opportunity to learn about their individual aspirations and dreams for their families and children…engaging in the ‘Quiet Game’ with our counterparts from around the world requires commitment –commitment to seek out cross-cultural encounters, commitment to learn someone else’s language, and commitment to live for an extended period of time in another culture.” You can learn more about the “Quiet Game” in A Political Economy of the Middle East (3rd Edition, 2007) by Alan Richards and John Waterbury.

[1] Quote from Djavad Salehi-Isfhani’s discussion during the Brookings Institution November 10, 2008 proceedings on Arab Youth Between Hope and Disillusionment: Toward a New U.S. Strategy in the Middle East, p. 40.[2] Ibid

Cuba Academic Alliance Refocuses Effort in 2009

In 2004 the Cuba Academic Alliance (CAA) was formed by institutions of higher education across the United States in response to the 2004 restrictions imposed on educational exchange and travel programs to Cuba during the Bush Administration by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). With the Obama Administration just under a week away from taking office, CAA has refocused its lobbying efforts in the hope that the United State will lift the current restrictions and educational exchange and travel programs to Cuba will once again be available to students and scholars in the United States. You can read more about CAA and their 2009 effort here.


You may also want to read a related article from January 8th by Wayne Smith entitled "An Opportunity for Obama: An Opening to Cuba?" on the counterpunch.org website.

Next U.S. Ambassador to Japan to be Joseph Nye

Cultural Diplomacy News (CDN) is reporting that President-Elect Obama has appointed Joseph Nye as the new U.S. Ambassador to Japan. News of Nye’s appointment is beginning to hit the international media outlets (primarily in Japan). A slightly more detailed article about Nye’s appointment is available on Yahoo! News here.

Nye who is a leading scholar in international relations theory is widely known for coining the term “Soft Power”. One of my first blog posts was on Joseph Nye’s article on the value of soft power and international education entitled “Squandering the U.S. ‘Soft Power’ Edge” from the January/February 2007 International Educator which you can access here.

James Glassman's Public Diplomacy 2.0

In late 2008, the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs entered the social networking scene with their ExchangesConnect website. In addition to the ExchangesConnect website you can find interesting posts on DIPNOTE (their new blog), a Facebook page, and YouTube. What are your thoughts on these new public diplomacy efforts of the United States?

An interesting case study on the use of these new public diplomacy/foreign affairs social networking and media tools is found with the Israeli New York Consulate Twitter Press Conference and subsequent updates[1] on the current Israel-Gaza conflict.


You can read related information this new approach to diplomacy and foreign relations on the USC Center on public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School CPD Blog here: http://tinyurl.com/a5dotv

[1] The Israel Consulate has 4,548 followers on Twitter as of this posting.

The Ministry of Education of Japan Ends The Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Program

On October 1, 2008 the Japan-U.S. Educational Commission issued announced in a press release that the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Program would end on December 31, 2008. While this is very sad news the press release indicates that the Governments of Japan and the United States are negotiating a bi-nationally funded exchange programs for teachers between the two countries.

Roland Burris was an Exchange Student in Germany

Now that it looks like Roland W. Burris will be seated in the Senate I did some digging on his background to see how friendly he will be towards international education policy. His credentials certainly qualify him for a seat in the U.S. Senate and he was an exchange student at the University of Hamburg in Germany studying international law. Many people in high profile/leadership positions throughout the United States studied abroad but don’t mention this as part of their credentials or part of their biographies. This exchange experience in Hamburg was influential enough for Roland Burris to mention it in his staff profile on the Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP website where he has been serving as Senior Counsel until his appointment to the United States Senate.

More Standards for International Education

The American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) is a new organization working towards the development of standards of good practice in the recruitment of international students to study in the United States. Today’s issue of insidehighered.com has an interesting article on AIRC which you can read here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/06/recruiting

You can read my previous post on AIRC here.

IDP Education Provides New Home for Database of Research on International Education

On December 8, 2008 IDP Education Pty Ltd. announced that they will provide the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) funding to maintain the Database of Research in International Education. For a considerable amount of time the Database of Research in International Education was without funding and faced the possibility of extinction.


You can access the database here: www.idp.com/researchdatabase

You can access the IDP press release here: http://tinyurl.com/5ukeuc


If you have information on new publications on international education please forward them to: ndrie@acer.edu.au

Data and other NAFSA Presentations Available from the DAAD

The DAAD has made available via their "News from DAAD New York" weekly newsletter (http://www.daad.org/?p=daadnews ~ if you don't already, you may want to subscribe) several presentations from the NAFSA conference. The first two presentations entitled "Capacity Building for U.S. Students at Foreign Universities" and "News and Updates from North America" have some interesting data tables and charts. Additionally, a presentation from Brian Whalen of the Forum on Education Abroad entitled "Ethical Practices in Study Abroad and Why it Matters to You" is also available and may be of interest to many.

IHEC Blog Now Listed On Alltop

Happy New Year and may 2009 be a good year for you and yours! My International Higher Education Consulting (IHEC) blog can now be found on Alltop under the “All the Top Education News” part of the site. As we enter 2009 I plan to make various improvements to the IHEC blog as well as the other networks I’m part of. I have already lined up several colleagues who will be guest bloggers in the coming months and will, from time to time, continue with themed weeks for some blog posts.

You can access my listing and the other education related blogs on Alltop here: http://education.alltop.com/