Being Global 2011: Strategies and Models for Internationalizing Canadian Higher Education

Being Global 2011: Strategies and Models for Internationalizing Canadian Higher Education

Last week, I came across an announcement of a new conference focussing on internationalization in higher education on the Academica list serv last week. The conference will be hosted by the Higher Education Strategy Associates group in Toronto, Canada on January, 13-14 2011 Though you may need to consult their website for more details, proposals are currently sought on the following themes

1)  The Science of Attraction,

2)  World Bound,

3)  Internationalization Strategies: Networks, Policies, and the Bottom Line,

4)  Creating the Global Student.

On their website they sum up the purpose and the importance of the conference as follows:

But Internationalization is about more than just bringing international students to Canadian        campuses. It’s about making “globalizing” our own students, either through study abroad or    through a more internationalized curriculum. It’s about ensuring our campuses are well-  networked with leading institutions around the world. And it’s about finding ways to make Canadian education available around the world, even to students who can’t come here.

As this is a brand new conference the presentations and audience it may attract is difficult to ascertain. However, there is a very interesting line-up of keynote speakers including Dr Grant Harman (University of New England) and Dr Kris Olds (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and I am especially interested in hearing from Dr Donald Rubin, co-author of the GLOSSARI project. I hope that his address will spur greater interest in Canada for some of the multi-institution and longitudinal research like the GLOSARI project, the Georgetown Consortium Study and the Study Abroad for Global Engagement.

However it is very exciting to see a second conference (following the Canadian Bureau of International Education conference) focusing on these issues in Canada. Especially as CBIE this year may make it more challenging for those of us in the eastern and maritime provinces to attend. This conference may also serve as a good warm up for NAFSA which will be held in Vancouver, BC in the 2011. See you there!