WASHINGTON — In the effort to create high-impact international education programs, colleges and universities should develop strategic plans that derive support from their administrations and involve administrators, faculty members, staff, and students throughout the institution.
This was one of the key points speakers from the American Council on Education (ACE) emphasized Thursday morning to more than 50 historically Black college and university (HBCU) administrators and faculty members during the Institute on Internationalization at HBCUs. The institute is a training forum aimed at helping HBCUs develop their international program capabilities.
“We have a very important job to do, and those of who are represented in this room today are at the cutting edge,” Patti McGill Peterson, the ACE presidential advisor for global initiatives, told institute participants.
“You’ll make the difference on whether or not we have institutions that struggle … or are creating the forward movement to lead them to be solid and attractive places that will be good for your own students and good for the international students who come to you,” she noted.
Peterson was one of the keynote speakers who welcomed the HBCU representatives to the two-day institute, which is sponsored by the ACE Inclusive Excellence Group and the ACE Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement. The Washington-based ACE is considered the one of the nation’s most influential higher education associations, representing the presidents of accredited, two- and four-year degree-granting institutions.
With the institute concluding today, ACE officials have nearly reached the end of a three-year U.S Department of Education grant that has sought to stimulate HBCU internationalization efforts. The goals of the project have been to identify the factors that enhance and hinder the internationalization process at HBCUs and to disseminate project findings to the broader HBCU community, according to officials.
