Fostering global competence - are students the only target?

At the recent IEAA National Symposium on Fostering Global Citizenship and Global Competence held in Melbourne, delegates were asked to critically examine what is meant by global citizenship and global competence and how they can best be embedded into higher education.

Academic role(s) in the next era of internationalisation

The future success of international education may well depend on deeper engagement by academic staff. Indeed, there is broad consensus among scholars that the support and involvement of a critical mass of academic staff is crucial. In the words of the American Council on Education, "faculty engagement drives successful internationalization".

But what do we know about the international engagement of academics on our campuses? Where do the motivations of academic staff lie in terms of international activity - in research, in teaching, or more broadly? How do academic staff understand the internationalisation of higher education? And how best can they be supported to drive the implementation of an institutional international strategy?

These are the questions I have been asking, stimulated by the seeming absence of academic staff from the programs of the major international education conferences in 2013.

Engaging the Academy: the Next Frontier?

What role do academic staff play in the internationalisation of your institution? To what extent are they involved in the implementation of your international strategy? What do you know about their motivations to drive or support international education initiatives or to contribute to broader internationalisation endeavours?