This week’s readings, while all centering around strategy, were extremely different in nature. The first article I read, “Global Strategy & Internationalization at OHIO,” gave a great, but lengthy overview of a global University’s strategic plan and vision for its future. The document reviewed important points such as what OHIO University offers currently to its students, what their personal strategy is to create and prepare global leaders moving forward, how the present trends of higher education play a role into their goals, and ultimately the framework that they will focus on in order to accomplish their goals. Something I really liked about this piece was the fact that they include a “Questions for Further Dialogue” part at the end of each section. When reading a huge piece such as this, I find that as the reader, it can sometimes be a helpful tool to pause and absorb everything you have just read. The questions helped prompt the reader to think deeper and more critically about OHIO and their global plans and strategies. I also greatly enjoyed their use of graphs, charts, and “Fast Facts” sections. This helped dissect the article into reader-friendly portions.

The next article I read was “BRIC Universities as Institutions in the Process of Change.” As a side note, I was not aware that “BRIC” was an acronym for “Brazil, Russia, India, China” In the future, it may be helpful for the article to have that mentioned somewhere before we begin reading so we have more of a framework for what the title means. In this excerpt, the author discusses how each country influences change in their universities and how the institutions have responded. As expected, each BRIC state establishes a unique relationship with its higher educational system, based on the political structure present.

The last article I read was the global strategic plan of Middlesex Community College from 2014-2017. I found this extremely interesting because it was nice to compare and contrast from other strategic plans of 4-year universities. Their plan just reestablished to me how important the globalization of higher education is. Although community colleges are not always considered in research, etc because of the varying nature of their students, faculty and academic offerings, I was impressed to see that a community college has acknowledged the ever-present trend of “going global” and has established groundwork to accommodate their students this way.

After reading all of this week’s articles, something that I found was a reoccurring theme was the basic need to create a global strategy, and the greater nod that these pieces have as to the direction our higher education institutions are headed worldwide. I was looking at NAFSA’s website and found a really cool page titled “Trends & Insights” of global Higher Education. I think that these links really speak to a lot of the points we have discussed in class, such as going global, but at what cost? or the limit of academic freedom on global campuses. Feel free to click the link and take a look!

I found this weeks readings to present fresh new topics on internalization in Higher Education. In the article “Strategic Planning for Internationalization in Higher Education” we are provided with a great overview of how strategic planning originated to where it stands today as a standard feature of college and university administrations. Something that I found very relevant to this weeks readings was my employers own Strategic Plan (found here: http://www.pace.edu/strategic-plan) As some of you may know, Pace University is a private institution located in downtown Manhattan. Although it has a reputable business program, many people are not aware of Pace’s presence in the NYC area unlike more prestigious schools such as NYU or Columbia. In order to help Pace move forward in a positive direction, the University outplayed a 5 year plan (2015-2020) which motivates a “Master Plan” revision for the NYC Campus. In addition to changing some of our programs, a huge goal of the new strategic plan is to revitalize the exterior campus so that it is no longer a “hidden gem” of the city. Although Pace does have international efforts, they are not specifically stated in the Strategic Plan, but are rather dealt with on a department level.  I found it very interesting that Pace is located in a great metropolis and that our current mission and vision for the future does not explicitly state an attention to international affairs.

I loved that we were able to take a look at another very relevant strategic plan from Baruch too! In their 2014-2019 Global Strategic Plan, they outline many interesting points. To begin, Baruch boasts their already firm foundation in the international world, with students hailing from over 160 different countries. It was interesting to me that Pace did not acknowledge the diversity of our students, or make this point as visible as Baruch does. Baruch states that they are committed to growing a global effort through their strategic priorities such as enhancing new opportunities, acknlowding their own strengths and enhancing new efforts, increasing international recruitment and increasing study abroad among others.

When looking at both strategic plans, I found myself questioning why Baruch has a greater presence of an international effort while Pace does not  One of these answers could be that Pace is private while Baruch is public  Furthermore, Pace’s international efforts are done on a department level  For instance, we are setting up a 2-2 exchange program in the Accounting Department with a University in China. While these efforts do receive internal and external announcements, they are not prominent enough to be included into our overall University strategic plan. I look forward to learning a bit more about other Univeristies plans to compare and contrast institutional goals and motivations.

For this week’s readings, we were asked to look at two articles by the OECD, titled “Education Policy Outlook 2015: Making Reforms Happen” and “The State of Higher Education: The 2014 Executive Summary.” In the first article about making reforms a reality, I was surprised to learn that this one report worked to summarize the findings of over 450 educational reforms from OECD countries between the years of 2008-2014. In this analysis, they review trends in education policies, including broad topics such as: funding, assessment, school improvements and governance. The report goes on to assess several different areas of education policy reforms and the many ways which they can reach specific audiences effectively. For instance, I found it very interesting to read about the ideas offered for students who come from disadvantaged or diverse backgrounds. In this day and age, diversity is an initiative that many universities across the world strive to accomplish. Yet, it becomes the responsibility of institutions to ensure the academic success of these students which can be challenging for some. The article states, “These (disadvantaged) students are at a greater risk of lower performance and attainment.” (p.8). It is clear that in all aspects of higher education, even internationally, striving to even the playing field for all students is ta broad practice, hoping to be achieved by many constituents. Although diversity is encouraged, universities must find ways to best accommodate diverse parties. This reminded me of a program offered by our home institution, CUNY, called SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge.) SEEK aims to provide academic support to educationally or financially disadvantaged student populations. I felt that this was a great example of  way in which our local institution tackles diversity head on by ensuring that these students receive the services they need to be successful.

In the other summary piece about the state of higher education, the OECD stresses more ways to monitor and enhance the global quality of education. I really liked that they bring up the important point that higher education has and is currently changing “in order to meet the need of new student populations and higher education institutions” (p. 4). Just as I mentioned in the SEEK program, private and public institutions alike are learning to make it a priority to tailor their offerings based on student needs at a city, local, and even global level. Just as in higher education institutions in America, the OECD article stresses the importance of sound budgeting, strong business models and the promotion of research excellence across boundaries worldwide. The article concludes with a note from Jane Knight on what a true international University is. I completely agree with her thoughts that “there is no standardized model, nor should there be.” Instead, there are multiple variations which will help institutions succeed internationally. Instead of hoping to “weather the storms of change”, Knight urges institutions to be flexible and adapt themselves and their programs and policies to the ever-changing environment which universities must learn to flourish in.

I enjoyed reading this weeks article, titled International Higher Education Partnerships: a global review of standards and practices. In this piece, the American Council on Education tackles the broad subject of how institutions can become engaged on a global level, specifically through key partnerships. Although it is widely acknowledged that schools in the 21st century must join the global higher education community in order to remain competitive, the very real challenge still remains of how this can be successfully accomplished. Although institutions make strides through outlets such as exchange programs, study abroad programs and offering international joint/collaborative degrees, there are still many hurdles to overcome in this field. In an effort to address best practices for international practices and programs, the ACE determined that there are a few common themes which collectively address practical strategies and good practices for program administration and the promotion of international higher education. These include, but are not limited to: an emphasis on transparency and accountability, commitment and engagement from faculty and staff, the promise of quality assurance and continuous improvement, as well as strategic planning and strong institutional leadership. Each of these attributes contribute towards the goal of a more stable and secure future for international programs. Additionally, the ACE reflects upon the cultural, ethical and assessment challenges involved in determining best practices. Although there is not one solution to all of these concerns, the ACE does a great job of pinpointing potential issues and suggesting ways in which the field can overcome/address them.

In A Process for Screening and Authorizing Joint and Double Degree Programs, Rice University’s associate vice provost for academic affairs, Arnaud Chevallier, delves deeper into institutional partnerships. In his article, he asserts that while joint and double degree programs are attractive to colleges, they are also difficult to implement and poorly understood by the masses. A double (or dual) degree program is one which “students receive a separate diploma from each of the participating institutions” (p.35). A joint degree program is one which “students receive a single diploma representing work completed at two or more institutions” (p.35). At Rice U, they have begun to use a formal screening and authorization process for these types of degrees in hopes of alleviating some of the issues and concerns attached with joint and double degree programs.

In both of the readings from this week, there has been an emphasis on strategic relationship-building techniques. Whether a school is looking to initiate new practices and policies for promoting internationalization, or is looking to streamline the process in which they accept joint/double degrees, it all comes down to mutual collaboration and communication in order to achieve the desired outcome. In another article I read by a Professor at Bentley University, she discussed the many benefits and challenges associated with international dual degree programs. Although there will always be difficulties in these types of processes, I think it is inevitable that they are going to continue to exist, so it is extremely important that we read these types of pieces in order to gain a better understanding.