This week’s readings lead us from external influences on higher education internationalization to internal processed that develop and foster global education:  strategic planning.  For me, the readings this week were compelling and very interesting because we were given a view into how colleges and universities do their own policy and goal setting and how it relates to internationalization.  Strategic planning is a critical foundational component of the internal workings of any higher education institution and seeing its role in global initiatives was very revealing and useful.

The first reading, AEA Occasional Papers Strategic Planning for Internationalization in Higher Education set forth the strategic planning process at colleges in general, then offered twelve principles of successful strategic planning for campus internationalization followed by three case studies of very different types of American colleges and universities.  These case studies made for interesting comparative analysis and showcased models of successful strategic planning that has yielded strong global education programs in a variety of higher education environments and contexts.  An issue I took to heart from this paper, and had not previously given much consideration to, was the call to acquire and analyze data.  The paper highlighted that a successful strategic plan for globalization must be data driven and identify well substantiated and researched goals and deliverable in order to get buy-in and survive implementation.  In addition, the UK case study provided real questions that committees were asked to focus on to develop global strategic plans and I thought these were very useful in understanding exactly what type of analysis higher education institutions can utilize in their internationalization efforts.  The focus on asset mapping and opportunity mapping were particularly instructive.

The second reading, A case study of issues of strategy implementation in internationalization of higher education laid out the implementation challenges a British university faced in achieving its internationalization goals and underscored the fact that often times, many implementation challenges have nothing to do with external issues such as government or education policy but rather, are rooted internally in issues such as marketing and admissions policies.  In this case study, what may seem like minor issues such as the interaction between marketing and faculty turned out to be critical impediments to internationalization which I found to be unexpected and intriguing.  Similarly telling were the faculty’s response to how global initiatives may impact work load or scheduling.  These types of issues underscored the importance of collaboration and stakeholder buy-in highlighted in the first reading.

Finally, and close to home, we were able to get an in-depth view of Baruch’s Global Strategic Plan 2014-2019.  This was a highly instructive document because we were able to review and actual strategic plan, specifically geared to globalization, for an environment that we are intimately close to and invested in. For me, in particular, the Baruch plan struck a chord because it is most similar to the type of college I am administrator with respect to geography and student body.  It also spoke to the role of Legal in internationalization efforts in a very tangible and focused way which I can benefit from in my own work.

In the Baruch plan, of note was also its smooth alignment with the college’s overall strategic plan.  Such effort to overtly align internationalization with the college’s broader goals and strategy evidences that global education cannot succeed unless it works within, and acknowledges, the larger higher education framework it operates under.  The concrete ideas for implementation of the five strategic priorities were very interesting and demonstrated that the key to successful internationalization is in the details and proper planning.  I noted that India is a target country which was surprising to me given the high Indian student population at Baruch and found it interesting the plan conceded that the country has not been paid much attention.  I wonder if this is related to some of the Indian governmental obstacles to internationalization we have read about earlier in the semester.