This week’s reading speaks on global citizens and global institutions. Last week during the panel discussion, I believe Patricia mentioned that many institutions confuse what global students and global institutions are. It is not when an institution as branch campuses in other countries or when students study abroad and international students come to the home campus. It is important to understand what  global student and a global institution is. Carnegie Mellon University complied some information on what global literacy means to them and what course help students understand global issues so than can in turn become global citizens. They created 4 core learning outcomes they wish the students to understand at the end of the courses and speak about how each course will assess the outcomes of the students. http://www.cmu.edu/global/education/global-literacy/

Though these are Carnegie Mellon’s learning outcomes and goals each institution should be able to speak on what they feel are global learning outcomes and goals for their students. One theme brought up in the readings is that study abroad creates global citizens. Due to the different types of study abroad options I believe it depends. If a student only attended a short study abroad experience, they may have not had enough access to the culture, situations and life of the country they visited that they are not able to include new perspectives in their conversations. Longer study abroad options allow student to immerse in the culture and everyday life so that when they return they are more inclined to include their “global perspective”.

There was also another point that Alessia, from our panel last week brought up that is in the readings this week. There is a huge pull for big institutions in other countries to partner with big institutions in the U.S. Institutions are looking to become more globally engaged and therefore positions in institutions have been made to facilitate this idea. Alessia mentioned she was the middleman between the universities in France and NYU. She was to inform each institution of the new programs, any new changes or ideas and vice versa between the schools so they are always aware of where the other institution stands. With the increase of global engagement and global institutions, more positions in the university system It is also mentioned that institutions must be careful who they partner with because if there is not complete transparency between both institutions there could lead to problems in the future and give a bad image to both institutions who were promoting global engagement.