Both the ACE report on International Higher Ed Partnerships and the IIE Report on the Process for Screening and Authorizing Joint and Double Degree Programs have touched upon details from initiating international partnership to keeping them valuable and successful. The collaboration, development, and establishment of international partnerships is not a one step process, it includes numerous important phases, such as strategic planning, faculty and student engagement, ongoing collaboration for enhancements and improvement, and of course quality assurance. Within those phases, the institutions need to remember that transparency, accountability and commitment are extremely important throughout the whole process.

From the ACE report, it is evident that it is very important for the individual institutions to establish international strategy and policies as the first step toward internationalization and most importantly international partnerships. The base recommendations/requirements for international partnerships seem to be very similar or rather more stringent than for any other internationalization initiatives. It could be due to the fact that many internationalization programs created by the government or NGOs are typically short-lived and often don’t have long lasting strategy. On the other hand, international partnerships are typically institution initiated and are all about keeping the relationship and enhancing knowledge and experience as the partnership grows and progresses. That is why establishing international policies that will help institutions determine the goals, priorities, rules, and limitations and being able to compare them to those of the partnering institution are extremely important. They will not only determine the initial negotiations that need to take place, but also the future potential conflicts that can take place, which should be addressed at the initiation of the partnership agreement to avoid future disagreements.

I found the example of Rice University in IIE The Process for Screening and Authorizing Joint and Double Degree Programs to be a perfect example of how any partnership process should work. It includes a lot of collaboration, details, clear guidelines, continuous learning process, evaluation, and improvement of programs and experience. Although ACE report that concentrates mainly on the American partnerships, additional IIE resources also talk about 4 Steps for Creating Sustainable Academic Partnerships. Those include finding sustainable partnership based on common goals, creating more specific shared vision, establishing commitment from faculty and other involved parties, and making sure the partnerships will have longevity. Therefore, no matter if an institution is in the United States, Europe, or any other part of the world, finding a partner institution that shares common vision and international goals will certainly create a base for successful long-term partnership, as long as institutions are willing to collaborate and learn through the process.