Comprehensive internationalization has become a core mission of higher education institutions. This requires SIOs to take new roles to unite campus efforts to achieve institutional priorities of internationalization. Being an important impact factor across all six target areas of internationalization, faculty plays a critical role in succeeding and sustaining the dynamic system of internationalization. However, the important resource of faculty is usually underutilized on many campuses. Many SIOs struggle to deeply engaging faculty in their international or global learning efforts to comprehensively internationalize their campuses. They frequently engage faculty course by course and single faculty by faculty member. However, this approach can only have limited reach and impact and it is not sustainable over time. How to advocate the importance of internationalization to engage faculty as partners and to bring together the efforts from SIOs as well as faculty to achieve the institutional priorities is much needed for SIOs in their daily practices.
Led by Jiangyuan (JY) Zhou, this forum focused on strategic perspectives and practical experience at national and institutional levels and in both student mobility and curriculum internationalization. The forum raised participants' awareness and shared knowledge of the critical role of faculty in internationalization. The speakers’ and panelists’ discussions focused on how SIOs can bring faculty together in innovative and meaningful ways to further institutional priorities for internationalization, and how SIOs can recruit, organize and support faculty at multiple levels (i.e., individual course, program, and institutional) and in multiple internationalization target areas (i.e., study abroad programs, international student success, and curriculum internationalization). Speakers included AIEA Executive Director, Darla Deardorff and ACE's Robin Helms.
The Forum included five panel sessions focusing on engaging and empowering faculty at national and institutional levels and specific areas of comprehensive internationalization were presented. The presenters discussed how to engage faculty in comprehensive internationalization at the national level; strategic and practical approaches of faculty engagement at the institutional level; various practices of engaging faculty in the recruitment, on-campus support, and alumni activities to enhance academic success, reduce redundancy in programming, and navigate the decentralized university structures; how SIOs and international educators build deep collaborations with faculty and develop strategies and practices in engaging faculty across a variety of disciplines; and provided successful practices for faculty to get involved such as the advisory board, committees, faculty orientation and re-entry, and the digital badge task force.
Forum participants were provided with tools to be able to identify challenges and opportunities in engaging faculty in internationalization efforts; share best practices in “faculty as partners” to promote international student success, study abroad programs, and curriculum internationalization; develop innovative and sustainable approaches about toward SIO and faculty partnerships; and increase the advocacy role of SIOs in uniting efforts to achieve institutional priorities of internationalization.
