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The world is rapidly changing, and globalization is helping to establish common social, economic, and political agreements between countries, as evidenced by the 1993 Maastricht Agreement that created the European Union (EU) and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. These agreements provide the context and rationale for government involvement in enhancing educational opportunities and removing barriers that limit the flow of students, educators, professionals, practices, and projects across borders. Having opened the doors to North American and European mobility in higher education, this increased global activity has encouraged the development of common education standards and mechanisms for mutual recognition, and liberated processes by which professionals are permitted to practice. For example, the educational ministries within the EU have mandated through the Bologna Declaration that by 2010 all educational curricula, course syllabi, textbooks, and related materials must be identical within the EU countries. This means that whether an institution is educating an architect or a zoologist, the educational methodology will be identical to its counterpart institutions' programs throughout the EU. Therefore, this Declaration has been designed not just to lower barriers, but to remove them entirely.
These barriers also exist in the U. S. They are generated by responding to the criteria for specific academic curricula that in many cases are imposed, or at the very least influenced by accreditation agencies, certification bodies, ministries of education and health, and licensure laws, because education and training can differ from state to state and country to country. These barriers will create unique challenges for higher education in the U.S. as our graduates try to stay competitive in the global economy. Thus, global mobility of students has now been recognized as an important component of the educational experience to help address concerns related to differences--not just to the academics in a particular curriculum, but more importantly to help facilitate a better understanding in culture among the peoples of these countries.
An integrated effort to help promote the joint collaboration between higher educational institutions within the United States and the EU has been in place for several years based upon a treaty of mutual cooperation. The origin of this cooperation in education and training dates from the Transatlantic Declaration on EU-U.S. relations adopted in November 1990. In 1993, a two-year exploratory phase of cooperation was launched, and the experience gained provided the basis for a formal EU-U.S. Cooperation Agreement signed in June 1993. Since that time a total of 107 transatlantic consortia have been funded involving 726 European and U.S. institutions of higher education and vocational training. More than 4,000 U.S. and EU students have completed portions of their programs of study abroad within these consortia projects.
To enhance the cultural awareness of students while removing their academic, research and practice differences across borders, three years ago an international consortium comprised of four American and four European institutions of higher learning united to establish a mutual student exchange program (Table 1),
The integration of the eight institutions is diagrammed in Figure 1. The Consortium agreed to target biomedical science as the initial academic area of focus, with interest in other areas to be identified following the matriculation of the consortium program. This partnership has now been extended to programs in behavioral science and business.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
From the perspective of the research administration office, a program of this scope focusing on international cooperation creates unique challenges. Obligatory components such as memoranda of understanding (MOU) and sub-contractual agreements are potential hurdles that must be overcome to provide the necessary instruments for the ultimate success of the project. There is also the potential challenge of overcoming language barriers. This article describes those challenges and how they were addressed to best serve both the individual institutions and, importantly, the students who participated in the international study abroad exchange program.
Importance of International Education
These are challenging times in which we live. We have embarked on the 21st century like no other time in human history. Life changes almost daily, as reading the newspaper or listening to the evening network news can attest. A list of these changes, by no means complete, gives us an idea of their scope and effect on our daily lives. Changes to our economy, education, environment, livelihood, health, natural and non-renewable resources, nations and people are profound in their impact on how we will live in the future.
We in higher education are not immune to these changes. In representing institutions of higher learning, we have been governed by the simple fact that our role and responsibility is to educate students. This remains the basic core value in our mission statements; however, what has changed and will continue to change is the climate and environment within which our students will enter the job force of the future. The challenge of higher education today and tomorrow is to make sure that our graduates leave our institutions not just with the necessary knowledge in their respective disciplines required to become successful, but more importantly, the necessary skills to live and work in a global economy.
To achieve this combined success, educational institutions will need to change the way they meet their mission. To address this challenge, we must ensure that our curricula become internationalized, thus providing our students all the necessary skills to become as marketable as possible as they seek to enter the international work force.
How can this be accomplished? We must internationalize the curriculum to emphasize the importance of the study abroad experience for our students. This valuable experience allows students to learn a portion of their area of study while sitting next to their host country classmates in the foreign site. This allows our students to hone the skills necessary to survive in the international setting, whether survival is defined as simply being able to communicate or, more complexly, to sustain a livelihood. Importantly, these interactions allow the visiting student the opportunity to learn more about the history, culture, and language of the host country.
International education and the opportunity to study abroad allow students to broaden their horizons and think beyond their own individual area of influence. For the institution, internationally focused education and curriculum bring added value to the overall experience (Gallicchio, 1993). We must provide the best education and training possible for our students if they are to become successful competitors in the global community. If we fail, we will have negatively impacted our graduates' ability to be the best possible adults.
International experience as part of an educational system is imperative--program by program--to the interest and commitment of participating institutions. To be successful, there must be adequate and effective communication among specific groups, all of which share a strong belief in blending the international education experience into their educational programs. Administrators, faculty and, most important of all, students are the essential components for success of any such program.
Focus on the Academics--Role of Research in International Education
Over the years, the role of research and scholarly activity has been a hallmark of American higher education, in many cases attracting foreign students to study in the U.S. However, in several areas of U.S. higher education, especially within the health professions, a focus on conducting research has not been emphasized. In several areas, specifically clinical laboratory and biomedical science, an increase in the performance of research by faculty over the last decades has gained significant importance (Covey & Burke, 1987; Bruhn, 1987), This increased effort arose in reaction to criticism that academic programs within the health professions have been deficient in their commitment to conduct scientific and scholarly activities. It also has been noted that those few programs conducting research or sponsored activity received little or no recognition. (Karni & Waller, 1999) It is essential in today's health care environment that health professions' faculty initiate and conduct research and scholarly activity, In addition to their mission of contributing to the improvement and delivery of health care, research and scholarly activity fulfills the responsibility of building the knowledge base of the individual academic disciplines (Syed, 1991). The criteria to evaluate colleges and schools of health professions have for too long highlighted the following deficiencies: (a) historically, members of health professions' faculty/staff have achieved academic ranks and tenure without the rigors of having to demonstrate scholarly productivity on a level with what is expected of faculty/staff members in other schools and colleges on the same campus; (b) the majority of the faculty/staff within these units have a weak track-record of capturing external grant funding for research; and (c) the school or college does not have graduate programs. (Kraemer & Lyons, 1989; Waller, et al., 1988) The important points to emphasize in the performance of scholarly activity are research, graduate education, and the provision of research opportunities to faculty and students. Academic programs that incorporate international collaborations have been effective instruments in achieving research excellence (Gallicchio, Kirk & Birch, 1998).
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