International Committee Chair -
David Williams -
david.williams@uah.edu
Mission
The Committee’s mission is to explore the opportunities for UAHuntsville to develop an international presence in the form of a separate campus offering UAHuntsville degrees over the next five years.
Goals
The committee’s strategic goal is to create a separate international presence.
Subsidiary goals must be explored, including the development of a coherent set of international programs for our students and plans to increase the number and quality of foreign students on the UAH campus.
Relevance of the Goal to other UAHuntsville Goals
The goal to create an International Campus (Power of 10 goal) is somewhat isolated from the other Power of 10 goals in that it has relatively little relevance to major increases in endowment, annual giving, research expenditures, co-ops and new academic programs. However, our students will increasingly find employment in foreign countries or in organizations run by international corporations and they will find increasingly that their supervisors are not US citizens. We wish to recruit the smartest students. They will already understand that this change is happening and will want to know what kind of international experiences they can find at UAHuntsville. So, peripherally, the goal of creating an international campus may also help to recruit more and better students as we seek to increase our student body to 10,000 (Power of 10 goal) and at the same time, raise our entry standards by 10% and increase the number of out of state students from 14% to 25%.
Reasons for the Strategic Goal
Increasing the awareness of faculty, staff and students about the international aspects of university education is even more necessary as recent events in our country emphasize the fact that the US is less independent of other nations and less likely to be automatically seen as the leader on the world stage. Increasingly, we are dependent on the rest of the world for the future of our economic, cultural and defense needs. The one area in which the US remains the world leader is in higher education; more foreign students still seek to gain in their education at all levels (bachelors, masters, doctoral and beyond) in the US than in any other nation or collection of nations.
Over 450 students and scholars from more than 80 countries are currently on our campus. Graduates will increasingly find employment with local companies, abroad, or in organizations run by international corporations. Their colleagues and supervisors may not be US citizens. International campuses are already available at, or being explored by, many competing universities.
Summary
The committee exists to explore opportunities to develop one international campus where US and international students can study for their UAHuntsville degrees by 2013. The committee will choose the best site for the campus and customize a strategic plan to complete the goal. Possible external funding sources for the campus infrastructure must be identified. An international campus will serve as a catalyst to the other “Power of 10” goals.
|
