Internationalization: Institutions, People and Programmes in Colorado

Abstract

This paper focuses on the internationalization of curricula, faculty and campus activities in a case study of colleges and universities in Colorado. ‘Internationalization’ is a recent trend in US higher education and is sometimes given as a reason for hiring foreign-born faculty. A survey was used to explore how the definition and degree of internationalization would vary by institutional mission, goals and size as well as by the interests and expertise of key administrators and staff. None of these factors accounted for the survey results. Instead, the results indicate inconsistencies in institutional definitions of internationalization and in the implementation of resulting programmes. These inconsistencies may be a reason why foreign-born faculty can receive a mixed reception and encounter varied support on US campuses and raise a number of issues for further research on the discourse of contemporary US higher education.

Keywords:

• Internationalization
• higher education

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Larry Bell, Marianna McJimsey and Sarah Kawano Schultz for assistance in collecting the data for this study, and Heike Alberts, Janice Monk, Jennifer Collins, Kenneth Foote and Wei Li for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

¹ The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is the leading typology of American colleges and universities based primarily on their mission, types of degrees offered, number of degrees awarded and research activity (McCormick, 2001).

² NAFSA: Association of International Educators is a member organization promoting international education and providing professional development opportunities to the field (Oaks, 2005).