October 24 2012
Every college president faces tough decisions daily, attempting to choose wisely among urgent - often conflicting – priorities. Ideally, each choice would strengthen the college brand, address multiple objectives, have a strong return on investment, and satisfy multiple constituencies.
The best choices: engage and expand the horizons of faculty and staff; strengthen enrollment; deepen learning and engagement; increase net tuition revenue; capture alumni and donor interest; build endowments; and increase institutional pride. What choices can be made that would accomplish of all this simultaneously?
At four small, under-resourced colleges, I found that choosing to focus on campus internationalization produced multiple, positive results. Time after time, internationalization proved to be an effective rubric under which we launched clusters of initiatives that interacted synergistically, leveraged scarce resources, and expanded the institution’s reach.
We also deepened the institution’s capacity to educate and attracted a new pool of foundation and alumni donors. We identified new pools of potential students – highly motivated, qualified international students seeking enrollment in the United States and U.S. students who prefer a college with a cross-cultural student body and opportunities to study abroad. We tailored the recruitment process to the college mission, working through partner colleges abroad, and providing on-campus support.
Opportunities to study abroad encourage retention among all students. Students often choose our colleges because we are small and personal – often too small and personal by sophomore year! Rather than transfer, students can step out into the world temporarily through cross-cultural study, returning to graduate after a study abroad experience.
We increased academic quality and strengthened the academic climate on campus. International students tend to be highly motivated, often raising the bar on academic achievement among their American counterparts. We deepened student learning, especially when we took an “international service learning” approach.
Cross-cultural study, service learning, and discipline-based internships should be seen as interconnected, overlapping experiences - not separate ones. We raised faculty and staff morale and effectiveness among those who participated. People who choose to work in higher education are likely to be curious and eager to learn.
A faculty and staff study/travel tour to further the college’s goals can generate innovative research and program ideas with new-found colleagues abroad. We did not break the bank to recruit international students. Cost-effective, personalized approaches to revenue sharing and fundraising can increase net revenue, rather than the tuition discount rate.
Email or call me (717.360.3900) with your thoughts on where you are with internationalizing your campus and whether or not you have found it to be a transformative strategy.
