Colleges are making “uneven progress” in their efforts to internationalize their campuses, according to a new report from the American Council on Education.
The report, “Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses,” is a follow-up to a similar study in 2001 and is based on data collected in 2006 from about 1,070 colleges and universities.
Among the bright spots, the new survey found that the share of institutions with study-abroad opportunities for students had climbed sharply, to 91 percent in 2006 from 65 percent five years earlier. Colleges also are expanding support for faculty members to study or conduct research abroad and are encouraging them to lead overseas-study programs.
Yet despite a growing public consensus that it is important to educate students about different countries and cultures, internationalization is not a high priority on most campuses, the study’s authors conclude. Less than 40 percent of the institutions surveyed made specific reference to international or global education in their mission statements, the authors found. And the proportion of colleges that require a course with an international or global focus as part of their general-education requirements actually dropped during the interval between the two studies, from 41 percent in 2001 to 37 percent in 2006.
“This survey isn’t about the talk, it’s about the walk,” said Madeleine F. Green, who is vice president for international initiatives at the American Council on Education and one of the report’s authors. “I think there is still a very big gap between the rhetoric and what actually happens on campuses.”
Mixed Evidence of Commitment
The report notes that fewer than half of the colleges surveyed have a full-time administrator to coordinate or oversee programs and activities related to internationalization. Just 30 percent of colleges have formally assessed the progress of those efforts.
Institutions in 2006 also were less likely to have a foreign-language requirement for all or some undergraduates. Forty-five percent had such a requirement in the most-recent survey, as compared to 53 percent in 2001. However, the report notes that more colleges are offering critical-need foreign languages like Arabic and Chinese.
One piece of good news, Ms. Green said, is that colleges appear to be spending more to increase their faculty members’ international knowledge and skills. Fifty-eight percent of institutions provided funds for faculty members to lead overseas-study programs in 2006, compared with 46 percent in 2001. Support for faculty study or research abroad also increased, from 27 percent to 39 percent. And the proportion of institutions offering workshops on internationalizing the curriculum climbed sharply, from 29 percent to 65 percent.
Still, fewer than 10 percent of colleges said they had guidelines for considering international work or experience in the tenure process.
“I tell provosts that if they have $100 to invest in internationalization, invest most of it in faculty development,” Ms. Green said. “If faculty are not engaged, it’s not going to happen.”
The report also breaks out trends by institution type. Doctoral institutions were the most likely to include internationalization in their mission statements or strategic plans, while baccalaureate colleges had the highest levels of student participation in education abroad. Community colleges showed the greatest increases in the numbers of students studying abroad, but, over all, participation rates remained low.
And while media reports have focused on American institutions offering degrees overseas to non-U.S. students, just 10 percent of the colleges and universities surveyed said they do so. Forty percent of the overseas-degree programs were in China.
