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Comprehensive Institutions
City University
www.cityu.edu
Contents:
General Institutional Overview
Overview of Internationalization Efforts
- Vision and Goals for
Internationalization
- Progress
- Successful Strategies
- Future Plans
General Institutional Overview
Founded in 1973, City
University provides learners with accessible and convenient high-quality
education, and is guided by the following philosophical
principles:
- Education is a lifelong process and must
be relevant to the student’s aspirations.
- Education should be affordable and
offered, as much as possible, at the student’s
convenience.
- Opportunity to learn should be open to
anyone with the desire to achieve.
Over the years, City University has
evolved into an institution with a broad international presence that
includes programs in more than 20 different locations across three
continents. Accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and
Universities, the university has an average of 13,000 quarterly
enrollments and more than 1,100 full- and part-time faculty located in
Washington State, Hawaii, Western Canada, Central and Eastern Europe,
China, and Mexico. Through the School of Business and Management, School
of Human Services and Applied Behavioral Sciences, and the Albright
School of Education, City University offers undergraduate and graduate
degree programs in accounting, applied psychology, business
administration, computer systems, counseling psychology, education,
general studies, mass communication and journalism, management, project
management, and public administration.
Overview of Internationalization Efforts
At its main location in
Bellevue, Washington, City University serves international students from
57 different countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan,
India, and China. Seeking to address unmet needs in foreign countries
for higher education in general and for U.S.-style accredited programs
in particular, the university currently serves students in Canada
(Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and Edmonton), Slovakia (Bratislava,
Trencin, and Poprad), Bulgaria (Sofia and Pravetz), Greece (Athens), the
Czech Republic (Prague), Romania (Bucharest), China (Beijing), and
Mexico (Baja California).
I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization
The institution’s
commitment to internationalization has been reaffirmed by the most
recent strategic planning process, which has led to the following
vision:
"City University strives to
be the global leader in student-centered, results-oriented, high-quality
education, responding to the needs and aspirations of diverse students
and communities throughout the world in an affordable, accessible, and
relevant manner."
Furthermore, four of the
university’s six strategic goals relate to the international
dimension:
- Student-centered focus. Increase
student achievement and success by advancing a student-centered,
results-oriented focus across all programs and sites, maintaining a
commitment to community responsiveness.
- Diversity. Emphasize the
importance of multiple perspectives in our working and learning
environments by creating a culture that supports greater diversity among
students, faculty, and staff.
- Globalization. Promote the
globalization of City University through reciprocal sharing of knowledge
and resources among sites, generating new initiatives and practices
based on cross-cultural communication and collaboration.
- Growth. Increase the
university’s size and stature in the United States and
abroad.
II. Progress
City University has offered
programs internationally since 1979, when the institution established a
site in Vancouver, British Columbia, to serve students in Canada. In
subsequent years, City University has formed strategic alliances with
local partner institutions in many countries, effectively evolving into
an international system of campuses and sites.
Through its own Vysoka Skola
Manazmentu in Slovakia, which has evolved as the regional headquarters
for the institution in Central and Eastern Europe, City University has
offered undergraduate and graduate business programs since 1991.
Partnerships in that region include:
- Vysoka Skola Financni a Spravni in the
Czech Republic.
- International Business School in
Bulgaria.
- City College/Omega Metropolitan in
Greece.
- Institul Bancar Roman in
Romania.
In China, the university has
offered programs since 1996 through a partnership with Beijing
University of Technology and the Canadian Institute for Business and
Technology. The institution’s reach in North America will be
expanded as of summer 2005 through a partnership with CETYS Universidad
of Baja, California, Mexico.
Currently, about one-fourth
of City University’s total enrollment involves students served
outside the United States. Increasingly, City University has begun to
integrate its different locations through more systematic communication,
better incorporation of sites outside the United States into the
academic governance process, and exploring synergies arising from its
global presence.
III. Successful Strategies
Beyond the role of
partnerships with local institutions as the cornerstone for growth
abroad, City University has been increasing the inclusiveness of its
internationalization effort through broader participation of faculty and
staff, recognition of faculty, and innovation in educational
programming.
Broader Participation
- Decentralization of academic
management and faculty development. A very successful approach to
City University’s presence outside the United States has been the
incorporation of local professionals as part of the institution’s
academic and overall management team. This approach extends to the
recruitment, orientation, and training of local faculty to support City
University programs.
- Localization of programs and program
review. As in most global activities, relevance to the local context
is imperative. As City University establishes programs abroad, planning
involves possible adjustments to U.S.-based programs to meet local
needs, as well as periodic feedback for improvement purposes.
- Academic conferences. City
University has organized annual conferences with a focus on the overall
effectiveness of teaching and programs being offered in a specific
region of service.
Recognition of Faculty
- Awards, sabbaticals, and grants.
As part of the institution’s recognition of distinguished levels
of teaching, City University honors the best faculty in each region on
an annual basis. In addition, the institution grants sabbatical leaves
for faculty from all regions to engage in teaching and scholarship
opportunities. Professional development grants also are available to
faculty.
Innovation
- Design of multiple modes of
delivery. In response to the institution’s commitment to its
mission, four different modes of delivery have been developed to broaden
access to higher education opportunities. These modes include
face-to-face (in class), mixed or blended mode, online, and
correspondence.
- Double-degree programs. Where
relevant and as possible, City University has articulated and structured
its programs in conjunction with local partner institutions to offer
students the local degree as well as the U.S. degree.
IV. Future Plans
In line with the
institution’s vision and goals, City University will concentrate
on these initiatives:
- Expansion of programs within current
regions served as well as new regions, such as Latin America and
Southeast Asia.
- Growth in the number of international
students coming to the United States, in particular from select
countries in Southeast Asia.
- Broadening the scope of
internationalization with the guidance of the Internationalization
Committee to key areas such as curriculum development and student
services.
- Recognition and celebration of faculty,
staff, and administrative involvement in international activities by
increasing the number of sabbatical leave opportunities and creating
groups such as Phi Beta Delta (an international honorary society) that
support and extend internationalization efforts throughout the
university.
- Leveraging the university’s
resources of City University as a global university system to articulate
interregional student mobility, use technology to promote e-mobility,
and establish an annual conference on "best practices."
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