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Kennesaw State University

www.kennesaw.edu

Contents

General Institutional Overview

1. Vision and Goals for Internationalization
2. Progress
3. Successful Strategies
4. Future Plans

General Institutional Overview

Kennesaw State University (KSU) is one of the fastest growing members of the University System of Georgia. Located in densely populated and rapidly developing metropolitan Atlanta, the university offers 40 baccalaureate degree programs. These include majors in the arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, accounting, business fields, teacher education specialties, computing and information systems, and nursing. The foundation for all undergraduate majors is a comprehensive, coherent general education program that strongly promotes global learning.

In fall 2004, KSU enrolled 18,000 students (approximately 10 percent of them graduate students), making it one of Georgia’s largest state universities in headcount and equivalent full-time enrollment. Among undergraduates, 36 percent are over the age of 25, 39 percent are part-time students, and 62 percent are female. Minority enrollment is at 20 percent and increasing rapidly. The number of international (foreign-born) students at KSU continues to increase substantially, with more than 1,524 students (8 percent of the KSU student body) from 132 countries in fall 2004. The number of students studying abroad is also increasing dramatically, and has more than tripled in the past five years to more than 350 students annually.

KSU has had almost two decades of institutional engagement in international education and has gained national recognition. The university was among the first institutions in Georgia to establish an Office of International Programs, which was reorganized, expanded, and elevated in fall 2003 to the Institute for Global Initiatives. KSU was also among the first institutions to internationalize the general education curriculum and establish undergraduate majors, minors, and certificates with an international focus. The university’s campus-wide commitment to honoring diversity and multicultural perspectives also has been impressive, and complements the its mission of global learning for all.

Overview of Internationalization Efforts

I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization

KSU has been intentional and systematic in its international education initiatives. It has implemented global learning through the following four strategies: curricular experiences that ensure student competence; faculty development and engagement; student co-curricular activities and immersion programs (such as study abroad, internship abroad, and service learning); and administrative structures that support a campus culture of global learning.

KSU seeks to provide all of its students with an international education that emphasizes learning about cultural diversity and global interdependence. The approach is collaborative, multidisciplinary, and experiential. International education at KSU begins with a strongly internationalized core curriculum. All students study world (not western) civilizations, world (not western) literature, global economics, and American government from a comparative perspective. Arts appreciation courses in music, theater, and the visual arts all contain significant nonwestern components.

KSU’s three most significant achievements in providing all of its students with a more in-depth understanding of the world beyond our borders are (1) the internationalized core curriculum; (2) the annual Country Study Program; and (3) a rapid, successful expansion of accessible study abroad programs.

II. Progress

Internationalized Core Curriculum
KSU’s core curriculum was heavily internationalized in 1991. Core courses are taken by every KSU undergraduate student, regardless of major, so the impact is universal. As noted previously, the revised curriculum stresses material on nonwestern cultures in a wide range of courses. Literature and history surveys add significant Asian and African materials, and the American government course was recast so that students are constantly comparing American political institutions with those of other nations. In addition, new courses were added in global economics, regional geography, and anthropology.

With the revision, many faculty members needed additional training to teach newly required materials, especially those relating to nonwestern cultures. As a result, KSU stressed faculty participation in professional development seminars at international locations organized by the University System of Georgia. KSU leads the university system in attendance of these seminars, with 52 faculty participants since the inception of these seminars in 1993. The KSU International Center organized the first of these seminars, patterned after the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program, and has played a major role in convincing the university system to fund several seminars a year since 1993.

In the area of curricular development, KSU’s primary strategy has been to build and use faculty expertise in area studies and develop strong institutional linkages with partner institutions abroad to complement this expertise. In this way, faculty expertise in area studies has improved rapidly. The development of an African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) major, Hispanic Center, and Chinese Studies Center demonstrate KSU’s focus on learning about the world beyond the traditional focus of Western Europe. Likewise, the KSU International Center served as the administrative headquarters for the University System of Georgia’s Asia and Africa Councils from 1997 to 2002, and the Institute for Global Initiatives continues to serve this role for the Asia Council. The Institute for Global Initiatives has organized, funded, and facilitated faculty resource groups that have effectively encouraged curricular enhancement, particularly relating to less commonly studied regions such as Africa and Asia.

Expansion of Accessible Study Abroad Programs
Building significant participation in study abroad programs presents a challenge when working with nontraditional students, many of whom have limited resources and family or job responsibilities that make it impossible for them to be out of the country for significant periods of time. In response to such situations, KSU has developed a wide range of inexpensive, short-term study abroad programs. The university offers a significant number of these highly customized and accessible programs for two weeks between spring and summer terms, when airfares are generally lower than they are in the summer. The results have been impressive: In the past five years, KSU student participation in study abroad programs has tripled to more than 350 students per year.

KSU’s approach to study abroad is highly collaborative; the university recruits students from across Georgia for all of its study abroad programs and has established consortium agreements with other institutions to ensure transfer of credit and mobility of financial aid. The study abroad program to Italy attracts more than 90 students each year, including more than 20 students per year from two-year institutions such as Georgia Perimeter College. As an affiliated program of the University System of Georgia’s European Council, the Italy program allows students to register at their home campuses. Study abroad programs to Ghana and China also rely on recruiting students from across the state in order to maintain the programs’ viability. KSU has prided itself on successfully developing and implementing study abroad programs to nontraditional sites.

III. Successful Strategies

Annual Country Study Program
The Country Study Program demonstrates one of the most successful ways in which KSU has infused classes with international perspectives. Each academic year, KSU sponsors a series of lectures, performances, exhibits, and films that focus on a different country or world region. These public programs are linked to credit-earning special topics courses and to new instructional units throughout the general education curriculum. Working with the General Education Council, the university has introduced a grant program to encourage general education faculty to produce discipline-based modules on the country under study, use them in their own classes, and disseminate them among colleagues.

The Country Study Program’s impact ripples across undergraduate instruction in two ways. First, many students either take the country study special topics courses or sit in core classes that contain country-specific modules. Other students attend the public films, lectures, performances, and art exhibits that constitute the heart of the program. Second, and perhaps more important in the long run, the faculty members who create and use the general education modules—or who create and teach the special topics courses focusing on the country under study—are themselves significantly internationalized in the process. Such internationalization efforts affect faculty members’ teaching for years to come.

The aim of the program is, over the course of a full academic year, to take a wide-ranging look at a specific country or region under study from its earliest history to current events. The program allows faculty, and students, and community guests to break down stereotypes and connect across cultures. The Country Study Program uses a multidisciplinary approach in order to provide KSU’s audiences with a richer, more complex sense of place and community.

IV. Future Plans

Strategic Plan
KSU’s recent involvement in ACE’s Global Learning for All project enabled the Institute for Global Initiatives to develop a strategic plan. The project works from the premise that global learning cannot be achieved through a collection of disconnected programs and activities; it requires a strategically organized program of study with intentional learning goals. It starts with developing a consensus among stakeholders and participants on what is meant by global learning and how to go about the process.

Both KSU’s participation in the ACE initiative and its internal reviews and reorganization underscore the need to move international education to the next level. This next level for KSU is global learning for all graduates. The university’s ultimate goal is to ensure that all KSU graduates are well-educated and responsible global citizens. Consequently, and borrowing from the language of the Institute’s international strategic plan, to strengthen KSU’s internationalization, the university will focus on achieving greater:

• Internationalization of the curriculum at all levels (faculty-centered).
• Intercultural engagement for all students in and outside the classroom (student-centered).
• Institutionalization of campus-wide global learning (administration-centered).

A major outcome of the review is the adoption of a strategic plan for internationalizing the campus. In addition, Global Learning for Engaged Citizenship was adopted as KSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) as part of its SACS re-accreditation process. QEP will improve student learning by focusing strongly on the global learning outcomes that were established in 2004 as part of the ACE initiative. The outcomes are listed below.

Graduates Possess Global Awareness and International Perspective (Knowledge):

• Graduates articulate knowledge of world history, politics, government, literature, regional geography, and economics; they will systematically acquire information from a variety of sources regarding diverse regions, countries, and cultures.
• Graduates make informed critical assessments of global events, processes, trends, and issues, and convey the interconnectedness of political, economic, and environmental systems.
• Graduates interpret world events from more than one cultural viewpoint, and they will analyze the effects of internationalization and globalization on the nation, state, and local communities.
• Graduates articulate perspectives and experiences in global learning associated with their degree programs.

Graduates Are Effective in Cross-Cultural Communication and Engagement (Skills):

• Graduates recognize individual and cultural differences and demonstrate an ability to communicate and interact effectively across cultures.
• Graduates demonstrate fundamental communication skills in one or more foreign languages.
• Graduates demonstrate flexibility, openness, empathy, and tolerance for ambiguity.
• Graduates espouse and exhibit respect for diversity.
• Graduates demonstrate sophisticated uses of databases, computers, the Internet, and other information technologies for global communication and problem solving.

Graduates Are Committed to Global Ethics, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development (Values):

• Graduates advocate and show support for human rights and economic well-being throughout the world community, including but not limited to the importance of access to education, health care, and employment.
• Graduates address environmental resources and issues in ways that benefit the world and future generations.
• Graduates connect root causes of acute global problems (e.g., population growth, poverty, disease, hunger, war, and ethnic strife) to issues of land use and access to natural resources (e.g., clean air and water, bio-diversity, nutritious food sources, minerals, and energy) as well as political and economic systems.
• Graduates espouse the interconnected nature and importance of global issues such as arms control, maintaining peace, enhancing security, alleviating poverty, and managing resources cooperatively, responsibly, and equitably.

This QEP will comprise a number of major action plans and initiatives designed to facilitate the achievement of the global learning outcomes for all KSU graduates.

Strategic Priorities:

• Develop effective strategies for assessing global learning.
• Provide a solid foundation for internationalizing the curriculum through University Studies.
• Internationalize the curriculum of each degree program.
• Integrate study abroad and international internships into the curriculum.
• Develop effective incentives for faculty to be involved in international education.
• Structure opportunities for meaningful domestic and international student interaction in and outside the classroom.
• Develop and support strategic exchange partnerships with universities in diverse world regions.
• Develop area studies and strengthen regional centers.
• Develop cross-cultural immersion/experiential learning opportunities within the local community.
• Increase international student enrollment through effective recruitment.
• Improve infrastructure in support of visiting international students and scholars.

Action Items:

Internationalization of the Curriculum:

• List and promote internationalized courses and pathways for global learning in each major.
• Expand required upper level international courses offered within each major.
• Promote and expand the number of degree programs that require study abroad.
• Provide strategies to students to internationalize their education through KSU courses.
• Implement reflective portfolios that integrate international learning components in senior seminar courses.

Faculty Development and Incentives:

• Offer workshops and incentives for faculty to internationalize courses.
• Better promote opportunities for faculty to participate in exchanges and teach abroad.
• Recognize efforts of faculty involved in study abroad through hiring and through tenure and promotion.
• Create campus awards for faculty contributing the most to internationalizing their courses/the campus.

Co-curriculum and Intercultural Engagement:

• Promote and expand programs and services that bring international and U.S. students together in meaningful ways such as the Global Society, International Student Associations, Conversation Partners Program, and Campus Internationalization Mentors.
• Raise the profile of the Year of Country Study program by having all colleges sponsor lectures/events and develop special courses that are connected to the series.

Administrative Facilitation:

• Simplify application process and conduct on-campus credential review for international student applicants.
• Expand affordable nearby housing options for visiting international students and scholars.
• Provide assistance for local transportation needs of visiting international students and scholars.
• Use international student and study abroad alumni for recruitment and fund raising.

QEP Next Steps

Assessing global learning is our top priority. The plan for QEP is to form five subcommittees to guide program development and assessment on each of the global learning dimensions listed below.

1. Subcommittee One would create four certification programs for KSU graduates and faculty (as well as staff and administrators).
   1. Foreign Language Proficiency Certificate
   2. Knowledge of Global Affairs Certificate
   3. International/Cross-Cultural Experiences Certificate
   4. International/Cross-Cultural Community Involvement CertificateSubcommittee Two would plan improvements in curricular programs for global learning.
2. Subcommittee Three would focus on improvements in faculty and staff development for global learning.
3. Subcommittee Four would plan improvements in co-curricular community development for global learning.
4. Subcommittee Five would develop improvements in administrative facilitation for global learning.

Please direct questions about this page to:
Beth Burris, Program Associate
beth_burris@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 5/12/2006