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University of Nebraksa, Omaha

http://world.unomaha.edu/

Contents

General Institutional Overview

Overview of Internationalization Efforts
I.    Vision and Goals for Internationalization
II.   Progress
III. Successful Strategies
IV.  Future Plans

General Institutional Overview

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraska’s metropolitan university, an institution with strong ties to business, education, government, arts, and civic organizations. The university was founded in 1908 as a private, religious institution and became the Municipal University of Omaha in 1930. In 1968, it joined the University of Nebraska system. Dedicated to the concept of a liberal arts education, UNO was the first university in the system to require a core curriculum.

Mission

Located in the heart of Nebraska’s largest city, UNO’s role and mission reflect the diverse community it serves. Many of the academic majors, research activities, and public service programs respond to its metropolitan environment. UNO’s mission is to:

• Place students at the center of the educational enterprise.
• Expand the educational achievement, intellectual aspirations, and horizons of its students with local, state, national, and global communities.
• Offer comprehensive educational programs and services of the highest quality.
• Serve as a recognized center for research, scholarship, creative expression, and artistic performance designed to meet the broader community’s needs.
• Provide outreach partnerships that address the concerns and interests of the broader external community and, in doing so, become an integral part of the community.
• Build understanding and respect in academic and human relationships by reflecting the dynamic and culturally rich nature of the metropolitan area.
• Exercise statewide responsibility for selected graduate and undergraduate programs.

Enrollment

UNO is a comprehensive, public university enrolling more than 15,000 students. Nearly 1,200 of these students are from other countries. The university’s student population represents every state in the nation and students from more than 100 different countries.

Academic Programs

The university offers 110 baccalaureate programs, 44 master’s programs, and five doctoral programs. Several UNO programs are recognized as among the best in the nation. UNO’s undergraduate program in International Studies is one of 10 programs recognized nationally by the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA). In the 2006 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools, nine UNO programs are recognized, including Information Science and Technology, Public Affairs, Criminal Justice, Social Work, and Teacher Education. UNO’s programs are offered through the Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business Administration; Education; Communication, Fine Arts and Media; Information Science and Technology; and Public Affairs and Community Service.

Technology

Technology shapes the way students learn and how faculty teach in the 21st century. In recognition of UNO’s success in integrating technology into the classroom, Yahoo! honored UNO as one of the 100 “most wired” universities in the country.

Overview of Internationalization Efforts

Internationalization efforts at UNO are the product of collaboration among faculty, staff, and administrators. These efforts are coordinated by the Office of International Studies and Programs (IS&P), which provides overall leadership and direction for the institution’s international efforts. IS&P is not a traditional academic department. It combines academic, service, and programmatic responsibilities. IS&P supervises an educationally diverse International Studies major, manages educational projects that reach into all corners of the world, and involves a broad spectrum of UNO’s students, faculty, and staff.

I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization

The university recently completed a prioritization process—identifying its 13 highest-priority programs. In concert with the strategic planning process, these priorities will guide resource allocation. Among the priorities identified as essential for development was International Studies and Programs.

Goal: Placing students at the center of the educational enterprise.

IS&P contributes to the student-centered educational enterprise by:

• Internationalizing education at UNO through international exchanges and through curriculum enhancement.
• Expanding and strengthening the International Studies major in cooperation with the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business Administration.
• Providing standard and customized instruction in English as a Second Language for prospective UNO students, international professionals, international teaching assistants, and non-native speakers in the Omaha workforce.
• Continuing the expansion, promotion, and development of international exchanges and study abroad programming, courses, and counseling.
• Providing increased support for Sigma Iota Rho, the International Studies honor society.
• Developing overseas alumni organizations in countries with sizable alumni representation.
• Seeking continuous improvement of international student support services, including orientation, housing assistance, counseling/advising, extracurricular activities, and exit interviews.
• Increasing scholarship support for international students and for students majoring in International Studies.
• Pursuing articulation agreements with UNO’s sibling universities and other overseas institutions seeking dual degree programs and other cooperative exchanges.
• Strengthening international education by educating citizens and future leaders to be internationally aware and competitive.
• Increasing international student enrollment through active recruitment of students of scholastic distinction.                                

Goal: Striving to achieve academic excellence.

UNO designs teaching to meet the multiple needs and highest aspirations of students drawn to a metropolitan campus. IS&P supports this goal by:

• Developing new course offerings in the International Studies major and within its intensive English language programs to meet changing student needs.
• Developing additional sources of financial support for the International Studies major.
• Supporting staff involvement in organizations and associations designed to advance professional development.
• Nurturing and developing programs of excellence such as the Center for Afghanistan Studies, which provides national and international leadership in programming and scholarship related to Afghanistan.
• Publishing the Afghanistan Studies Journal.
• Responding to requests for technical assistance and expertise for federally funded development efforts in Afghanistan and other developing countries.
• Supporting scholarly research related to the Bethsaida Excavation project.
• Coordinating and managing the annual Global Studies Conference and assisting in the management of the European Studies Conference.
• Expanding UNO library holdings relating to Afghanistan.
• Serving as a resource to UNO departments seeking to attract faculty from abroad by providing advice concerning immigration regulations.

Goal: Engaging with the Community

In support of this goal, International Studies and Programs:

• Offers courses, training programs, seminars, and workshops to promote educational opportunities across national boundaries.
• Develops partnerships for the delivery of programs and services, both at home and abroad.
• Forges relationships between IS&P and Omaha’s increasingly international business community, providing training and development programs to local businesses seeking to internationalize their workforce.
• Strengthens existing cooperative programs with other higher education institutions in Nebraska, across the United States, and abroad.
• Responds to opportunities that allow Nebraskans to participate in a global society.
• Establishes linkages, through the Adopt-a-School Program, with international magnet schools within the Omaha Public School System (OPS).
• Develops ties with Omaha’s refugee populations, seeking to identify and serve their unique educational needs.

II. Progress

Center for Afghanistan Studies
The Center for Afghanistan Studies (CAS) is the original unit of IS&P, and has conducted programming in Afghanistan and for Afghans for the past 30 years. UNO has extensive experience in educational programming for Afghanistan, with staff in the United States, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. America’s Rapid Response to the Education Needs of Afghanistan (ARRENA), a one-year cooperative agreement secured by UNO from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), funded the production of more than 14 million textbooks for primary and secondary school students, both girls and boys, as well as teacher training for 2,740 teachers, 74 percent of whom were female.

The events of September 11, 2001, prompted unprecedented world interest in Afghanistan. Since that day, thousands of phone calls, e-mails, faxes, and in-person inquiries have been made to CAS for information about Afghanistan. CAS staff regularly delivers public lectures, grants interviews, holds symposia and roundtable events, and serves as a resource to governmental agencies at all levels: federal, state, and local. Increased attention on Afghanistan also has reinvigorated several of the educational programs CAS conducts in Afghanistan

In 2002, IS&P received funding from the U.S. Department of State to provide teacher training for Afghan women educators. The Afghan Teacher Education Project (ATEP) has brought more than 70 Afghan women teachers, long-deprived of professional and social opportunity in their home country, to the United States for teacher training, school visits, and homestays in Nebraska. The groups also spend several days in Washington, DC, where they visit the White House, meet with government officials, and tour the nation’s capital.

In 2003–04, the Center for Afghanistan Studies helped reintroduce the Fulbright Program in Afghanistan. CAS received funding from the Department of State to coordinate the selection and orientation of the first cohort of Afghan Fulbright scholars in nearly 25 years.

Intensive Language Program (ILUNO)
ILUNO is the oldest postsecondary English as a Second Language program in Nebraska. The program began in 1977 and has served thousands of students from more than 100 countries. The intensive language program ranks among the top-five programs regionally in enrollments, and enjoys an outstanding reputation nationally and worldwide.

Program for International Professional Development (IPD)
IPD offers one of the most unique training programs in the United States. Because of its focus on both American business practices and business English, IPD is able to serve participant needs by combining tailored classes and activities to create a dynamic learning environment.

Japanese Studies Exchange Program (JSEP)
JSEP provides cultural exchange, international friendship, and Japanese language classes taught by highly qualified, native language speakers. The program is enhanced by UNO’s long-term relationship with Shizuoka University in Japan.

Bethsaida Excavations Project
In 1990, UNO professor Rami Arav and several colleagues from around the world joined together to form the Consortium of the Bethsaida Excavations Project, which since then has been housed at UNO. The consortium excavates the ancient city of Bethsaida, researches the data discernible from the remains, and disseminates the conclusions to both academic and popular audiences.

UNO Students Abroad
UNO has been sending students abroad for more than three decades. Currently, the university’s study abroad programs send more than 250 students to more than 25 countries each year. UNO has 14 different field-specific study abroad programs, ranging from Political Science in Cuba to Computer Science in Norway. The university’s Concert Choir and Wind Ensemble have financed performance tours to Germany, France, Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and Finland.

Annual Global Studies Conference
The Global Studies Conference is an interdisciplinary forum dedicated to the widest possible combination of scholars, practitioners, and participants in its dialogue. The conference brings a variety of scholars from many U.S. and international institutions to Omaha where the most important and topical issues that shape the emerging world are discussed.

Annual European Studies Conference
The European Studies Conference is an interdisciplinary forum for dialogue about issues related to Europe. It brings together individuals diverse in disciplines, but united in their interest in Europe. Interdisciplinary panels, workshops, performances, and social activities bring perspectives and insights that have earned the conference a reputation for promoting unity among participants.       

Community Partnerships

III. Successful Strategies

UNO’s strategies for internationalization are based on synergy, entrepreneurship, partnerships, and global outreach.

The synergy between the academic major and the combined services and programs managed by IS&P is its defining characteristic. This synergy invigorates the cultural and instructional environment, attracts and stimulates receptivity to recent innovations in international education, promotes productivity, and provides uncommon manpower and budgetary efficiency.

The entrepreneurship of the IS&P staff subsidizes each of IS&P’s programs and services, including the International Studies academic major. Only six of the 60 full- and part-time employees are funded by state allocations. The remaining employees, and most of IS&P’s operational expenses, are funded by grants, contracts, and revenue-producing programs that IS&P staff have developed. Over the past 30 years, entrepreneurial efforts by IS&P staff have generated more than $80 million in external funding.

Partnerships are vital to units and programs enabled by synergy and sustained by entrepreneurship. IS&P’s partnerships include units on campus, local and statewide communities, national organizations and companies, and organizations and institutions worldwide. Since 1987, International Studies and Programs has been charged with the management of international programs at both UNO and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Study-abroad programs, specializations within the International Studies major, international exchanges, host-family programs, research, instructional enhancement, and funding are made possible through cooperation with IS&P’s many partners.

The reach of UNO’s International Studies and Programs Office is truly global. The university has 27 sibling institutions. Students from more than 100 countries have studied on the university’s campus and hundreds of UNO students study abroad each year. UNO faculty teach and conduct research in China, Moldova, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Norway; participate in conflict resolution activities in Tajikistan and Afghanistan; and uncover treasures from centuries past in Israel. All of these global activities are sustained by the synergy, entrepreneurship, and partnerships developed and nurtured by IS&P.

IV. Future Plans

IS&P plans to continue to create and develop relationships both locally and globally that bring educational opportunities to as many students, faculty, and staff as possible while enriching the Omaha metro area and university community.

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