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Central Connecticut State University
General Institutional Overview
Central Connecticut
State University (CCSU) is a regional, comprehensive public
university dedicated to learning in the liberal arts and sciences and to
education for the professions. Comprising five schools—Arts
& Sciences, Business, Education & Professional Studies, and
Engineering &Technology—CCSU offers undergraduate and graduate
programs through the Master’s and sixth-year levels and the Ed.D.
in Educational Leadership. Committed to offering Connecticut
citizens access to our distinctive academic programs of high quality,
the University is also a responsive and creative intellectual and
economic resource for the people and institutions of our state’s
Capitol Region. More than 85 percent of our graduates remain in
Connecticut, contributing to the intellectual, cultural, and economic
health of our state.
CCSU is, above all else, a vibrant learning-centered community
dedicated to teaching and to scholarship. Education at the
undergraduate and graduate level balances academic challenge and
personal support, leading students to become thoughtful, responsible,
and successful citizens. A network of study-abroad opportunities,
overseas inter-institutional arrangements, and other internationally
focused educational programming prepares our students to become
“global citizens,” responsive to a world of cultural
differences and able to succeed in an increasingly international
marketplace. And our faculty’s commitment to scholarly
inquiry ensures the intellectual vitality of our classrooms.
CCSU’s educational excellence has been nationally recognized:
the Association of American Colleges & Universities honored CCSU as
a “Leadership Institution,” one of only 16 in the nation.
And Princeton Review has selected CCSU as one of “The Best
Northeastern Colleges” one of “America’s Best Value
Colleges.”
CCSU serves approximately 12,200 students--9,500 undergraduates, and
2,700 graduates.
Overview of Internationalization at CCSU
Numerous international elements distinguish Central Connecticut State
University. CCSU offers faculty-led courses abroad; promotes
long-term study at partner universities around the world; hosts
international students and visiting scholars; employs international
faculty and staff; requires knowledge of a foreign language and at least
two international-designated courses for the graduation of its
undergraduate students; supports six cultural centers; features a major
in International and Area Studies at the graduate and undergraduate
levels; and is home to the George R. Muirhead Center for International
Education, Connecticut’s designated Center for Excellence in
International Education. Even more importantly, Central has
embraced international education a one of its four distinctive elements,
claimed it as part of its vision to be global in perspective and
outreach, and embedded global awareness and respect for diversity into
its formal statement of institutional goals and objectives.
Recognizing the position of international education within its
mission and goals, the University in Fall Semester 2008 charged a
faculty committee, whose membership represents all four CCSU Schools,
with responsibility for creating a systematic and collaborative approach
to Central’s international education. In essence, the
committee’s goal is to develop a plan for international education
that unifies the somewhat disparate components into a University-wide,
all-inclusive, and CCSU-customized program – one which increases
study abroad participation, strengthens faculty engagement and
oversight, enhances rigor, and is fully integrated into the
curriculum. Acting as the leadership group, the committee will
also recommend ways to bring global education together with community
engagement, and it will investigate funding sources for programming and
course development.
Among the first steps toward reaching this goal is the careful
assessment of international programs, both those that CCSU currently
offers and those that Central may wish to join. The Committee,
working with a wide range of faculty, plans to achieve the assessment of
current programs using open meetings, departmental visits, targeted
surveys, and the implementation of new policies and procedures as its
means. At the writing of this summary, the Committee has completed
an important initial task, the creation of the list of
“International Competencies for all CCSU Students,” which is
its formal recommendation of learning outcomes for the undergraduate
student body of the University. Its next step will be the review
and implementation of these competencies by individual departments.
A concomitant goal of the Committee is to address ways and means to
send significantly more students and faculty abroad. In order to
do this, additional – and different – programs will be
reviewed and integrated into Central’s international plan.
Currently, CCSU offers two University-sponsored options for study,
teaching, and research abroad: Courses Abroad and CCSU Partnership
Universities abroad. Enrollments in those opportunities are, on
average, 400 students annually, well below the target goal of sending
1,000 students abroad each year. In addition, statistics indicate
that international education at Central is strong and flourishing in the
School of Arts and Sciences, and less robust in the Schools of Business,
Engineering and Technology, and Education and Professional
Studies. To attain its goal of enhancing student and faculty
opportunities, CCSU plans to deepen current affiliations, as well as
pursue new partnerships and affiliations, including investigation of a
Connecticut State System consortium for study abroad enrollment.
It will also systematically target programs that meet the needs of
faculty from all four Schools and students of all majors in equally
strong measures.
Changing the locations where CCSU students study is also a
goal. Statistics show that the majority of CCSU students study in
the UK and Europe, locations that, although valuable, offer less
cultural and educational diversity than the countries of Africa, Latin
American, the Middle East, and Asia. Working with the Center
for International Education and the academic departments, the Committee
will be the forum for planning the increase in the number of programs in
those currently underrepresented areas of the world; program that will
also be attractive to majors within all four schools.
Finally, it should be noted that Central is fortunate to have strong
support from its top leadership for the campus-wide internationalization
initiative. To date, the plans and recommendations of the
Committee have the full backing of CCSU’s President and Provost;
they will also be presented to the Faculty Senate, the Curriculum
Committee, the Deans of the Schools, and all other appropriate groups to
ensure that the process planning international education is fully
collaborative and properly reviewed prior to implementation and
integration.
Please direct questions about this page to:
jill_wisniewski@ace.nche.edu
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This page last updated on 03/10/2009
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