Dear all,
Spring has not yet decided if it wants to stay in Iowa, but we know it will settle here soon enough! Either way, I hope each of you had a restful spring break and you feel reinvigorated as we begin the last quarter of the current academic year.
March was quite a busy month in International Programs (IP). When we last communicated, I was about to board a flight to the Middle East for a week-long recruiting trip in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. The goal of these trips was to bring more global Hawkeyes to Iowa. Many of the recruitment activities centered on high school visits, where we engaged directly with students, families, and counselors. For the past few years, we have worked very closely with the UI Office of Admissions to coordinate these visits in parts of the world where we believe Iowa has the greatest chance of promoting its excellent curricula and increasing our international enrollment. Students are eager to learn about education in the U.S. and are interested in Iowa for our programs in business, STEM, writing, and the health sciences. While the focus is on recruitment at the undergraduate level, we do see many students who are interested in the UI’s graduate and professional degrees. These trips have been part of a coordinated plan to boost enrollment from the Middle East, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. So far, we believe these efforts are yielding strong results, with our campus looking more like the world than ever before.
Upon completing my final school visit in Dubai, I flew to France as part of a Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) delegation to strengthen ties with the FIGURE Network, which runs a highly selective master’s in engineering program across France. As some of you know, I am chair of the BTAA Senior International Officer group as well as a professor of French. Consequently, I put my administrative and linguistic skills to use as the BTAA renewed its 5-year agreement with FIGURE to send French engineering students for summer internships at various Big 10 schools. In addition to signing the new memorandum of understanding in Paris, we visited partner universities in Reims, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. The relationship with FIGURE began in 2018, and has proved to be a very strong collaboration, with French institutions sending 10-12 students a year to Big 10 institutions. Even with the COVID-19 interruption, the partnership rebounded quickly, to the point where we could perhaps envision growth beyond the STEM fields. My goal was not simply to represent the BTAA, but to promote Iowa as an institution with world class faculty and facilities in these areas. More and more, STEM dominates the curricular landscape abroad, and we need to make sure institutions around the world know of Iowa’s vast resources in this domain.
As March closed, IP was involved in three delegation visits: from Kosovo, Guinea-Bissau, and Romania. With respect to Kosovo, the group came under the auspices of Friendship Force Iowa in Cedar Rapids. Our visitors from Guinea-Bissau arrived through sponsorship from Global Ties Iowa. The links to both organizations represent IP’s engagement with civic groups across the Corridor. The colleagues from Romania arrived as part of a long-standing partnership between the University of Iowa and Babes-Bolyai University (UBB), in the fields of public health, engineering, and computer science. I will be visiting UBB this summer and look forward to reinforcing our collaborations on both the faculty and student level.
March concluded with the 10-year anniversary of the founding of the International Student Advisory Board (ISAB). This organization has enjoyed trailblazing success in promoting international student advocacy. Since I became dean, it has been an honor to work closely with ISAB on issues regarding employment, housing, language testing, acculturation, and the overall recognition of the infinite contributions international students continually make to our campus community. The event was very well attended and consisted of an awards ceremony followed by performances representing cultures around the globe. Loud applause goes to ISAB for its service to our international population and to our campus as a whole!
And speaking of loud applause, I know you will be cheering #22 and the Hawks as they advance in the NCAA tournament. Whatever the outcome, this fabulous team will continue to make us proud.
GO HAWKS!
Russ
International Programs (IP) at the University of Iowa (UI) is committed to enriching the global experience of UI students, faculty, staff, and the general public by leading efforts to promote internationally oriented teaching, research, creative work, and community engagement. IP provides support for international students and scholars, administers scholarships and assistance for students who study, intern, or do research abroad, and provides funding opportunities and grant-writing assistance for faculty engaged in international research. IP shares their stories through various media, and by hosting multiple public engagement activities each year.
