In order to remain competitive, the University of Tulsa must reconsider how it engages with the global community, both outside the borders of the U.S. as well as on and around our own campus. In a recent document prepared for US university trustees, Dr. Allan Goodman, President and CEO of the Institute for International Education, advised, “U.S. institutions of higher education need foreign policies, but not in the traditional sense of the phrase. Their leaders need to formulate institutionwide policies to assess their current engagement with the world and future strategic agenda.”1 This document outlines a strategic plan that responds to this institutional imperative to prepare TU’s foreign policy and successfully promote comprehensive internationalization.
More information about the ACE Internationalization Laboratory is available here.
Internationalization Laboratory
In August 2009, TU joined the American Council on Education’s Internationalization Laboratory, a small cohort of institutions that worked closely with ACE over a 16‐month period to develop a strategic plan for comprehensive internationalization. More than eighty faculty and staff, including a fifteen‐member steering committee, conducted a comprehensive self‐assessment of TU’s current activities that led to the recommendations included in the strategic plan.
A vision for TU as an internationalized institution
Internationalization is defined as “the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions, or delivery of post‐secondary education.”2 As reflected in its mission statement, the University of Tulsa educates “men and women of diverse backgrounds and cultures” to “welcome the responsibility of citizenship and service in a changing world.” In addition to this mission, TU has identified internationalization as an institutional priority.
As it continues on this path, the University has committed to the ideal that this international, intercultural, and global dimension will permeate all aspects of the institution. By internationalizing the TU campus, our goal is to increase the knowledge and appreciation of the interconnectedness of global systems as they relate to language and literature, economics, politics, religion, the environment, law, and all natural systems and processes. This will require a targeted and integrated approach that will encompass all levels of the University and community. Internationalization of the campus represents an opportunity for students, administration, faculty, staff, and other members of the campus community to learn new ways of thinking, to find new ways of communicating ideas, and to understand global systems.
The broader impact of internationalization of the University will be the development of a more collaborative faculty and staff and more globally aware and engaged student body.
Internationalization provides both direct and indirect benefits for the University of Tulsa and for the greater Tulsa community. Direct, tangible benefits include the ability to attract and retain higher‐caliber students and faculty and to prepare them to be more competitive for external funding. Another benefit of internationalization is the cultivation of a student body prepared for the realities of a changing world. With more focus on internationalization, the University situates itself to provide leadership in local, national, and global communities on crucial questions facing world societies today, especially as related to some of the University’s key interdisciplinary initiatives such as energy, technology and the environment, cyber security, indigenous populations, community health, and entrepreneurship.
1 IIE. 2010. “International education as an institutional priority: What every college and university trustee should
know.” New York: Institute for International Education.
2 Knight, J. 2003. “Updating the definition of internationalization” International Higher Education 33 p. 2.
