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Expanding participation in study abroad is a principal goal of the University's Strategic Plan. In part to fulfill this, Student International Academic Affairs (SIAA/SAO), in conjunction with the Office of the Associate Provost for International Affairs, requests proposals or inquiries regarding the following grants and activities.
The university offers students a rich variety of international programs and opportunities. These include exchange programs with over 200 universities in 60 countries. Illinois faculty also conduct seminars abroad leading groups of students to destinations ranging from Vienna and Barcelona to Morocco, China, India, and South Africa. In addition, we have 12 field-sites where the University has played a special role in designing, and often managing, semester and academic year programs abroad. Locations include, among others, Japan, Costa Rica, Spain, and Italy.
We encourage faculty to assist us in field-site development and to consider leading seminars abroad. We recently opened a field-site in Belgium at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and will soon open another one at National Taiwan University in Taipei. New field-sites are designed to serve 20-30 students per term and to support a network of curricular linkages between departments at Illinois and host universities abroad. Faculty leading seminars abroad often link the seminar to their research interests and these seminars will often repeat from year to year. Every year 20 or more faculty will lead a seminar abroad for the first time.
One-fourth of our students study abroad before graduation (over 2,000 students yearly) placing the University of Illinois among the national leaders in this field. Given the scale of our international involvements, the integration of courses taken abroad, and more broadly, the integration of the goals and methods of education abroad within departmental, college, and university curriculum is a pressing challenge.
The grants, workshops and consultancies explained below are designed to facilitate faculty and departmental involvement in these rich and important activities. We look forward to working with you to explore, create, and expand the robust international opportunities available to the University of Illinois academic community at Urbana-Champaign.
This workshop is recommended for departments and faculty members interested in understanding the options available to them in education abroad. It is recommended for all faculty planning to submit applications for Site-visit Grants.
Workshops can be designed for small numbers of interested faculty on any topic. Please contact us with your suggestions.
Tentative topics include:
Departments provide a curricular home to majors and minors and yet few departments have well articulated plans for incorporating the international experiences and educational achievements of students into departmental planning. This consultancy provides your department with rich resources for thinking about these challenges regarding learning abroad, especially on university-related programs.
Integrating Education Abroad into Departmental Planning: A Consultancy
Please contact us with proposals and ideas in the following areas. We will respond quickly to all inquiries.
This grant provides $2,250 to support a site visit to explore the possibilities for creating a rich learning environment for your students. What activities would students engage in? Where would they be conducted? Who would students interact with and how would those interactions be shaped? All of these and a host of other questions regarding housing, transportation and the like can be explored during a brief site visit planning trip. This is typically done during the academic year prior to the anticipated seminar. This grant may be used for travel costs, per diem expenses, and related program development supplies. It may be used to support a Graduate Assistant involved in program development. Priority in selection is given to faculty who have participated in the above workshop series.
Illinois field-sites are among our richest resources for enhancing international education, yet they have been visited by a limited number of faculty. This grant encourages faculty from many different academic areas to visit a field-site. In addition to learning about the field-site, these site visits provide an opportunity to explore the curriculum of the field-site [and host university(s)] and to see how the field-site might incorporate new academic areas responding to student and departmental interest.
Visits can be arranged individually or in small groups of three or four faculty. Ideally visits include class visitations; discussions with faculty and staff; and exploration of local community settings. They will be arranged by Student International Academic Affairs and participating departments.
The grant includes international transportation and three to four days at the field-site. To apply, please submit a letter to Steve Nussbaum, Director, Student International Academic Affairs. The letter should explain the reasons for your interest in visiting a particular field-site and should be accompanied with a letter of support from your Department Head.
Faculty, departments or others interested in developing a sustainable semester or academic year program program abroad are encouraged to send us a brief note outlining your interests. We will respond by setting up a meeting to discuss your ideas. In general, new field sites need to be able to attract 20 to 30 students each semester and should be supported by a network of sponsoring departments or units.
There is no grant application. Rather, as conversations develop and sufficient on-campus support is demonstrated, SIAA will cover agreed upon expenses related to field-site development (international travel, per diem and the like). We look forward to working with you.
The goal of this consultancy is to provide an opportunity for your department to understand and develop its potential in international education and especially education abroad.
We offer hundreds of study abroad destinations and thousands of courses of study to our students.
In responding to these and related questions we contemplate a series of meetings between staff of SIAA/SAO/IPS and departments or colleges.
We will provide you with a detailed summer of:
We would like to know:
Based on the above information we would like to work with you in creating advising sheets for majors in your field regarding preferred options for study abroad.
For additional information on any of the above please contact Marlys McCartney ( mmccartn@illinois.edu). She can forward information to you as well as set up meetings to discuss your interests and goals with Steve Nussbaum, Director, ( snussbm@illinois.edu) and Moira Rogers, Associate Director, ( moirargs@illinois.edu) Student International Academic Affairs.
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