Vision
The University of Louisville will reflect the realities of a global community in teaching and research as well as in student and faculty composition. All undergraduate students will participate in international experiences, and graduate students and faculty will regularly participate in projects international in scope.

Philosophy
International initiatives of the University of Louisville should directly serve the teaching and research missions of the University, helping faculty and students to develop their work in a global context, putting ideas to action. Initiatives should be prioritized and evaluated on the basis of their contribution to these two areas of the mission. The University should support the international programs of its community partners (e.g., Sister Cities) to the extent that University participation contributes to the teaching and/or research mission.

The University should assist its faculty and students in developing their work with global awareness, and it should serve as a magnet to bring expertise from across the globe to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The University should strive to be recognized as a leader in global education and research. Initiatives, therefore, should be integrated as closely as possible into the curricula of degree programs, and the University should foster and serve the expectation that international learning will be part of a student’s educational experience, including expanding the study abroad opportunities for all students. Such experiences should increase the value of a UofL education so that they will be recruiting tools for the University to attract the best and brightest students. Likewise, the University should encourage global breadth in research programs. To do so, it might suggest that advertisements for faculty positions include preference for candidates who can communicate in a second language, when appropriate; and it might provide competitive summer stipends for faculty to improve their communication skills in a second language.

Initiatives should serve the diversity goals of the University in terms of globalized curricula, students served, and areas of partnership. We should strive to develop programs in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America as well as Europe. Units and programs should be free to develop international programs that best serve their missions. It is highly desirable, however, for the University to facilitate communication among units about such programs so that they can be expanded to other disciplines if that is mutually beneficial. In that way, it is to be expected that certain focuses (e.g., regions or particular university partners) will develop; this “organic” development is preferable to planned development of a list of preferred international partners. Our international commitments should remain flexible so that they can respond to changing needs and not be tied to long-term contracts or property leases. Furthermore, initiatives should facilitate the internationalization of this campus by welcoming and assisting international students and scholars. We should commit ourselves by the year 2020 to double the number of Fulbright scholars we bring to campus and to raise the number of international students matriculating here to 10 percent of the total campus population.

Finally, the University should create structures (e.g., an International Center) that are able to facilitate internationalization. Units should retain control over the programs they house, and a central office should handle those service functions which it would be efficient to centralize. One critically important mission of such a center would be as a provider and clearinghouse for information, and for that reason it should be staffed so that it can respond quickly to student or faculty inquiries at any time throughout the business day.

• We use the word “global” to refer to perspectives and projects that transcend national borders. To develop one’s research project with global awareness, for example, might entail being aware of work done in a number of countries other than the U.S. and in languages other than English and recognizing the effects of cultural situation on one’s research. We use the word “international” to refer to persons who cross actual borders and to programs that require such crossing of borders. We find it useful to retain both terms, as we wish to refer to both denotations. We stress, for example, that international programs should serve global awareness and that an increase in international faculty will help us to globalize the curriculum.

Ideally, by 2020 all faculty would have a second language capability and teaching and research resources would reflect a significant number of visiting scholars and teachers from around the world. By 2020, undergraduate students would have some fluency in a second language and a required international educational component to degree requirements. Ten percent of the undergraduate population would be visitors and permanent residents from other countries. In the same year, we would have graduate students from many countries and a broad range of opportunities for all students to conduct some of their learning or research abroad.