IHE Professor Sheila Slaughter (blue jacket) poses for a photo with a group of Irish colleagues at a conference in Dublin.

INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES AT IHE

The study of comparative higher education is a logical extension of the multi-disciplinary strengths of the Institute's graduate programs. IHE seeks to ensure that the next generation of scholars, leaders, and policymakers understands the importance of thinking internationally, and has a grasp of the social, cultural, political, and governance issues facing higher education worldwide. The Institute has partnerships with the other leading research centers in higher education worldwide, understanding that trends and issues in higher education are hardly unique to the United States, but instead global.

The IHE executive doctorate in higher education, based in Atlanta, has an international perspective that is embedded in the courses and activities. The program will also include sessions abroad each summer: one in Europe with CHEPS, the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente; and a second in China, working with our partners at Peking University and Beijing Normal University, or another destination abroad.
The Institute has a relationship with the Higher Education European Masters (HEEM) program based at the University of Oslo under the direction of Peter Maassen. University of Oslo colleague Berit Karseth will be in resident at the Institute during spring 2010, teaching several classes on comparative higher education and completing research for an upcoming book.

Norwegian guest instructor Berit Karseth (standing) discusses higher education with a group including Chinese visiting scholar Lianquan Qiao (bottom left).

Over the past few years, the Institute has hosted visiting scholars from around the world — most recently Lianquan Qiao, associate professor of higher education at Xiamen University in China — and continued its training work, including in Croatia with an annual workshop on higher education management funded by the U.S. Department of State.
For three weeks in July 2008, the Institute also worked in Athens with ten doctoral students from Makerere University in Uganda, continuing its partnership with the East African Institute for Higher Education Studies and Development.
The Institute is also in discussions with the new L.H. Martin Center for Leadership and Management in Higher Education at the University of Melbourne about developing collaborative doctoral and masters programs.