By Madeleine F. Green. For many, if not most, institutions, “success” in internationalization is a bit of a numbers game. It is defined by the number of students going abroad, the number of international students and the amount of revenue they generate, and the number of campuses abroad or courses offered with an international focus.
But what do these numbers mean for student learning? Although many colleges and universities cite producing “global citizens” as a goal, few have a clear set of learning outcomes associated with this label, a map of the learning experiences that will produce this learning, or an assessment plan in place to determine what students are actually learning and what that means for curricular improvement. Clearly, institutional performance and the student-learning perspectives can be related to each other, but one cannot assume causality in either direction. As anyone who has tried to assess student learning knows, a given set of institutional activities or the participation rates in various courses or programs does not tell you anything about what knowledge students are obtaining. Read more...

By Hans-Georg van Liempd. The function of the International Office has evolved over the past ten years. Increased responsibility is being placed on Senior International Officers (SIO) in the strive to internationalise our institutions. As Senior International Officers, we need to be able to adapt and evolve in response to this changing environment. We need to embrace change, and a more modern style of leadership.
In February 2013, thirty SIOs from Europe, the USA and various other regions gathered at the University of New Orleans for a full day of intense discussions on their leadership roles, providing some interesting insights. Invited presenter and strategic advisor at the University of Melbourne, Jacyl Shaw, gave a presentation on modern leadership in business, looking at how it could be translated for use in higher education institutions. Here are some of the main points he explored. Read more...

ACA 20 year anniversary conference: Internationalisation and international mobility. Where do we stand, where are we heading?
The Hague, 9-11 June 2013. Co-organised by Nuffic.
ACA’s Annual Conferences have become a synonym for high-quality information, analysis and discussion on current policy and practice-related issues in the area of European and international higher education. They bring together central actors and decision-makers in higher education, such as rectors, vice-rectors, faculty and international relations staff, as well as policy-makers and practitioners from government departments, international institutions, non-governmental organisations and think tanks. And they offer opportunities for learning, exchange and networking at a high level. 
The 2013 Annual Conference will be no exception to this rule, but it is a special event nonetheless. In 2013, ACA will celebrate its 2Oth anniversary.  The conference will be a core element in the celebrations of the jubilee.  For this occasion, we thought it appropriate to return to those themes which were at the centre of our Association’s interest at the time of foundation in 1993 and which always remained high on ACA’s agenda: internationalization and international mobility.  We will deal with these issues in plenaries, but more than in the past also in workshops, to enhance interaction between participants.  The two-day event will take place in The Hague in the Netherlands, and will be preceded by a welcome reception and a social programme on 9 June.

By Fiona Hunter. Many of us in the field of higher education have long-standing experience in our fields of expertise but are still relatively new to the concept of strategic planning, especially when this involves the whole institution. How might we define strategic planning with regards to international education, and what needs to happen within the institution if ambitious goals for internationalisation are to be realised?
Although it is shaped by the past and the present, strategic planning is a process that is oriented towards the future. It looks at the world in 5–10 years from now and seeks to shape future events rather than be dictated to by them. It links past, present and future by ensuring staff understand how history has shaped their institution, reflecting honestly on where the institution is now and the factors that affect it, and considering future objectives and how to achieve them. Read more...

Current literature suggests that higher education‟s internationalisation is perceived as an indicator for the quality of higher education. Nonetheless few European-wide approaches have been developed to assess the quality of internationalisation. The current national accreditation systems do not explicitly include international and intercultural learning outcomes and a commonly agreed assessment methodology is lacking. Therefore, the European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA) decided to develop a European certificate for the assessment of internationalisation. In October 2012, a consortium of quality assurance agencies from eleven countries, the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) started the development of a Certificate for the Quality of Internationalisation (CeQuInt). This ECA project is funded by the EU and coordinated by the Accreditation Organisation of The Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). The overall aim of the project is to assess, reward and enhance internationalisation.
CeQuInt will provide programmes and institutions insight into their level and quality of internationalisation and provide them, where necessary, with recommendations for improvements. The project currently develops an assessment framework that focuses on improvement and excellence, and which builds on NVAO's experience with the assessment of internationalisation.
The assessment framework (i.e. methodology) will be used to assess the quality of internationalisation at either the level of a programme or an institution. The framework and methodology will be tested in a series of twelve pilot procedures, of which four at institutional level and eight at programme level. The experts taking part in the assessment panels will be trained before these procedures start. The pilot procedures will be used to test and evaluate the developed assessment framework from the perspective of both the experts as well as the assessed programmes and institutions. The feedback and results will be used to amend and finalise the assessment methodology.
A positive assessment by an assessment panel will lead to the award by ECA of the Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation. This certificate confirms that a programme or institution has successfully included a significant international and/or intercultural dimension in the purpose, function and delivery of its education. The Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation is intended to lead to a substantial improvement in the transparency and level of internationalisation.
HE institutions will be kept informed about the progress of the project through a newsletter, stakeholder meetings, workshops, conferences and publications. In addition, a platform will be developed to share good practices in the field of internationalisation as identified by assessment panels.
Since the start of the project in October 2012, the project partners have given specific attention to the further definition of assessment methodology, the identification of candidates for the pilot procedures, the specific roles and profiles of experts in the assessment panels and the commencement of dissemination activities. The immediate agreed actions include a stronger involvement of experts from the professional field in the assessment panels, the introduction of a core group of experts that will take part in several pilot procedures and the reporting of national and international dissemination activities. You can find more information here.