From William Brustein, Associate Provost for International Affairs

I am thrilled to become the Associate Provost for International Affairs and Director of International Programs and Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   Illinois has long had a strong reputation for its academic excellence, but what is little known is its prowess as a leader in international education.  In fact, Illinois’ “best kept secret” is that it is the only U.S. institution of higher education ranking in the top ten in the three key metrics of international education: international student enrollment, total number of study abroad students, and the number of federally-funded Title VI National Resource Centers for international and area studies.    

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is poised to become our nation’s pre-eminent global university.  Becoming the leading global university will require that Illinois’ students, faculty, and staff are prepared to confront a world that is strikingly different from what it was just a decade ago.  Our nation faces rapidly shifting economic, political, and national security realities and challenges.  To respond to these changes and meet national needs it is essential that the University of Illinois graduate globally competent students.  Without global competence our students will be ill-prepared for global citizenship, lacking the skills required to address our national security needs, and unable to compete successfully in the global marketplace.  The skills that form the foundation of global competence include the ability to work effectively in international settings; awareness of and adaptability to diverse cultures, perceptions and approaches; familiarity with the major currents of global change and the issues they raise; and the capacity for effective communication across cultural and linguistic boundaries.  I believe that with our excellent faculty and commitment to developing global competence for all students, Illinois will be more than equal to this task.

To achieve the goal of preparing globally-competent students, we will continue to rethink our teaching, research, and engagement so that they give appropriate attention to such crucial steps as 1) integrating relevant learning abroad opportunities into our degrees, minors and certificates, 2) incorporating critical thinking skills of knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, explanation, evaluation, and extrapolation into the learning experience, 3) assessing or evaluating global competence as an outcome, and 4) aligning the area or international studies concentration to a disciplinary major (e.g., biology, anthropology, history, engineering). 

I often meet with heads of multinational corporations, government offices, and NGOs.  When I ask these leaders to describe to me what they look for when making hiring decisions they invariably begin by reminding me that they hire engineers, chemists, economists—in other words graduates with disciplinary expertise.  They proceed, however, to inform me of the enormous added value they see in graduates who combine a disciplinary expertise with relevant area and international studies knowledge, foreign language, and learning abroad experience.   At Illinois we have a comprehensive foundation of excellence in disciplines, which we can mate with a dedication to developing global competence, and thus deliver these graduates.

By acknowledging global competence as a crucial component of a contemporary higher education, we at Illinois understand that it cannot be limited to the handful of students who make the special effort to seek it out.   Our commitment is to assure that all our graduates will be prepared to function as global leaders and citizens.

About William Brustein