Krista Davidson

Draft of Strategic Internationalization Plan released for university-wide consultation

Dr. Richard Marceau, vice-president (research), released a draft of the Strategic Internationalization Plan 2020 on Tuesday, Sept.16, 2014, for university-wide feedback. The Strategic Internationalization Plan was initiated by the provost and vice-president (academic) with Dr. Marceau appointed to lead the initiative.

The purpose of the plan is to strengthen the university’s internationalization efforts and set the stage for a wide range of ambitious international and intercultural initiatives. The plan makes eight recommendations for strengthening its internationalization efforts:

1. Educating global citizens: Develop intercultural competencies in all students, faculty members and personnel.
2. Recruiting and retaining global human capital: Aggressively strengthen all structures and processes for attracting and retaining international students, faculty members and other personnel.
3. Enhancing the Memorial value proposition: Better articulate, market and communicate Memorial’s value proposition to enhance its attractiveness and strengthen international student enrolment.
4. Structuring for success: Transition the “International Centre” to an “Internationalization Office”, initially reporting to the President, led by a Director, whose institutional mandate is to facilitate, coordinate, promote and monitor international activities, and to ensure the successful implementation of the Strategic Internationalization Plan 2020. The Director will serve as Memorial University’s senior internationalization officer and will provide vision, leadership and support to units involved in international research, teaching and engagements. The office will be responsible for liaison and communication with provincial, regional, national and international bodies on international issues.
5. Aiming for global impact: Position Memorial to attract international research collaborations, and develop successful international projects and consultancies.
6. Becoming a multinational university: While maintaining long-standing initiatives create sustainable full-degree academic programming, anchored at Harlow Campus, and delivered in part or whole at Harlow Campus.
7. Programming for the international market: All academic programs, at all campuses, will support internationalization in their learning outcomes.
8. Tracking progress: Design and implement updated, centralized data collection and tracking processes and systems of all internationalization initiatives, including such elements as the nature and type of each initiative, participants, units, outputs and outcomes. Identify suitable metrics for tracking Memorial University’s progress in achieving the objectives of the Strategic Internationalization Plan 2020.

To be successful, the plan needs to express the aspirations of the entire university community. To this end, the document, presently in draft form, is submitted to the Memorial University community over the next six weeks for all comments and suggestions. Feedback will be accepted until Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m., via email to vp.research@mun.ca or internal mail: Office of the Vice-President (Research), A2021, St. John’s Campus.