Global Kentucky - UK's International Hub

Global Kentucky: UK's International Hub

The global vision of the University of Kentucky faculty, staff, and student body is integral to our mission as a research university, and as a land-grant institution that seeks to support the aspirations of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Global Kentucky brings together every college on UK's campus, in pursuit of our primary goals: global research and engagement, student mobility (access for international students and education-abroad opportunities for U.S. students), and a rich and relevant curriculum that responds to the global issues facing our students. In Spring 2007, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy established the Internationalization Task Force, charged with assessing the current state of international teaching, research, engagement, and co-curriculum at the University of Kentucky, as compared with benchmark and peer institutions.
Susan Carvalho, Associate Provost for International Programs and Chair of the International Advisory Council

The global vision of the University of Kentucky faculty, staff, and student body is integral to our mission as a research university, and as a land-grant institution that seeks to support the aspirations of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Global Kentucky brings together every college on UK's campus, in pursuit of our primary goals: global research and engagement, student mobility (access for international students and education-abroad opportunities for U.S. students), and a rich and relevant curriculum that responds to the global issues facing our students.

In Spring 2007, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy established the Internationalization Task Force, charged with assessing the current state of international teaching, research, engagement, and co-curriculum at the University of Kentucky, as compared with benchmark and peer institutions.

Susan Carvalho, Associate Provost for International Programs and Chair of the International Advisory Council

In collaboration with the American Council on Education’s International Laboratory, this group recommended specific strategies for increasing the international dimension of the University’s statewide, national and global missions.

The Task Force worked for 18 months addressing crucial issues such as the need for a campus-wide inventory of current international activity, and the benefits and drawbacks of central coordination versus college-based activity in the context of UK’s campus culture. An external review team led by the ACE gave these efforts high praise, stating that “the University of Kentucky has made great headway in enhancing its internationalization and is at a propitious moment in time to broaden and deepen these efforts.”

In Fall 2009, we established the International Advisory Council to guide the implementation of the strategic plan. Recent successes include a significant increase in our international undergraduate population, the expansion of a successful and innovative grant with the German Fulbright Commission to create opportunities for the study of diversity in both the German and the US context, increased funding for Education Abroad scholarships, significant work with the Iraqi Education Initiative, and recognition by the Association of International Education Administrators. We also launched Global KY, a quarterly newsletter covering UK's international activities, so that we can bring these and other successes to the attention of faculty, staff, and alumni nationally and internationally.

For further information, or to share the initiatives within your own College or unit, please feel free to contact our office at any time.