Internship at the US international offices
In mid-April 2018, the head of the international Department of USTU Anton Grigoriev returned from a three-month internship within the framework of the Fulbright grant program for employees of international departments (Russia International Education Administrators Program, RIEA), which was held at universities of the United States of America since mid-January 2018. The RIEA program offers an intensive internship in the USA, which consists of several stages. In total, this year eight representatives of international departments of various universities of Russia were selected.
The first part of the internship (academic component) took place at Indiana University in Bloomington (US public research University, the leading campus of the Indiana University, located in Bloomington, Indiana). This is a four-week program, during which they could be acquainted with the system of higher education in the United States and the work of international departments in American universities. Anton took part in seminars, meetings and round tables organized by the staff of the University of Indiana. The main topics of discussion were intercultural communication, strategy and tactics of attracting international students, issues of health insurance and medical care, security issues, visa and financial issues. Anton made presentations to his colleagues on the experience of Ukhta University on the internationalization of the campus and the export of educational services.
After the academic component of the program was completed, all participants took part in the annual international conference "Association of international staff" in Washington. Employees of international departments of universities from around the world annually attend the conference. During the conference, the participants had the opportunity to learn about global trends in international education and share their experiences.
The next stage was participation in seminars held at the offices of the Institute of international education in New York and Washington. The seminars covered the most successful examples of educational exchanges, important areas in international education such as the Bologna process, and strategies for the best dissemination of information. In addition, the participants visited some universities near New York.
Then, as part of the "partner week" (networking week), Anton trained at the partner University of USTU-Texas University of Technology (http://www.ttu.edu/). State Research University in the Texas city of Lubbock, where he was able to meet colleagues from international offices, as well as representatives of the academic staff (in the following areas: oil and gas technology, construction, information technology and software development, general engineering). During the meetings, possible areas of cooperation between USTU and the University of Texas within the framework of student and teacher exchanges, as well as joint international projects within the framework of various grand programs were discussed.
The last month of Anton's internship was held at the office of international education of Georgia Institute of Technology, which is 71st in the ranking of 1000 leading world universities and 7th in the ranking of state universities in the United States (http://www.gatech.edu/about/rankings). Anton worked in the international office team on several projects and was able to gain applied skills and experience working with international guests and students.
At the final stage, all participants and representatives of the Institute of international education met for a few days in New York, where all participants made presentations of the experience gained during all stages of the internship, as well as conducted a general analysis and evaluation of the results.
The purpose of the Fulbright RIEA program is to improve the professional skills of Russian University employees, who work with international students and teachers, including faculty and students from the United States. During the program, participants had the opportunity to expand knowledge and to get practical skills in areas such as academic exchanges, attracting international students and teachers, student mobility, medical insurance, visa support, cross-cultural communication. The exchange of professional experience and language practice are also important components of the program.
Reference: Every year Ukhta University actively participates in various Fulbright programs, inviting teachers and specialists from the United States to give lectures, work on curricula, organization of events and conferences on the campus in Ukhta. Therefore, from mid-April to mid-May 2018 in USTU works doctor of science from the United States Scott de Francesco.
The main profile of its activity is the sphere of advertising and strategic communications.
Ukhta State Technical University, in accordance with the information and analytical materials on the results of monitoring the effectiveness of educational institutions of higher education in 2017, in the direction of "international activities" has an indicator of 11.78 (at the threshold value of 1), which indicates a high activity of the University in the direction of international activities. More information about international activities is available on the USTU website at (in Russian): https://www.ugtu.net/university/md and (in English): https://en.ugtu.net/.
