About NAFSA
NAFSA's Policy Statement on International Educational Exchange
This policy statement, adopted by the NAFSA Board of Directors in
October 1980, remains effective as an expression of goals for
institutions and individuals working in international educational
exchange.
The movement of students and scholars across community, cultural, geographic, and national boundaries has been recognized for centuries as essential to the discovery of truth, new knowledge, and the means of applying what is learned abroad to human survival and progress. In the second half of this century the interchange of students and scholars has grown steadily, become more formalized, and even-through such creative, landmark legislation as the Fulbright-Hays Act-become an instrument of national policy.
If the world community does not utilize international educational interchange to achieve an understanding of these threatening problems and as a basis for a mutual search for their solutions, the prospects for mankind are bleak indeed. In light of these global realities, the free and open exchange of ideas, knowledge, and techniques internationally assumes an enlarged significance. The educational requirements of peoples in less developed societies, of women and others who have been systematically denied educational opportunity worldwide are, under these urgent circumstances, particularly compelling.
To respond to these exceptional challenges, it is now necessary for international educational organizations to study systematically the impact of international interchange upon students, faculty, and American citizens. It is important that the loosely related and largely independent constituency of international educational interchange collaborate in interpreting to national and local leadership the important benefits-intellectual, cultural, economic, social-that derive from the interchange of students and scholars. Expanded interassociational coordination and advocacy will be required to assure that the most urgent scholarly, national, and global education needs are adequately financed. It is especially important to the national interest and world peace that more attention be paid to the greater utilization of individuals who have been internationally educated. NAFSA believes that to reject the guidance of those who have gained expert understanding of other cultures is folly. In sum, it is critical that international educational activities be well conceived, organized, and conducted; that they be relevant to the needs of those involved in the process; and that they not neglect opportunities for broadening citizen understanding of the world.
Essential to this task are clear institutional goals and clear institutional policies regarding international education.
The movement of students and scholars across community, cultural, geographic, and national boundaries has been recognized for centuries as essential to the discovery of truth, new knowledge, and the means of applying what is learned abroad to human survival and progress. In the second half of this century the interchange of students and scholars has grown steadily, become more formalized, and even-through such creative, landmark legislation as the Fulbright-Hays Act-become an instrument of national policy.
Emergence of NAFSA
NAFSA: Association of International Educators was founded in response to the surge in international educational interchange after 1945 and out of a recognition that maximum benefit for individuals and educational institutions involved in interchange would not be realized without opportunities for the professional development of those who admit, assist, advise, and teach students.Growth in International Interchange
By the 1980s the foreign student population in the United States had experienced an exponential growth to 300,000 people (The figure topped 400,000 in the 1990-91 Ed.), requiring a greatly expanded administrative infrastructure and raising questions about the relevancy of curricula in U.S. colleges and universities to foreign student expectations and needs. The United States is viewed increasingly as an educational resource for the world, with educational experts predicting growth in the foreign student population to 5 percent of the total higher education enrollment. Foreign students, concentrated a generation ago in a small number of traditional academic communities, have now been attracted to almost every institution of higher education in the nation. The reverse flow of U.S. students into study programs abroad also has grown rapidly in the past decade. NAFSA recognizes the continuing foreign student growth in elementary and secondary schools as an additional opportunity to address the international educational experience as a continuum from preschool to postgraduate levels.Global Perspective
As growth in the interchange of students has accelerated in the past several years-too often unplanned and uncoordinated-the position of the United States within the world community has been changing dramatically from one of dominant political influence, economic power, technological leader, and intellectual authority to that of peer in an interdependent world. International educational interchange, viewed traditionally as encouraging international scholarly development and fostering unofficial diplomatic communications, is increasingly linked to new global imperatives. These include the need to stabilize the world economy, halt damage to the physical environment and the supporting life systems of the planet, deal with widespread assaults on human rights and cultural values, relieve nations of the enormous and wasteful burden of armaments, and cope with deepening world poverty and hunger. The inadequacy of existing national and transnational institutions or agreements to respond effectively to these imperatives heightens the demand for internationally educated scholars, experts, and managers.If the world community does not utilize international educational interchange to achieve an understanding of these threatening problems and as a basis for a mutual search for their solutions, the prospects for mankind are bleak indeed. In light of these global realities, the free and open exchange of ideas, knowledge, and techniques internationally assumes an enlarged significance. The educational requirements of peoples in less developed societies, of women and others who have been systematically denied educational opportunity worldwide are, under these urgent circumstances, particularly compelling.
Goals for International Educational Exchange
These clear and critical educational needs have strengthened NAFSA's commitment to achieving fuller recognition within the U.S. educational community and among American citizens, whose support is essential, of the exceptional importance of international educational interchange. If the curriculum and scholarly activities of our colleges and universities are to become more relevant to transnational problems, it is essential that the administrative and academic processes of international education be given higher status within our institutions. Such status means particularly more financial support and fuller integration of international education into the central purposes of the institutions. While NAFSA strongly believes that scholarly communication should be free from political interference and as widely available as economic circumstances will permit, it is increasingly important that international educational interchange be planned and appropriately regulated. Admissions activity, instruction in English as a second language, the advising of students and scholars (both those coming to the United States and those going abroad), the administration of overseas study programs and enriching community services should meet acceptable professional standards at the least, and, in view of the increasing significance of international education, these services should achieve increasingly higher levels of excellence.To respond to these exceptional challenges, it is now necessary for international educational organizations to study systematically the impact of international interchange upon students, faculty, and American citizens. It is important that the loosely related and largely independent constituency of international educational interchange collaborate in interpreting to national and local leadership the important benefits-intellectual, cultural, economic, social-that derive from the interchange of students and scholars. Expanded interassociational coordination and advocacy will be required to assure that the most urgent scholarly, national, and global education needs are adequately financed. It is especially important to the national interest and world peace that more attention be paid to the greater utilization of individuals who have been internationally educated. NAFSA believes that to reject the guidance of those who have gained expert understanding of other cultures is folly. In sum, it is critical that international educational activities be well conceived, organized, and conducted; that they be relevant to the needs of those involved in the process; and that they not neglect opportunities for broadening citizen understanding of the world.
Essential to this task are clear institutional goals and clear institutional policies regarding international education.
