College of the Liberal Arts: International Profiles

College of the Liberal Arts:

International Profile As of September 30, 2021

International Student Enrollment in the College of the Liberal Arts (AY 2017/18-2021/22)

Term

# International Students

Fall 2017

1130

Fall 2018

1208

Fall 2019

1262

Fall 2020

1138

Fall 2021

1047

Education Abroad in the College of the Liberal Arts (AY 2016/17-2021/22) Liberal Arts Ed Abroad Participation by Term

Academic Year

Fall/AY

Fall Embedded

Spr

Spr Embedded

Sum

Sum Embedded

Total

2016-17

26

4

128

54

153

24

389

2017-18

30

3

164

57

157

50

461

2018-19

30

20

185

73

160

33

501

2019-20

31

20

135

8

--

--

195

2020-21

--

--

--

--

9

--

9

Grand Totals

117

48

612

192

479

107

1555

Faculty-Led Programming Faculty-Led Programs often have participants from other colleges and/or campuses. This program information includes all student information, not just specific to the College of the Liberal Arts. The data available in the participation chart above only includes Liberal Arts-based students.

Faculty-Led Embedded Programs The Embedded Program numbers below represent the last full year of programming (AY 20182019) prior to the cancellation of all Spring and Summer 2020 embedded programs due to COVID19.

The College of the Liberal Arts operated 13 Faculty-Led Embedded Programs during AY 20182019.

Total program leaders = 32 Total program participants = 196 Faculty-Led Freestanding Programs The College of the Liberal Arts currently has 14 Faculty-Led Freestanding Programs. Please note, all programs were canceled for summer 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

International Agreements in the College of the Liberal Arts Overview of the College of the Liberal Arts Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts (Lib Arts) has fifteen (15) active agreements, one (1) pending agreement, and four (4) recently expired agreements.

Since 2020, Lib Arts has provided the following feedback in response to our Annual Reports: Please note: Susan Knell collects responses for the college and some of the ARIA responses contain quotes from comments she received from the faculty champion.

Active Agreements 1.Bielefeld University in Germany. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges and research. The agreement was signed in 2018 and will expire in 2023.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“8/24/20 Email from Tom Beebee: I would check the “below expectations” box. I published a chapter in a collection sponsored by Bielefeld this year, but the major drivers of this agreement are no longer actively pursuing it.” The faculty indicated that the agreement should be allowed to expire.

2.University of Bologna in Italy. Anthropology research and development MOA that is facilitating a visit from a Marie Curie Fellowship University of Bologna faculty member to research bone microarchitecture at Penn State. The agreement was signed in 2021 and will expire in 2023.

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“Since this agreement was just signed in July 2021, I have not contacted the faculty champion for feedback at this time. I will be happy to check in on the status of collaborative activity for next year’s report.”

3.University of Chile. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges, etc. Agreement was signed in 2018 and will expire in 2023.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·One faculty champion indicated that the agreement was in the early stages. Even so, the second Faculty champion noted that “This past semester, our contact (the person who came back) agreed to help in identifying a Chilean expert on unions to review a paper for a special issue of a journal I am guest-editing. I made sure that they were included in the peer-review process, which might (or might not, depending on the quality of said paper) include a second, even a third round of reviews. I do not know if this action “moves the needle” enough to consider the agreement as meeting expectations, but it is definitely worth reporting. The pandemic of course poses substantial obstacles to increase the level of engagement with international partners.”

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“Miguel Olivas has left and there is no one else currently working on this. The reality is that nothing was achieved last year given the challenging circumstances. I’m not sure how we move forward with this agreement as there is little traction coming from Chile. We have tried to start conversations but they have not led to any action.” Faculty indicated that the agreement should be allowed to expire.

4.Federal University of Sergipe in Brazil. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges, etc. Agreement was signed in 2019 and will expire in 2024.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“8/12/20 email from Suresh: I spoke in a conference in Sergipe and taught a course for students there. A faculty member from that university is planning to visit Penn State as a visiting scholar when conditions permit.”

5.University of Freiburg in Germany. Education Abroad and Liberal Arts undergraduate exchange MOA. The agreement was signed in 2020 and will expire in 2025.

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·Comments from EA: “This relationship continues to sustain an EA program for students that is used moderately.EA maintains hope that the Freiburg relationship can be expanded upon with new vigor much in the way the Monash relationship has grown. Renew agreement (upon expiration).”

6.Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 in France. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges, etc. The agreement was signed in 2018 and will expire in 2023.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“The relationship with Lyon 3 has been dormant this past year. But we now have a handful of French Canadians, who will probably want to study in France at some point. So, I think the relationship will become more active.”

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“The most important link right now is a journal called Chiasmi International. Mauro Carbone at Lyon III is the chief editor and Ted Toadvine here is on the editorial board of the journal. The agreement is important for their collaboration. Unfortunately, we have not sent any students there (or them here) for some years. But, we (Ted and me) hope to send someone once the pandemic is under control.”

7.University of Limerick in Ireland. Education Abroad/Liberal Arts undergraduate exchange MOA. The agreement was signed in 2019 and will expire in 2024.

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·Comments from EA: “This relationship continues to sustain an EA program for students that is actively used.

Renew agreement (upon expiration).”

8.University of Limerick in Ireland. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges, etc.

The agreement was signed in 2017 and will expire in 2022.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“This past year we collaborated with the University of Limerick to conduct our embedded travel course with an anticipated travel week of March 22nd. We had planned for our students to participate in several on campus sessions with U of Limerick faculty. “Sadly, COVID cancelled our plans. However, the U of Limerick faculty arranged Zoom sessions for our students when we had to shift our plans. “We plan to maintain our relationship with the University of Limerick and hope that in the next year or so we will plan an embedded trip with travel to Ireland. Therefore, we would want to renew the agreement upon expiration.”

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“This past year we have had very little involvement with the University of Limerick. However, this is expected as we typically plan to conduct an embedded course with travel to Ireland every three years.Given that we plan to continue our relationship in regard to future travel (and possible virtual travel) courses, we would like to renew this agreement.”

9.Nankai University in China. Direct enroll MOA, whereby Nankai undergraduate students may attend Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts as non-degree seeking students for either one semester or a full academic year. The agreement was signed in 2019 and will expire in 2024.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“From 8/12/20 email from Mark Morrisson with which Xiaofei Lu concurred: I think I would rate both of these agreements as Early Stage and would recommend Renew agreement upon expiration. We haven’t seen any students in English, that I know of at least, but I’d like to see if we can get this thing off the ground in a postCOVID environment. I see no downside to renewing the agreement at this stage.”

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“We have had no activity due to the pandemic and have not received any updates from Nankai University. At this point I'd say ‘Allow agreement to expire’ but we can see how things go in the next two years.”

10.Nankai University in China. MOA whereby Nankai graduate students may enroll at Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts as either degree seeking or non-degree seeking students. Agreement was signed in 2019 and will expire in 2024.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“From 8/12/20 email from Mark Morrisson with which Xiaofei Lu concurred: I think I would rate both of these agreements as Early Stage and would recommend Renew agreement upon expiration. We haven’t seen any students in English, that I know of at least, but I’d like to see if we can get this thing off the ground in a postCOVID environment. I see no downside to renewing the agreement at this stage.”

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“We have had no activity due to the pandemic and have not received any updates from Nankai University. At this point I'd say "Allow agreement to expire" but we can see how things go in the next two years.”

11.Narxoz University in Kazakhstan. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges, etc.

Agreement was signed in 2020 and will expire in 2025.

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“The agreement is still in the early stages and has been impacted by COVID-19. We expect the collaboration to continue.”

12.University of Oslo in Norway. Letter of Intent to allow communication between Penn State’s English Department and Oslo’s Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies regarding the possibility of establishing a MOU in the future. The agreement was signed in 2021.

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“The agreement is on hold, given COVID. We hope to be up and running next fall.”

13.Sung Kyun Kwan University (SKKU) in South Korea. Concurrent degree program whereby SKKU participants may complete a Master of Public Policy degree at Penn State and a Master of Public Administration at SSKU. The agreement was signed in 2021 and will expire in 2026.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“Since this agreement was just finalized in July 2021, I have not contacted the faculty champion at this point.

I will be happy to ask for a report of collaborative activity next year.”

14.University of Toliara in Madagascar. General MOU facilitating graduate student and faculty exchanges, etc. The agreement was signed in 2019 and will expire in 2024.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·“We would like to renew this agreement with the University of Toliara and report that it exceeds expectations.

Comments/Rationale: The agreement between Penn State and the University of Toliara resulted in the successful initiation of a project entitled the “Vezo Ecological Knowledge Exchange” in May 2019. With the support of funding from the PSU Africana Research Center and Center for Humanities and Information, we hosted a delegation of Vezo knowledge holders for this project to record oral histories and ecological knowledge through visits to Penn State labs focused on environmental questions and Smithsonian natural history collections. The project has laid the foundation for external grant proposals currently in development

by Kristina Douglass and Eric Burkhart, and has also been fundamental to several Penn State doctoral student research projects. The partnership with the University of Toliara made this project and its ongoing components possible. We anticipate continued dynamic exchange and engagement with University of Toliara faculty, students and staff, as well as support from the University of Toliara for our field projects in Madagascar.”

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“We remain very active in the collaboration with the University of Toliara with multiple projects ongoing. The level of collaboration exceeds expectations and we would like to renew this agreement in 2024.”

15.University of Zagreb in Croatia. ERASMUS faculty exchange MOA between Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts and Zagreb. The agreement was signed in 2016 and is superseded by a 2021 university-wide ERASMUS MOA between Zagreb and Penn State.

Feedback on 2020 ARIA ·Faculty champion indicated that Penn State’s College of Ag Sci had plans to conduct an embedded course at Zagreb and that a visiting lecturer from Zagreb was going to present at Penn State Lehigh Valley if there were no Covid related travel restrictions.

Feedback on 2021 ARIA ·“We have a visitor from Uni Zagreb who is coming to State College on Sept 8th, and will stay until the 18th of September (Dr. Violeta Vidacek Hains). I do hope that there will be opportunity to meet with her virtually. I worked with Violeta many years before coming to Penn State. I will organize a presentation, where Violeta will talk about some exchanges she manages for Uni Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics, with consortium of US universities.”

Pending Agreement 1.KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea. MOA whereby KDI students may complete a Master of Public Policy degree at Penn State and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy, a Master’s Degree in Development Policy, a Master’s Degree in Public Management, or a Master’s Degree in Intellectual Property and Development at KDI School. The draft was shared with KDI for review, edits, and/or approval.