Global Conversations: Internationalism in higher education

Madison, WI, United States

On 1 June in Madison, Wisconsin, ENCATC joined forces with the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE) for a joint international panel discussion. ENCATC was represented by its  Vice-President, Ana Gaio from City, University of London as well as its Secretary of the Board, Richard Maloney from New York University. This event was the occasion for the two networks to share perspectives, ideas, and explore solutions to common challenges

Internationalism in higher education is almost taken for granted across the sector today though Arts Administration was one of those disciplines that attracted international attention since the early stages of its development.  The field expanded over the years at institutional and curriculum level worldwide and is now a global market in its own right – in terms of demand and of provision, with degrees offered in many countries around the world.

The ENCATC-AAAE panel at the 2019 AAAE Conference at the University of Wisconsin at Madison brought together fellow academics from the US, Europe, China and South America to discuss to what extent and in what ways Arts Administration as a field of study has been affected by internationalism or (more recently) globalisation. 

The core mission of universities today is arguably the production of graduates who can ultimately work, live and contribute as productive citizens in what is an increasingly fluid and borderless global context. Amidst increasingly diverse student populations, local and international, concerns with equality and diversity and the quality of education have prompted many universities to (purposefully) develop internationalisation strategies.

The Panel’s discussion reflected this in various ways, reported impacts of internationalism in the discipline focusing on the curriculum – content, understandings, skills, attitudes, not least reflexivity; learning and teaching processes and questions around how to cater for diverse student cohorts; and employability and, in the same vein, how to prepare diverse student cohorts to work in and become citizens of the global world.

Background

This event was part of the AAAE Annual Conference gathering participants from America, Europe and Asia. The aim of the collaboration was to increase cooperation by comparing and contrasting cultural management programmes in Europe and North America and to reinforce cooperation among two major cultural management networks: ENCATC and the Association of Arts Administration Educators. 

The panel was organised in partnership wit the two networks having signed Memorandums of Understanding with ENCATC: the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE) and the Taiwan Association of Cultural Policy studies (TACPS). 

ENCATC is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. 

Global Conversations: Internationalism in higher education