[Editors Note: I first published this in the CCID newsletter on September 1, 2012. This weekend CCID is celebrating 50 years! I am proud of this work (coauthored with Shawn Woodin) and equally proud it continues to prove useful to colleges attempting to meet global needs locally.]
On September 1, CCID officially released the Framework for Comprehensive Internationalization to member institutions and the world. The FCI is a first important step in implementing the broader System of Comprehensive Internationalization that CCID expects to be the engine driving our vision of transformation through local access and global opportunities.
As the first framework of its kind specifically for community colleges, it is important to CCID that the FCI be research informed, but practitioner focused. The FCI should be seen as a tool for institutional use for their own institutional efforts. To that end, CCID consulted a number of member institutions that were asked to pilot the framework. Member college feedback is making clear that institutions are taking their own paths to improvement using the framework, providing rich reflection and clear value. Waukesha County Technical College is using “color harmonization” to create a crosswalk between the FCI, WCTC’s strategic plan, and institutional metrics. Northcentral Technical College created a cross-disciplinary team to use FCI as part of an international strategic plan leading to five global education steering committees, awareness, and energy toward the effort. Several other colleges have engaged the instrument in unique processes on their campuses with uniformly enthusiastic results and/or have provided broad engagement by the campus community with buy-in by the campus leadership (including active commitment by College Presidents). The enthusiasm and commitment of these pilot institutions affirm our belief that we are engaged together in deeply meaningful work.
There is no right or wrong way to use the framework. However, it was designed with a few key questions in mind: What does an institution look like after a sustained effort to develop international capacity with broad buy-in by faculty, staff, and students? What results demonstrate that such effort has value? How can effort be recognized without giving an impression that the institution has “gotten there”and no longer needs to keep working to improve?
When used for critical self selection, the FCI is both celebratory and aspirational: celebratory, as the FCI allows those who have worked so hard to see the fruits of their labor, and aspirational as the thresholds don’t assume an endpoint. The FCI points institutions in directions for improvement whether the institution is just getting underway in international work or has built significant capacity already. We expect that there will be several sessions provided by pilot colleges at the annual conference in which they share their stories. We invite you to give it a try!
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