Internationalization is widely understood as being a university’s response to the big forces of economic, social and cultural change known as globalization.
More concretely, internationalization means providing our students with opportunities for gaining international experience and for developing the skills to function effectively in the world. It also means providing our faculty with increased opportunities for international research collaboration and for pursuing their own international academic interests to the fullest.
At York University, our internationalization strategy derives from a number of important premises:
- The key driver for internationalization is academic.
- Languages are central. Internationalization means overcoming monolingualism. We will offer more languages, especially non-European ones, and we will find ways to integrate language study into the rest of the curriculum.
- International experience is central. We will provide as wide a variety of opportunities for our students, including exchange programs, shorter-term study abroad courses, and international internships. For those students who cannot spend time outside of Canada, we will find meaningful international experiences at York.
- Broad-based support is crucial. For internationalization to be successful, we must work with as many members of the York community as possible. We will promote new initiatives of our own as well as working with Faculties and other units within York to help them realize their initiatives.
There are a number of Internationalization Resources available as well which include a lecture by Dr. Adrian Shubert, Associate Vice-President International from 2002-2009.
