Professional Training Year

University of Surrey – North CarolinaStateUniversity

Partnership Development Visit

Final Report

Larry A. Nielsen

Visiting International Fellow

November 13, 2009

Summary of Recommendations

Recommendation 1: In order to maintain and build the partnership between our universities, an individual should be tasked with the explicit and primary responsibility to serve as the long-term coordinator of partnership activities.

Recommendation 2: In order to build the professional relationships that are necessary for successful long-term collaboration, short-term visits by administrators, faculty and staff should be permitted, funded and encouraged as routine aspects of each university’s core programming and mission.

Recommendation 3: The strategy of building a broad and deep set of collaborations between our universities should be continued as an exemplar for the development of other partnerships.

Recommendation 4: Our two universities should use this successful partnership as the basis for building multi-lateral partnerships, such as that among Surrey, NC State and the University of Sao Paolo.

Recommendation 5: We should set a goal of placing up to 40 Surrey students in the U.S. for their Professional Training Year, starting in 2010-2011. Collaborating faculty and administrators should develop innovative methods of adding value to the placements because of constraints due to travel distance from Surrey and opportunities provided by the availability of educational enhancement resources at NC State.

Recommendation 6: The university-wide exchange MOU should be revised to remove the annual number of exchanges, instead moving the numbers to an annual agreement between the relevant offices at our universities (International Relations at Surrey, International Affairs at NC State).

Recommendation 7: Faculties in engineering at our universities should develop a curriculum plan for exchanging students with the goal of full equivalency of courses/modules so that students maintain expected progress to graduation.

Recommendation 8: Student exchanges should be developed and implemented across our two universities with the goal that at least 10 students will travel in each direction during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Recommendation 9: The dual Master’s degree in International Studies and European Politics should be expanded to include all Masters degrees in Politics at Surrey in order to provide a greater range of educational opportunities for Surrey students. This expansion should be seen as an administrative correction to the original degree specifications rather than as the development of three new dual degrees.

Recommendation 10: The development of one or more additional dual degrees should be investigated by the partnership coordinator over the next academic year.

Recommendation 11: Our universities should consider specialized opportunities for summer study, with the goal of offering at least one such program in summer 2011.

Recommendation 12: Development of research collaborations should be incorporated into all programmatic activities between our universities.

Recommendation 13: Development of partnership activities between our respective research parks should be a continuing expectation for the partnership coordinator, with the goal of having at least one substantive partnership activity during 2010.

Recommendation 14: Video-conferencing capabilities should be developed so that connections between our universities are easy, reliable and routinely conducted without cost to the participating units.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the University of Surrey for their exceptional welcome, care and participation related to my visit. I specifically thank the following:

Vice Chancellor Snowden, Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor Seaton and other members of the senior leadership of the university for their commitment to our partnership and to my visit.
Colin Grant, Annette Strauss, Sandra Hedley-Boxall, Aqila Kaleem and Roxanne Cavanagh, all in the International Relations Office, for their daily care and their professionalism and complete dedication to the international mission of the university.
Philip Henry and his family for allowing us to reside in their home at Beukenhof House and especially for accepting us as part of their family every day of our visit.
The many administrators, faculty and others at the university who have given their time and resources to allow a successful and pleasant visit.
To all for making my wife, Sharon, and me feel welcomed throughout the visit; we have not only advanced the universities’ partnership but also made many friends.

I would also like to thank North CarolinaStateUniversity for my opportunity to undertake this task as part of my study leave and for the financial support to underwrite a portion of the expenses.

Activities during Visit

I served as a Visting International Fellow in the University of Surrey International Relations Office during October 19-November 13, 2009.
This activity was an approved part of my study leave while preparing to return to the faculty at North CarolinaStateUniversity.
I have arranged that 25% of my faculty responsibilities will be in NC State’s Office of International Affairs, specifically in the area of strong partnership development.
The goal of my visit was to expedite the development and implementation of partnership programs between the universities.
An additional goal was to provide background, as needed, on Surrey’s possible participation in the Korean IFEZ project.
The premise is that an extended visit will catalyze activities and allow continued development through one person acting as a friendly and known contact to both universities.
The University of Surrey website featured my visit, both on the internal communication vehicle (SurreyLife) and on the public home page (see Appendix 1).
I met with 47 individuals from across the University of Surrey, representing all faculties and many administrative leadership and support units (see Appendix 2).
I participated in the International Mobility Fair on November 11, encouraging Surrey students to study and take professional training placements abroad.
Continued progress on our partnership will require additional and regular visits by administrators, faculty and staff from both universities; some visits anticipated include the following:
Surrey engineering representatives in January/February (Paul Smith, Rick Woods, Michael Kearney, others)
Surrey management representative in January (Peter Jones)
Surrey sociology/psychology representatives in summer (Rob Meadows)
Surrey biological sciences representative in summer/fall (Malcolm von Schantz)
NC State International Studies representative in March (Heidi Hobbs)

Recommendation 1: In order to maintain and build the partnership between our universities, an individual should be tasked the explicit and primary responsibility to serve as the long-term coordinator of partnership activities.

Partnership Elements

Each university’s international strategy includes the concept of strong partnerships with a few institutions around the world. The rationale for this strategy is that the operation of several kinds of collaborations brings stability and efficiency to the overall university partnership. Therefore, during this visit, I have worked on a variety of partnership opportunities, both in terms of the types of collaborations (professional training, student exchange, joint research) and the topics covered. The following sections document progress on various aspects of the partnership.

Recommendation 3: The strategy of building a broad and deep set of collaborations between the University of Surrey and North CarolinaStateUniversity should be continued as an exemplar for the development of other partnerships.

Professional Training Year

Approximately 50% of Surrey undergraduate students spend one year in an external placement.
Placements are optional in some degree programs, but are required in others.
Placements vary among work placements, research placements and additional academic work at another university, depending on the specific degree program.
Approximately 15% of placements are international (combination of EU and elsewhere).
Response by students at the International Mobility Fair indicates a substantial interest in placements in the United States.
The placement process is expected to be an exchange program, with students from NC State also being placed in the UK, but recently enacted changes in UK visa requirements have interfered with this activity; therefore, placement of NC State students is on hold for the near future.
Neil Ward and Svetlana Reston provide active leadership for these activities at the university level at Surrey, but individual coordinators operate placement activities within faculties, schools and departments.
Arnold Bell, who leads a similar placement program at NC State, has volunteered to find placements for up to 40 students for 2010-2011.
Placements arranged through NC State will be concentrated in North Carolina and the mid-Atlantic states.
Neil Ward and Svetlana Reston will be primary contacts with Arnold Bell regarding placement processes between our universities.
Individuals agreeing to help foster the international placement process for individual program areas are as follows:
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (Kathy Liley and Stephanie Evans)
School of Management (Lindy Blair)
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences (Malcolm von Schantz)
Several other departments may participate, based primarily on the expressed interest of individual students.
Oversight of student placements will require some modification of current Surrey practices, including alternative methods of visiting students and additional programming for Surrey students placed in the Raleigh region; these are yet to be worked out.

Undergraduate Student Exchange

Our universities have developed a university-wide exchange program with the expectation that approximately equal numbers of students would move in each direction, based on a multi-year moving average.
The exchange calls for only a few students moving each year, but the interest expressed by Surrey students at the International Mobility Fair indicates that the volume could be substantially higher.
Exchanges are complicated by several differences in our academic programs, including general education requirements, highly structured home curricula, strict accreditation requirements, full-year versus half-year courses/modules, and overlapping academic calendars.
Therefore, although the exchange agreement exists at the university level, exchange relationships will need to be developed program by program.
Exchanges will vary in length, including year-long; fall term at NC State and spring terms at Surrey; and an abbreviated 10-week fall term at Surrey for NC State students.
Several Surrey units will actively pursue exchanges, including the following:
Department of Politics (Andrew Taylor is NC State lead; Virginie Grzelcyzk is Surrey lead).
FEPS, using Electronic Engineering, Computer Science and perhaps Civil Engineering as pilots (Paul Smith and Rick Woods are Surrey leads; NC State lead to be determined); engineering exchanges are particularly challenging due to highly structured curricula.
School of Management, using general Business Management and Accounting and Finance as pilots (Margaret Lumbers is Surrey lead; NC State lead to be named, but probably Shannon Davis).
Film Studies in Department of Dance, Film and Theatre (Helen Hughes is Surrey lead; Devin Orgeron is NC State lead).
Department of Sociology, modelled after existing program with University of Maryland (Rob Meadows is Surrey lead; NC State lead to be named, but probably Maxine Atkinson).
Department of Maths

Recommendation 6: The university-wide exchange MOU should be revised to remove the annual number of exchanges, instead moving the numbers to an annual agreement between the two relevant offices (International Relations at Surrey, International Affairs at NC State).

Recommendation 8: Student exchanges should be developed and implemented across the university with the goal that at least 10 students will travel in each direction during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Dual Degrees

Our universities established a dual degree in International Studies (NC State) and European Politics (Surrey), at the Masters level.
We expected students to participate in 2009-2010, but economic difficulties in North Carolina inhibited implementation.
Heidi Hobbs remains NC State lead.
Rachel Brooks, Department of Politics, is now Surrey lead.
Up to 5 NC State students are preparing to participate at Surrey during the 2010-2011 academic year.
No Surrey students have expressed interest, primarily because the European Politics degree program has a small number of students, most of whom are focused on careers in EU countries.
Therefore, we need to broaden participating degrees at Surrey to all Masters degrees in Politics (currently 4 degrees with the possibility of a new degree added soon).
Process for broadening degrees is being investigated at NC State; complexity of change will depend on administrative interpretation at UNC system office (could be a simple administrative change or a year-long “new-degree” approval process).
I have drafted an application form and procedures for students interested in participating.
Several other University of Surrey programs have expressed interest in dual degrees, especially at the Masters level.

Recommendation 9: The dual Master’s degree in International Studies and European Politics should be expanded to include all Masters degrees in Politics at Surrey in order to provide a greater range of educational opportunities for Surrey students. This expansion should be seen as an administrative correction to the degree specifications rather than as the development of three new dual degrees.

Recommendation 10: The development of one or more additional dual degrees should be investigated by the partnership coordinator over the next academic year.

Summer Programming

Summer programs for study abroad are becoming increasingly popular in the United States as ways for students to gain international experience without impacting progress to graduation.
NC State has substantial experience in a variety of models for summer programming.
Because Surrey does not offer summer schools, in general, any summer programming will need to be created specifically for this purpose.
Surrey’s School of Management is an exception, and NC State faculty have participated in recent years.
NC State offers summer programs in London/Paris, Oxford and Ireland, which will compete with programs developed at the University of Surrey.
Therefore, summer programming will need to be developed to meet particular academic and general interest niches, perhaps including the following:
Sustainability/environment
Intercultural communication and media
Business management, especially international, and tourism
Space science/engineering
Surrey lead is Annette Strauss; NC State lead is Larry Nielsen

Recommendation 11: Our universities consider specialized opportunities for summer study, with the goal of offering a program in summer 2011.

Additional Programmatic Collaborations

Dance – NC State dance troupe may visit in May 2010 for performance, workshops, joint study (Rachel Fensham is Surrey lead; Robin Harris is NC State lead).
Veterinary Medicine – Surrey interested in establishing veterinary training beyond current undergraduate degree; may seek joint program with NC State; visits to the UK by NC State veterinary students is also possible as part of their elective rotations (Lisa Roberts is Surrey lead; Prema Arasu is NC State lead).
Teacher Education – NC State continuing education program for public school teachers in creative writing may come to Surrey in summer 2010 (Ruie Pritchard is NC State lead; Sarah Michelotti is Surrey lead).
PMI grant – Adriana Crear will visit NC State and two other schools (probably Virginia Tech and University of Maryland) in February 2010 to study retention and success of international students.

Collaborations not addressed

Research – Research was discussed in several meetings, but research matters are best addressed by individual faculty and faculty groups; introductions made, but no programmatic linkages were established.
Economic Development – No attention given to SurreySciencePark and Centennial Campus.
Video-conferencing difficulties between our two universities were acknowledged, but not solved; a team has been determined to address this issue (Surrey lead is Gary Deer; NC State lead is Bob Klein)

Recommendation 12: Development of research collaborations should be incorporated into all programmatic activities between our universities.

Recommendation 14: Video-conferencing capabilities should be developed so that connections between our universities are easy, reliable and routinely conducted without cost to the participating units.

Larry Nielsen – Surrey-NCState Partnership Visit – Appendix 1

University of Surrey website article

Making friends with North CarolinaStateUniversity...

Larry Nielsen is Professor of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University, the largest university in North Carolina with nearly 33,000 students. He is currently spending a month with us here at Surrey to build on the ongoing global partnership between our two universities. The collaboration currently covers areas such as a dual postgraduate degree in European Politics/International Studies; research programs in zoonotic diseases; and student exchanges.

The focus of his visit is to move our partnership into new areas, using himself as a channel for progression: ‘I want to move several of our projects along so that students will be moving back and forth by this coming summer and that faculty members will begin exchange visits also by this coming summer. I also want to establish that anyone who wants to pursue collaborations with NC State can use me as the conduit for advancing their idea - and making it happen. The goal of my visit is ACTION, not plans!’

Surrey has established a Global Partners Network and North CarolinaState was our first global partner. It too has the same strategy of creating strong partnerships with a few universities across the globe and they see the University of Surrey as their core partner in the UK. Larry comments: ‘Our two universities match up so well in academic philosophy and programmatic strengths that our partnership is a natural one. Strong partnerships occur when we have multiple linkages - not just one program but several, crossing academic disciplines, mission areas and levels. We have the opportunity to make this partnership a core part of the way we operate and to be a model for the world.’