ABSTRACT
Confronted with a world that is strikingly diff erent from what it was just a decade ago, higher education faces rapidly shifting economic, political, and national security realities and challenges. To respond to these changes it is essential that our institutions of higher education graduate globally competent students, that is, students possessing a combination of critical thinking skills, technical expertise, and global awareness that allow them “not only to contribute to knowledge, but also to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate its meaning in the context of an increasingly globalized world” (National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges [NASULGC], 2004). For our students global competence is an indispensable qualifi cation of global citizenship, that is, the ability to work cooperatively in seeking and implementing solutions to challenges of global signifi cance (e.g., economic, technological, political, and environmental). Moreover, global competence is essential to our students as they enter an increasingly competitive global marketplace and to our nation as it addresses its global security needs. The skills that form the foundation of global competence include the ability to work eff ectively in international settings; awareness of and adaptability to diverse cultures, perceptions, and approaches; familiarity with the major currents of global change and the issues they raise; and the capacity for eff ective communication across cultural and linguistic boundaries. If our institutions of higher education are to be successful in equipping our students with the above-mentioned skills, they will need to pursue a comprehensive and a systemic approach to campus internationalization.
