Abdalsslam Abdalla (Educational Leadership and Policy)

Zoom Link https://buffalo.zoom.us/j/97650092184?pwd=M0cwSWlGZHRhZDBLZityaVd5QlBSdz09

For decades, the empire of higher education has seen a growth in international student mobility toward the U.S. as their top destination, along with other transnational activities that together feature the internationalizing trends in postsecondary education globally and in the U.S. Undoubtedly, international students as assets to the host institutions and broader communities have continued to make cultural, academic, and economic contributions. Without a systemic reform for aspiring “global” campuses to transform the environments, however, the growing international student mobility has left various challenges to higher education institutions with missions and goals to lead the world and become globally inclusive. Often disconnect remains between the actual policies and practices and the aspirations to enhance the higher education environments to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion into their missions, goals, student support programming and services, and campus climate (Lee et al., 2021).

Grounded in ecological perspectives, the multiple qualitative case studies intend to answer the quest to benchmark and actualize inclusive excellence in international higher education in the U.S. and to contribute to literature that can guide for college engagement and success varied stakeholders including higher education administrators, student affairs professionals, academic faculty, and students. This project employs content analysis of policies and practices of institutions regarded as “global” leaders and analyses of semi-structured interviews of student participants in a “global” campus. Findings of this ongoing project intend to be transferred in ways to assess and transform existing environments to better support the international population and also their allies.