OPE Actions

OPE, in partnership with postsecondary education institutions and associations, federal and state government departments and agencies, and business and other nongovernmental organizations, has opportunities to achieve these international education goals. The following OPE strategies for achieving these goals address the ten core areas outlined in President Clinton's April 19, 2000, executive memorandum on international education policy (http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/04-2000/wh-000419.html). These core areas also are being addressed by the Departments of State and Education in their collaborative strategy for the implementation of the executive memorandum. See http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/discussion_paper.html.

1. OPE should support the increased internationalization of U.S. campuses and undergraduate programs.

2. OPE should support the development of models of curriculum integration, language learning, and student mobility that foster cross-national institutional consortia and partnerships as well as the dissemination of materials and practices they develop.

3. OPE should support international education programs and studies that increase (even double) the number and diversity of students who study and intern abroad; encourage students and institutions to explore non-traditional study abroad opportunities; remove barriers for studying abroad relating to the recognition, transfer, and portability of academic credit and qualifications; and expand awareness that study abroad need not be any more costly than study at U.S. institutions.

4. OPE should support strengthened foreign language learning at all education levels, including the achievement of literacy in at least two languages and teacher preparation and professional development.

5. OPE should support partnerships with K-12 schools, businesses, governments, and other organizations as well as clearinghouses and Web sites for identifying available expertise and national needs.

6. OPE should support increased postsecondary education study in the U. S. by qualified students from overseas by improving the availability of information and advice about such opportunities and removing policy and procedural barriers that limit the international flow of students, especially the granting of INS visas to international students.

7. OPE should support enhanced coordination of international education programs within OPE; across the U.S. Department of Education; and among executive branch departments and agencies, international organizations, and education ministries of other nations, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State.

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