AIEA rode into town overlapping the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in March. You tell me which one brought more excitement and better BBQ?
The truth: I was down for the whole AIEA thing more than the rodeo. Clearly, I’m not the one to call when you are going out to a raucous party. It’s a character flaw, I know.
AIEA’s board and their dynamic staff, led by newly minted CEO Clare Overman, delivered exactly what academic leaders and SIOs needed. An opportunity to gather amidst the chaos of the new administration in Washington, DC. An opportunity to fret, consider, and plan.
Under the heading of planning, our boldest initiative, launched at the conference: a two-year research project in conjunction with AIEA to identify and share the effectiveness of various internationalization office structures. A complex endeavor to be sure. Learn a bit more about it HERE and sign up to stay informed. We are thrilled to be collaborating with former ACE Internationalization Lab leader Brad Farnsworth for this research.
Those in this field do a whole lot with fairly little support or budget. Shared models and simply thinking together has so much value. The Intead team was honored to share the dais for three very different presentations with colleagues Balaji Krishnan (University of Memphis), Vivian Wang (University of Tulsa), Helen Zhang (Northeastern University), Mirka Martel (IIE), Andrew Chen (FrogHire.ai), and Brad Farnsworth (Fox Hollow Advisory).
Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team
- Will you be at ASU+GSV in April or NAFSA in May? Let us know if you want to connect at these events.
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Below, I share a few observations about the conversations at the conference ranging from fundraising from international families (alumni giving) to global partnership development and how that plays with enrollment management and student services. You’ll also find links to our slide decks and an invitation to chat if you’d like more information about our ideas on how your institution can improve in three areas:
- Global Partnership Development and Management
- International Student Career Placements
- Internationalization Office Structure and Outcomes
Read on for perspective on the machinations over White House pronouncements and access to our slides…
At the conference there was a strong sense of relief among those 700+ who gathered away from their campuses and their desks to join together with smart, forward-looking colleagues. We needed that. You could feel it.
Plenty of earthquake-styled changes continue to flow from the new US administration. The threatened closure of the US Department of Education (ED) is as good an example as any to point to bluster vs reality.
If you are among the nerdy set who understands the real functions of the ED, you know that the name may change, but the functions will continue. The ED is largely a financial watchdog for the US education system, ensuring schools of all sorts meet all kinds of standards and are not taking advantage of students.
ED ensures that federal loan programs are administered appropriately. The majority of the work in this department is akin to the US Treasury but solely devoted to safeguarding the funds involved in US education as opposed to the country overall. These functions will continue/cannot stop. They may be distributed to other areas or simply re-named, but these systems will continue to be required. Our advice: focus on the calm voices and avoid the headlines that are the equivalent of World Wrestling Federation pre-fight hype.
What is real, of course, are the disruptions due to layoffs and the policy changes and manipulation of funding formulas that will alter the education industry’s ability to perform and serve. We’ll focus our attention there as changes are proposed and staff are cut. This is where very real people (students, families, federal and university staff) will benefit or be harmed.
At the conference, there were many who were hand-wringing and others wanting to focus on positive movement forward. Admittedly, we engaged in both. Hard not to do the first. Harder to do the second.
In terms of planning, we have valuable research in the works and session slide decks to give you a bit of inspiration (see link at bottom of post to access them).
New Internationalization Research
Our new research effort on Internationalization Office Structure and Outcomes excites all of us here and created a small buzz at AIEA. Amir Reza from Babson College and Immediate Past-President of the AIEA Board, along with Brad Farnsworth from Fox Hollow Advisory, joined me in laying out the opportunity for AIEA member institutions to participate and gain perspective on which office structures and budgets produce what kind of outcomes. The study stems from the reality that our field lacks organizational models and related outcomes data that support investment decisions in internationalization efforts. Other fields have this analysis/information as helpful guides.
Our goal: help institutions build robust internationalization efforts that produce positive international student enrollment rates (and stronger net revenue overall) as well as strong cross-border ties.
Participating institutions will receive a custom report on the findings about their internationalization efforts and the larger industry report identifying industry models and comparative effectiveness benchmarks per institution type.
Let us know if you want to stay in the loop by signing up here.
Global Partnership Roles
Balaji Krishnan from University of Memphis and Helen Zhang from Northeastern University joined our Chief Strategy Officer Britt Godshalk to talk about the incredibly different job descriptions institutions have for global partnership roles. From research to recruitment, these roles and the related job descriptions often are not aligned with the institutional goals. This discussion focused on that misalignment. Two points from the session discussion that stood out for me:
- Who has your back when you want to shut down an international partnership that is going nowhere (for any reason)? Do you have an international partnership advisory committee to help ease the process?
- Is your institution tracking the value of each partnership or simply the operational logistics? We recommend you document the reasons why a partnership exists and track that value over time. Folks five years from now will thank you. The slide deck (access below) has a useful template for your consideration (see slide 24, but you’ll appreciate more than just that 1 slide).
International Student Careers
Vivian Wang from University of Tulsa, along with Mirka Martel from IIE and Andrew Chen from FrogHire.ai were insightful partners with our Business Analyst Tianyu Shen and me to talk about our latest and powerful published research on where international students are finding jobs and the US institutions that are producing successful graduates.
Interesting note here about University of Tulsa and their job guarantee program for international students and the findings on the geographic spread of their employed graduates. With serious strength in energy (oil and gas), you won’t be surprised at the charts showing how their graduates have fared over the past 5+ years. What you may find surprising is the level of detail our research can provide to any institution looking for that same kind of analysis about their international graduates. (Be in touch if you want to find out more about your institution’s job placement results.)
During the conference, we appreciated a very candid presentation by our long-time friend Sonia Feigenbaum, Senior Vice Provost for Global Engagement and Chief International Officer, about fundraising from international students and their families/connections. This is an underdeveloped area for so many institutions. We’ve written and presented a lot on this topic. If you are interested in building these connections, find a useful blog post HERE.
We hope you will take these slides out for a ride and let us know if you get bucked off. The rodeo came to town and we are all still a little giddy from the experience. We look forward to seeing you all at AIEA 2026 in the much tamer Washington, DC. Hmmm, did we just call DC tame? [checks notes] Sigh, apparently it’s another rodeo ; -)
Download Intead’s AIEA 2025 Slides
