Message from the Associate Dean

As Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Internationalization, I am delighted to support the work of internationalization within the Faculty of Community Services (FCS). Internationalization in education is a unique opportunity for all of us – students, scholars, institutions, and industries – to share in a global vision for building a better world.

Our vision for internationalization is clear: to build equitable pathways to global communities. We start by building meaningful international connections with groups and institutions that are grounded in values of equity. These connections, in turn, open up new opportunities – ones that become the very pathways that build connection to global communities, cultures, ideas, and practices that enhance education in meaningful ways.

We support these pathways through our efforts to:

• advance global learning
• build transformative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations
  
• cultivate spaces for unifying epistemologies and ideas
  
• enrich the experiences of our international students
  

At FCS, we recognise our shared responsibility to humanity. Therefore, internationalization for us is a natural extension of our commitment to values of equity, social justice and community care. Through international engagements, we work to fulfil our social responsibility to both understand the plight of our global neighbours, and support opportunities to build a better world. We are careful to ensure that our work exemplifies our commitments to reciprocity, respect for cultural traditions, and dismantling colonial ways of engaging.

Internationalization holds exciting possibilities for building a better world. Building a structure of internationalization to help us fully realize those possibilities is an ongoing development for us. It includes ongoing efforts to optimize internationalization strategies in global learning and leadership. We are of the belief that internationalization efforts need to move beyond surface-level international engagements into more enduring and equitable global opportunities for social change.

We live in a time of unprecedented geopolitical, social, and financial challenges around the globe. At the same time, the world is at the height of technological innovations. Amid such conditions, our work of internationalization must remain innovative and relevant. Therefore, we are vigilant about revising and improving our strategies, and capitalizing on innovative technologies to create new and impactful international engagement.

We recognise that the journey to our vision will be a continuous and modernising process – one in which faculty, students, staff and international partners share in and co-create. As such, we will remain open to discovering new ways in which our values and traditions can transpire into innovations. It’s a journey we hope will create footprints that others will be proud to walk in.