Curriculum
Internationalizing the Curriculum: Objectives and Strategies
Brown's fundamental educational mission dating back to its original charter, to train students to lead lives of "usefulness and reputation," now unfolds in a global context. Brown, as a leading research university, also has the obligation to lend its vast and diverse expertise and considerable resources to the challenges of addressing contemporary global problems. Through their educational efforts and by further strengthening our international research ambitions, we can contribute in a significant way to our mission of advancing the frontiers of human knowledge and contributing in a major way to human welfare. We should settle for nothing less.
David Kertzer, Provost
In its February 2008 review of the Plan for Academic Enrichment (Phase Two - 2008), the Corporation established five goals to guide internationalization:
- Make the Brown curriculum a model for global undergraduate education, expanding the depth and breadth of international experiences for students and bringing more international scholars and programs to Providence.
- Encourage and support more advanced research in the sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities that depend on – and contribute to – the international investigation of important questions and problems.
- Build more significantly on the strengths of existing centers and programs, such as the Watson Institute, and other ongoing initiatives to develop world-class centers devoted to important global issues. Undertake needed structural, curricular, and governance changes to improve these programs.
- Support a small number of carefully selected new initiatives in order to carve out a special role for Brown in the ongoing process of teaching and research on global issues.
- Use Brown’s convening power, focused on the rising generation of the world’s leading scholars, writers, scientists and politicians, to make Brown the place for sustained dialogue among the world’s leading thinkers.
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