As Director of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) since September 2000, and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning and Innovation of the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), U.S. Department of Education (ED) since January 2002, Ken Tolo brings a career in postsecondary education and public service that includes experience as an administrator, faculty member, researcher, and policy advisor. With a doctorate in mathematics and postdoctoral studies in public affairs, management, and languages, he joined FIPSE from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Professor until August 2000. At the LBJ School, Ken taught public management and directed policy research projects on education, employment, and equity. During the 1980s, he also served as UT Austin's Vice Provost and, earlier, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Research.

interview BY FRANCK BIANCHERI

What is exactly the role of FIPSE concerning international education?

The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education, was established in 1972 with a Congressional mandate to promote quality and access through the reform and improvement of postsecondary education. Increasingly important in FIPSE is the area of international education and foreign languages. FIPSE currently funds, with its international partners, three international consortia programs: (1) the European Community/United States Cooperation Program in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training (with the EC's Directorate General for Education and Culture); (2) the Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education (with the Mexican Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development Canada); and (3) the United States/Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program (with the Brazilian Ministry of Education).
These FIPSE international programs represent a first-of-a-kind collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education and foreign governments to jointly fund and coordinate federal higher education grant programs. The programs address the internationalization of higher education on a number of fronts: multilateral, multi-institutional collaboration, development of shared or common curricula, mutual recognition of credits and study activities, student mobility, acquisition of host country languages, development of apprenticeships and other work activities, distance education classes, global competencies, and faculty and staff cooperation and exchange. Curricular areas that have attracted the greatest support through these FIPSE international programs are business and management, engineering, environmental sciences, and health sciences

Is international education an issue today in the U.S.?

Today, people of all nations must understand the world from other people's perspectives. No longer does it make sense to sharply separate European concerns from American or North American concerns. International understanding is crucial to Transatlantic cooperation, prosperity, and civic well being in the 21st century. But developing and sustaining this understanding will not occur automatically. We must nurture the universities and colleges in Europe and the United States that develop in citizens a broad appreciation of the world and proficiency in other languages.

Many U.S. colleges and universities recognize the importance of international education and have emphasized study abroad, on-campus international courses, and the recruitment of students from diverse countries and cultures. Nevertheless, American higher education remains far from internationalized. Many institutions continue to regard study abroad, on-campus international programs, and foreign language study as "add-ons." Thus, international education continues to be a critically important issue in the United States. And this is an issue that FIPSE is committed to addressing through its curricular-focused international consortia programs.

What are the policies and strategies (federal and other)?

As President George W. Bush's FY 2003 budget request to the Congress in February 2002 emphasizes, "… a strong Federal commitment to leadership in international education is essential … in an increasingly internationalized economy." This document continues by affirming that "it is now more critical than ever for our Nation to have a readily available pool of international area and language experts for economic, foreign affairs, and defense purposes" and "to improve public access to knowledge of other countries and languages by providing … opportunities in the field of international education for: research; area, language, and international studies training; professional growth, including faculty development and teacher training; networking with counterparts in the U.S. and abroad; curriculum and instructional materials development; and overseas experience."

In support of the November 2001 International Education, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State, President Bush asked citizens "to promote understanding of our nations and cultures by encouraging our young people to participate in activities that increase their knowledge of and appreciation for global issues, languages, history, geography, literature, and the arts of other countries." Likewise, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige pointed out that "complex global interactions, once reserved for the diplomatic corps, are today the stuff of everyday business deals and cultural exchanges. If we expect students to navigate international waters, we need to give them an international education that meets the highest standards…."

Through its international consortia programs and their focus on long-term curricular impacts that enhance students' knowledge about and perspectives on the global context in which they live, work, and participate as informed and responsible citizens, FIPSE supports these international education strategies and goals of the Administration. FIPSE and its foreign government partners, including the European Commission, achieve this objective by funding consortia that include not only traditional colleges and universities but also postsecondary vocational education and training institutions. FIPSE-funded projects also are increasingly using information and communication technologies to promote international curricular development and students' second and third language acquisition.



Is September 11 affecting international education issues? How?

The tragic events of September 11, 2002, have stimulated interest in international education among Americans and made all of us more aware of the increased complexity and interconnectedness of the post-Cold War world. These events also have highlighted international education challenges facing American higher education, including the scarcity of skilled speakers of the less commonly taught languages, the frequent separation of international education from other disciplines and professional programs in colleges and universities, the lack of attention to international education in grades K-12 that the lack of systematic attention to international education in colleges and universities has fostered, the piecemeal support by American public and private sectors for the production and dissemination of international expertise and research, and government policies and procedures that often discourage international students from studying in the United States and U.S. students from studying abroad.

One response at the Federal government level has been the increased support for international education programs in the FY 2002 Congressional appropriations and in the President's FY 2003 budget request to the Congress. Another response is the greater interest among college and university students in studying foreign languages, including the less commonly taught ones. Yet another response is the increased interest in American young people in serving internationally in the Peace Corps and similar community-building and democracy-strengthening groups.

More generally, the events of September 11 have the potential to significantly change postsecondary education in the United States. By making more visible the institutional shortcomings in preparing globally competent professionals and citizens, these events have heightened our awareness of the importance of international education and of the extent to which an understanding of diverse world cultures is essential in the 21st century.

In a Transatlantic context, what are currently the main policies/programmes? And the future perspectives?

The primary U.S. Department of Education program with a transatlantic focus is FIPSE's EC/US Cooperation Program in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training. This cooperation was initially articulated in the Transatlantic Declaration on US/EC Relations adopted in November 1990, and then affirmed in a 1995 EC/US agreement that formally created FIPSE's EC/US Program. In December 2000, the European Commission and the U.S. Department of State signed an agreement extending this program of higher education and vocational education and training collaboration another five years. In the EC/US Program, each consortium must include at least three European institutions (from at least three countries) and at least three United States institutions (from at least three states). Most projects are for three years.

FIPSE's EC/US Program is, in a sense, a greenhouse for experimentation. Through innovative joint curricular development among multiple institutions in multiples countries and states, this program if proving the effectiveness and sustainability of new curricular approaches to student learning that foster global interest and understanding. The European higher education system is comparable to that of the United States in complexity and resources, and the success of FIPSE and the European Commission in stimulating consortia collaboration and partnerships in which such difficult issues as credit and program recognition (even joint and dual degrees) have been resolved provides "best practices" that are guiding the development of such consortial arrangements in and with other countries.

The EC/US Program is FIPSE's largest international consortia program. This year (FY 2002), FIPSE funding for its EC/US Program totals approximately $2.5 million; the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture is contributing comparable funding. Approximately 35 consortia will be funded this year - one-third through new awards, two-thirds through continuations of awards made in FY 2000 and FY 2001. In his FY 2003 budget request, President Bush has requested a similar level of funding for the EC/US Program next year, and the EC/US Program also remains a centerpiece of FIPSE's international education program activities.

Is there a demand coming from U.S. students/universities to study in Europe or to build networks with Europe?

Based on FIPSE's experiences with its EC/US Program, it is clear that the demand and need for international institutional networks based on joint curricular development, as well as for curricular-based student study abroad at institutions partnering with students' home institutions on curricular development, is substantial and unmet. Curricular-based study abroad such as that supported by FIPSE and the European Commission enables students from the United States and Europe to maintain their timely progression toward their degrees and certificates, while gaining transatlantic perspectives on their studies through curricula that are common to their home institution and to the foreign institution they are attending. Moreover, the involvement of at least six institutions in each consortium funded by FIPSE and the EC increases the likelihood of sustainability at the end of the funding period, as well as the opportunities for hundreds and even thousands of students in the United States and Europe to study abroad "virtually" - that is, to be taught by consortia faculty overseas through diverse technologies.

More generally, a recent international education report indicates that the number of U.S. students studying abroad and earning credit in recent years exceeds 100,000 per year, and that most of these students have studied in Western Europe. Also, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State cooperate with higher education institutions to provide information through the U.S. Network for Educational Information to students considering studying abroad. To encourage study abroad, a FIPSE-funded project has created a website for institutions and students to provide information on health and safety issues associated with study abroad; the State Department also has such a website. Finally, the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange has set an objective that, by 2015, international education will become an integral component of all U.S. undergraduate education, and that every college graduate in the U.S. will have proficiency in a foreign language and a basic understanding of at least one world region.
Is there a different focus toward international education between this administration and the previous one?

See the response to Question 3.

Franck Biancheri Interview of Ken Tolo
February 26, 2002 (revised March 13, 2002 )