In a virtual sit-down, Dr. Aw shares her key insights on disruptions and headwinds in international education, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and the next projected trends in the field as the 75-year-old organization continues to engage its 10,000-strong membership in the United States.
As the premier United States-based organization celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, NAFSA: Association of International Education marked the momentous milestone by organizing the 2023 conference, which covered the breadth of issues surrounding its members: The requisite structures needed to optimally support students, geopolitics’ role in the current environment, sustainability, and other critical issues surrounding international education.
The global conference was formed with a singular intent, which is to open avenues where “difficult conversations” can be explored among international educators, and essentially forge a community, noted NAFSA Chief Executive Officer Fanta Aw, Ph.D.
“We’re celebrating 75 years, and I think it’s reflective of the resilience of the organization,” Aw told MSM Reporter. “Our members are really critical to our work, and we work in partnerships with [them], and that allows us to have the pulse of what’s happening on campuses and in all of the different places in which international education is taking place, and therefore allows us to be responsive accordingly.”
Dr. Aw, appointed to the chief role at NAFSA in March, after a three-decade career at American University, pointed to three reasons for NAFSA’s longevity as a leading industry association: Its nature as a membership organization with “the pulse of what’s happening in the field,” its boldness to face change, whether in its public policy work or professional development, and its partnerships.
NAFSA supports over 10,000 members and international educators worldwide in over 3,500 institutions in more than 160 countries.
In a virtual sit-down with the NAFSA chief, conversations about the association’s direction were explored. Our exclusive talk with her expanded further as Dr. Aw shared her key insights on matters surrounding educational disruptions, sustainable internationalization, and the next projected trend in international education. Here are some highlights:
Given your prior role leading DEI efforts at American University, how is NAFSA prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion across different levels, especially in terms of policy formulation or speaking up about legislation? How does NAFSA ensure these efforts aren’t just lip service, but are actually affecting concrete change?
I always say that the way in which diversity, equity, and inclusion happen is across the continuum of the work, and it is not one that should be siloed because it is about how we think of climate and cultures. It is how we think about policies, procedures, and practices. It is how we think about professional development. It is how we think about curricular opportunities, research and so forth.
So for us, diversity happens in multiple ways. On the professional development side, it is about ensuring that our members have the tools, the knowledge, and the skills to be culturally competent in the work that they’re doing and that they understand the breadth and depth of diversity and the difference between diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We want to make sure that the next generation of leaders in our field reflects today’s communities and societies and our future. For example, we have initiatives such as the RISE Fellowship that work with fellows who are selected through an application process and that we provide mentorship and guidance to over a two-year period so that we can continue to build a robust pipeline that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
It is also through our public policy work, that we ensure that our public policy work emphasizes that we want to see robust mobility.
What headwinds and disruptions in international education are you seeing both in the short and long term, and how is NAFSA prepared to address them?
I think when we see headwinds in higher education, by extension, we’ll see headwinds in international education. So those two things are not separate. We’re certainly seeing headwinds in higher education, whether it’s the big questions about what’s the value of higher education, issues of cost and access, funding mechanisms, curriculum, and the kind of transformations that are needed, the role of technology as a disruptor, as an enabler.
And then, of course, we also have to contend with larger societal realities such as demographic shifts, geopolitics, and all other things that impact our work. How we prepare for it is making sure that we are not only keeping the pulse but that we understand how this will impact our sector and how this will impact our work.
Two, prioritizing the areas that we believe, where in putting effort, we might be able to make substantial progress on.
If the issue is around geopolitics, it’s how we speak to those issues through our public policy work. Our public policy work is focused on the U.S. federal government and how we advocate for policies that are welcoming and we advocate for, in this specific instance, a national strategy in the case of the United States. It is so decentralized in the case of the United States that we keep sending mixed messages in ways that are counterproductive. So we’re working to ensure that our partners in the federal government, that there can be coordination, that there can be greater collaboration and that there can be greater communication among the various parts.
How would you define sustainable internationalization? There’s a lot of discourse around diversifying student populations.
It is one that is, first and foremost, intentional. So, intentionality, I think, is an important part of it. It has to be one that has a long-term view, not simply focused on short-term gains at the expense of long-term outcomes. It is also one that in addition must have models and approaches that will sustain over a period of time and have societal benefits beyond that of simply individuals or simply individual institutions.
The societal benefit piece is an important part of sustainable internationalization. It is important that it not be driven simply by economic rationales, but that there are really educational and overall societal benefits that come from that.
Part of the reason we believe that we are in the work of international education is that we believe that people-to-people connections can have the potential to be transformative and can lead to a more equitable and more peaceful world. And that a more peaceful world would allow all of us to be able to thrive better than we’re currently doing.
How is NAFSA working to lower the barriers to entry for aspiring international students?
We need to lower the barriers by ensuring that the systems and practices that are in place are not gating mechanisms in the sense that we need to be looking at visas for entry. We need to also be looking at what are the pathways for post-completion of degrees for students. We need to look at what are the support systems and structures that are in place to ensure that students are thriving and that they’re successful and being retained until graduation.
We need to also make sure that among the barriers are funding and the fact that socioeconomic diversity should not be one that then leads to students not having the benefit of international education. That means working with institutions to look at the funding mechanisms.
It means making sure that students, at least in the case of the US, who are coming to study are aware of the breadth and diversity of institutions that we have in the US and the different cost structures, and that those cost structures do not imply that the level of education is less than; it is simply different systems, whether students are coming into public universities, community colleges versus private universities, et cetera.
This is really about a partnership and making sure that students are very aware of what’s out there. And it’s tough because at a time of disinformation, misinformation, at a time of a lot of modes, as I often call it, people’s ability to have access to accurate, timely, reliable information becomes even more, I think, challenging in the kind of environment that we’re in. So that is something that we are committed to, but we’re not doing that alone. It is really through partnerships with organizations that are doing work in this space.
Overall, which trends are shaping international education today?
Decision-making that students are engaged with and families, because it’s often in concert with families that they’re making about where they’re going to go to study, where they’re going to study, and where funding fits in, what is the role of post-graduation options, and so forth.
For the complete conversation and her full insights, watch the full first episode of our exclusive podcast interview with Dr. Fanta Aw, a deep dive into NAFSA’s legacy-making, continuity in its mission, and the future of international education.
Jaleen Ramos
Jaleen Ramos has been a professional journalist for five years now. She has contributed and covered stories for premier Philippine dailies and publications, and has traveled to different parts of the country to capture and tell the most significant stories happening.
