The program was designed to (a) increase our mutual understanding of essential topics relevant to investigating the impact of international collaborations at the (post) graduate level and beyond, (b) gather information on what we know and should know about assessing international experiences and programs, and (c) move collectively towards charting research directions for the coming years.
After 40 hours of dialogue and small work sessions, one important result of the workshop was coming to a consensus over key questions as priorities for further empirical research. Some of the critical research questions are illustrated below:
1. Does international collaboration lead to better science/scientists?
2. Do current institutional and funding structures lead to missed opportunities for international collaboration? If so, how?
3. How can we assess institutional preparedness for international collaborations/ experiences?
4. What are the expected outcomes and goals of international experiences/collaborations? How are they established?
5. What are the actual impacts, outcomes, and transformations of the international experiences/collaborations?
Another outcome was the development of two assessment frameworks.
Further the workshop inspired a number of publications and grant proposals.
See Presentations “Lightening Talks”
Researchers:
Maresi Nerad and Tami Blumenfield. Investigating the International Experiences in STEM Graduate Education and Beyond: Report from a Workshop to Develop a Research Agenda. Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education, University of Washington. National Science Foundation Grant #105029.