Reimers to Serve on Global Learning Leadership Council

Professor Fernando Reimers will serve on the Global Learning Leadership Council of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as part of a new global learning project focused on communication and public advocacy, curriculum and faculty development, and outcomes and assessment.

"I'm delighted to be working with the AAC&U on this project that will engage leaders of colleges and universities in defining how best to educate undergraduates for global citizenship and social responsibility," Reimers says. "Globalization is a very important process shaping the contexts in which our graduates will live and work and it is imperative that we deliberately and thoughtfully examine the implications of this process for the enduring mission of universities of preparing students for leadership."

The Global Learning Leadership Council will revisit and further develop some of the pressing intellectual issues related to global learning and undergraduate education. The panel's main purpose will be to focus the higher education community and broader public on fundamental questions of educating undergraduates for global citizenship and social responsibility. The council will consider how to realign undergraduate general education and engage students with complex, interdisciplinary, real-world global problems.

The Global Learning Leadership Council will increase the visibility of the project and gain the attention of higher education decisionmakers. In addition to providing overall direction to the project, the Council will also issue a call for engagement in a "Global Learning Imperative" paper in early 2011, which will build upon earlier work and current campus practice regarding global learning, civic engagement, and U.S. diversity in the context of 21st century student learning outcomes. A longer report will be released by the end of 2012.