We live in a global society, with the ever-greater permeability of national borders bringing new opportunities for economic growth. At the same time issues of climate change, income and racial disparity, and increased migration impact our lives with growing urgency. These are remarkably complex challenges that call for innovative practices and visionary creativity, approaches that flourish in the realms of technology, media, design, and the visual arts. Pratt Institute must lead within the global context by providing integrative learning that reflects and interlinks the rich linguistic and multicultural diversity of our local, national, and international communities. Through the diversity of Brooklyn and New York, and building upon our existing efforts, we are poised to do so. Our research with students, faculty, and staff, and our comparison of Pratt with peer institutions, have brought us to a set of goals and initiatives that will ensure our place as an art and design leader of Global Education, allowing our students to critically address differences and develop innovative frameworks within which to meet the challenges of a richly diverse world.
- Build upon existing programs and lead in Global Education: #Pratt Global. We will frame and articulate the value of Global Education as key to the #Pratt Global mission and communicate it across the Institute’s platforms and programs. We will update website content and design to support #Pratt Global, and also rename and rebrand key offices such as the current Office of Education Abroad (OEA). By developing and highlighting Pratt’s unique response to the needs of the global economy, as well as its new teaching and learning models, we will advertise its existing status as a global university. We will launch a comprehensive internationalizing initiative as members of an American Council on Education cohort and by diversifying the student population through new pipelines, and convene a #Pratt Global Advisory Committee with rotating membership to provide oversight.
- Improve the experience and overall culture for international students at Pratt Institute. We will support teaching, learning, and integration for international students and all faculty, including through cross-departmental engagement that ensures best practices are followed in classroom management. We will provide a seamless, user-friendly software system that facilitates study for global and international students, and address issues around immigration and enrollment. We will create programs for the mixing and integration of cohorts, with convivial spaces (such as a #Pratt Global Lounge) for exchanges. We will expand teaching, learning, and integration support for offices and divisions engaged with international students, while also aligning administrative structures to optimize the student experience and the efficacy of services.
- Expand study abroad programs and align them with new #Pratt Global branding and centralization. We will institute new, campus-wide policies and procedures to help students find and enroll in overseas programs of study, and increase the number of students studying abroad through the OEA, focusing on underrepresented cohorts, nontraditional locations, and nontraditional course offerings from underrepresented academic departments. We will offer best-practice workshops to optimize the study-abroad experience, and create new, innovative programs, supplemented by alternative international and cultural experiences, while also encouraging faculty participation in relevant conferences and professional activities. Through strengthened graduate scholarship and fellowship advisement, we will bring students new awareness of such awards as Frederick Douglass, Fulbright, Goldwater, Gates, Marshall, and Rhodes scholarships.
- Expand Pratt’s strategic partnerships and projects. We will create an institutional global presence at various scales through satellite campuses, smaller outposts, and innovative opportunities for short- or longer-term study, and extend that presence through partnerships, both with local organizations having a global reach and with overseas-based groups. We will support projects according to the impact of the issues involved and the global location of resources, and by engaging the Pratt community’s expertise in ecology, sustainability, quality of life, human rights, and global justice.
- Expand and integrate Global Education student learning outcomes. A dedicated working group will identify, establish, and prepare the relevant rubrics for Global Education student learning outcomes at Pratt. To integrate and elevate these outcomes across the Pratt ecosystem, we will create an inventory of existing spaces where they are already in play (from classes to clubs), indicating breadth and depth in given contexts and supporting and strengthening them accordingly. We will create and articulate global learning innovations across the curricular, co-curricular, extra-curricular, and para-curricular realms of Pratt, and facilitate language learning through partnerships and expanded offerings.