International Activities of the 12 Schools

• Faculty from the Annenberg School for Communication are involved in informal collaborative arrangements with some thirty universities and other international organizations.

• The School of Arts and Sciences enrolls the largest component of Penn's international student population (thirty-six percent). Roughly eighty-five percent of Penn students who study abroad are from SAS; most of the existing study abroad programs have been initiated by SAS faculty. Penn's area studies programs draw heavily upon SAS involvement, and the University's resources for foreign language instruction reside there. With support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the School has created an interdisciplinary course on South Asia. The School has also established major and minor programs in African Studies, and is in the process of developing a joint undergraduate degree program in international studies with the Wharton School. Two SAS task forces have recently addressed means of enhancing Penn's study abroad and area studies programs.

• The School of Dental Medicine has reciprocal arrangements with a number of institutions outside the United States. International activities include a faculty exchange with Zhejiang Medical University, Hangzhou, China; collaborative research on a community-based oral health care delivery program in Mexico; and active membership in the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE). The School has become the only educational institutional member of Health Volunteers Overseas and a member of the National Council for International Health. Students in the Dental School have organized a student's group with a committee working towards hosting international student guests coming to Penn and finding hosts for Penn students visiting dental schools overseas. Planning is underway for an international conference at the School, to be held in 1994, and a newsletter is being published that informs students, faculty, and staff about international activities in the School.

• The Graduate School of Education offers summer enrichment programs in English language teaching methodology for groups of professors from Egypt; the programs are being expanded to serve other international groups. The School's Literacy Research Center sponsors international research and faculty exchange programs and is currently engaged in a five-year International Literacy Training and Development Program with centers in Botswana, Nigeria, and Tunisia. The first training workshop was held in June 1992.

• The School of Engineering and Applied Science has formal agreements with eight institutions located in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Under informal agreements, the School sends electrical engineering undergraduates to two institutions in Japan (Waseda and Tokyo Universities) during the summers to conduct research. The school's arrangement for summer research internships for three chemical engineering undergraduates in Madrid (Complutense) is being expanded to involve Complutense graduate students and faculty in exchange activities with Penn. The School is considering junior year abroad possibilities in France, Spain, and Japan, and is negotiating an exchange agreement with the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.

• The Graduate School of Fine Arts has ongoing research projects and agreements that involve their faculty with institutions throughout the world, including projects for the World Bank and the United Nations. Almost fifty percent of its Ph.D. and twenty-five percent of its master's students are international students. The School provides five awards for international study that support as many as twenty students each year. Summer studio courses are held yearly in Paris, Mantua, and Tokyo.

• The Law School has a strong international presence among students in the LL.M. and S.J.D. programs. During the 1990-91 academic year, several students established the Law School International Legal Exchange Project to promote exchanges with law students in other nations. The School recently received a grant from the Bank of Japan to support visiting scholars and teachers from Japanese law faculties.

• The School of Medicine maintains several formal agreements with institutions abroad-including a new agreement with the Pavlov Medical Institute of St. Petersburg in Russia-but most exchanges arise from informal departmental or individual agreements. During the 1991-92 academic year, 331 medical scholars from forty-nine nations were hosted by forty-three departments and clinical sections or divisions of the School of Medicine. Faculty are involved in many consultative arrangements, offering technical assistance to institutions in other nations. Penn's INCLEN (International Clinical Epidemiology Network) center is one of only five training centers worldwide and has been instrumental in introducing epidemiology into the mainstream of the emerging world by training and supporting promising young clinical faculty from 27 medical schools in South America, India, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Training programs for investigators abroad are also offered through the School's Learning Center for Training in Magnetic Resonance; in reproductive biology and reproductive medicine; and in pediatrics.

• The School of Nursing has several exchange agreements with institutions abroad. Two of the School's research centers-the Center for Health Sciences and Policy Research and the Center for Low Birthweight Research, Prevention, and Care-are engaged in research projects involving institutions in other nations. Nursing faculty are teaching in the Kamuzu College of Nursing at the University of Malawi, and faculty from that school are studying in the Penn Nursing master's and doctoral programs. Under the terms of its designation as a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for International Nursing Development, the School has developed an international primary care bibliography. The School's International Activities Committee has begun collaborating with the University's English Language Programs to develop a language course to prepare international students for the specialized knowledge of English needed to work with patients and health care providers in hospitals and other clinical settings. In addition, the Nursing School has augmented its orientation program for international students.

• Several faculty members of the School of Social Work are engaged in research with an international focus, including studies on social welfare services in China, volunteerism in Israel, and community and leadership development in black townships in South Africa. The School also has exchange agreements with several institutions.

• The School of Veterinary Medicine has international connections with institutions in a number of other countries. The School also offers a formal program with Azabu University in Japan in which eight to ten of their sixth-year students spend a week in the School's small animal clinic during the summer.

• The Wharton School has formal agreements and informal affiliations with dozens of institutions around the world. Most of the Wharton research centers are involved in international research, and four are specifically focused around international concerns. In addition, the School has offices in Tokyo and Paris. Twelve percent of Wharton's undergraduates and nineteen percent of its M.B.A. students are international students. The recently implemented undergraduate curriculum includes a foreign language requirement and a strengthened international focus; in addition Wharton is currently developing a joint undergraduate degree program in international studies with the School of Arts and Sciences.

To index for Penn's International Dimensions.

Almanac

January 12, 1993
Volume 39 Number 17

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