From September 15th to 18th, the KDI School participated in European Association for International Education (EAIE) Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland. This year’s conference was filled with 5,050 participants from 90 countries. Ms. Jaesoon Lee, Head of Student Affairs Division and Sewon Lee from External Relations and Development Division participated the conference as participants.

The conference’s theme was ‘Wealth of nations,’ and the issue of ‘wealth’ encouraged the participants to see the term from a variety of perspectives, from very specific questions of international higher education policy and practice to more wide-ranging notions of power and privilege, as well as global civic responsibility and long-term environmental sustainability.

Some of the workshops offered during the conference explained the definition of internationalization in higher education, how to maximize the networking skills to promote internationalization, and how to provide work placement for students.

The top 5 purpose of internationalization in higher education is i) to enhance the quality of education, ii) to enhance the quality of research, iii) to prepare students effectively for life and work in an inter-cultural and globalizing world, iv) to enhance the international reputation and visibility of the university, and v) to provide service to society and community social engagement.

To provide such service, those who work at the international office should maximize networking skills to build cooperation with overseas institutions. Last but not least, there was a workshop on how to effectively dispatch students for internships or work experience to overseas. The internationalization of education does not just include creating a diverse classroom environment but also should focus on exposing students to an international environment to foster them as global leaders.

Not only to find the latest higher education trend, KDI School attended the conference to meet the existing partner schools as well as to seek possible collaborations with schools around the world. KDI School has been attending the conference since 2014 held in Prague, and the conference is one of the ways to extend our partnerships with leading educational institutions all around the world.

In the meantime, the next year’s EAIE Conference is going to be held in Liverpool, England to share ideas on how to network closely among higher education institutions around the world.