Internationalising Higher Education

University of Hertfordshire has widened exchange activity and is now offering shorter exchange periods to students. A number of summer schools have been set up with funding from the Prime Minister's Initiative for International Education (PMI2): in Singapore in 2008, in Korea in 2009, and two planned summer schools in Singapore and Thailand in 2010. The university has set up this 'Global College' to grow student mobility so that all students at the university have the opportunity to add value to their education through international experience. Through a variety of study and work abroad opportunities, the Global College aims to create a community of incoming and outgoing exchange students who form friendships and contacts which they sustain beyond exchange and graduation for personal, educational and business purposes. The summer schools last for four weeks, giving participants a cultural, historical, economic, political and social insight into the country, as well as a study of the local language and study visits to companies, heritage sites and cultural events. University of Hertfordshire aims to make the existing summer schools sustainable and to develop further summer schools in other countries.