SUSTAIN

GOAL: Sustain our people, our work, and the environment by attracting and stewarding the resources we need to deliver excellence to the benefit of all Albertans.

In order to build and keep momentum for international engagement in the university community, UAlberta International worked to identify, attract, and nurture opportunities with regards to securing external funding, capacity-building, and other opportunities that enable the university to profile its expertise to a global audience. In 2017-18, continued work with partners led to the creation of new research projects with major funding impact, as well as deepening research connections to international facilities and joint activities. Funding applications and awards also created new opportunities for study abroad. In completing an external evaluation on our service delivery, programming, and organizational structure, UAlberta International remained dedicated to providing top quality support for the university's internationalization efforts.

UAlberta International participated in UAlberta's Quality Assurance Program by undergoing an External Review in July 2017.

• Six external reviewers from the USA, China, Germany and Canada, along with two internal reviewers from UAlberta assessed UAlberta International's performance and institutional alignment.
• Reviewers commented that UAI presents an outstanding breadth of initiatives, and has been strategic in capitalizing on new opportunities in internationalization. In addition, reviewers:
  • commended the high calibre of programs and staff
  • found UAI to be well-developed, sophisticated, and successful with regards to international student recruitment
  • noted that UAI is highly respected by peer institutions as an example of best practice and a leader in the field
• The summary report will be available on the UAlberta Quality Assurance homepage

In 2017-18, UAlberta secured $300,000 from the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program (QES) to support UAlberta students undertaking internships abroad.

• Universities Canada received 41 applications for funding and awarded funding for 20 projects.
• This is the fourth QES competition - UAlberta has been successful in all four competitions.

The Canada Learning Initiative in China (CLIC), which connects Canadian students with fully-funded opportunities to study in China, provides sustainable external funding for education abroad activities. CLIC has provided funded opportunities to 100 UAlberta students since the program launch.

The Global Academic Leadership Program (GALD), which trains future Chinese university leaders, has now trained over 700 alumni from more than 200 universities. The resulting relationships built with these universities have contributed to several faculty-run partner training programs and additional partnership activities.