Assessment in International Education

NAFSA Annual Conference in Montreal 2006

Draft Outline
Outcomes Assessment in International Education

David Comp
University of Chicago

 Brief history of assessment in international education

o The literature on assessment, conferences/meetings on assessment (pre 1995/2000).

 Research, Assessment and Evaluation on International Education: An Annotated Bibliography
Compiled and edited by David Comp

o Current focus on assessment (1995/2000 to date)

 NAFSA – TLS-KC, NAFSA Task Force on Research, SECUSSA Research Committee.

 Forum on Education Abroad – Focus on organizational goals, Outcomes Assessment Committee,

Guide to Assessment in International Education, Partnership with Frontiers Journal, Standards of
Good Practice.

 AIEA – 1995 Research Agenda document, 2004 conference session (with transcripts) on research
in international education.

 ACE – 2004 Roundtable on Research in International Education

 Final Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on International Programs at The University of Chicago (June 20, 2001)
< http://www.uchicago.edu/docs/education/record/pdfs/36-1.pdf> or
<http://www.uchicago.edu/docs/inatl_pgms_cmte/index.html>.

The Provost stressed at the very beginning that this committee was by design a faculty committee, whose concern was
primarily with matters of education and research, including both those programs of study whose content included or was
entirely composed of the "international" (e.g., international studies or international relations) as well as those programs
which involved the movement of students or faculty across international boundaries for the purposes of research or
learning (e.g., our College overseas programs or faculty exchanges with foreign universities).

We note in passing, therefore, that this committee differs somewhat from the one recommended in the Report of the
Committee on the Future of International House Report (5/24/2000), which called for a committee of faculty and
administrative staff to conduct a major study of international education, that would provide "a plan for international
education for the next century" (p. 33). The composition and mandate for our committee is, therefore, in some ways more
limited (we are comprised only of faculty and were asked to offer a set a practical suggestions, not a master plan), and in
other ways much more wide-ranging (we were commissioned to study research programs as well as educational
programs).

 Ad Hoc Committee on International and Regional Programs at the University of Chicago (April 15, 1995)
<http://www.uchicago.edu/docs/education/record/pdfs/30-2.pdf>.