重口味SM

New U of T grants seek initiatives targeting the international student experience

Photo of group of students chatting
Students chat outside the Centre for International Experience on St. George Street (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Faculty and staff at the 重口味SM will soon be able to compete for grants to fund initiatives that will improve the experience of international students and foster greater interaction between them and domestic students.

Joseph Wong, associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience, says he hopes the initiative will spark both academic and non-academic ideas.

鈥淲e want to incentivize staff and faculty to come up with great initiatives to put our international students in the best position to succeed,鈥 Wong said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also realizing that there鈥檚 a fantastic opportunity here to really transform the whole university by getting different groups of students integrating with one another to achieve a global university.鈥  

The university earmarked $1 million in this year鈥檚 budget for the initiatives. The three-year International Student Experience Fund will allow people to apply for either a seed grant, which will be $5,000 to $10,000 a year and intended to fund small-scale pilots, or impact funding, which could be anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 a year and designed to scale up promising initiatives.

Applications for the smaller seed funds will be accepted on a rolling basis, but for impact grants, the application deadline is Oct. 15.

Along with enhancing the international student experience, the effort is meant to promote intercultural opportunities for both domestic and international students, so that people from one part of the world learn about others from another part of the globe in settings both inside and outside the classroom.

Ideas could range from creating initiatives to support early engagement for international students when they first arrive at U of T to courses that incorporate videoconferencing and other enhancements to provide joint courses with other international universities.

鈥淭he entire face of the university is changing,鈥 Wong said. 鈥淲e have young people coming from around the world to campus. It鈥檚 changing how we are thinking about available services and opportunities so that all students benefit.

鈥淒emographic diversity is not enough. We need to look at how to get different groups of students to integrate with one another. Global fluency is a critical 21st-century skill, and we want to empower and equip students with the skills and experiences to communicate across cultures.鈥

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