The work carried out by the staff in your association’s national office is directed by the Board of Directors through the AACRAO Strategic Framework. Based on the 2014 report from the task force on International Admissions and Credential Evaluation, the Board addressed AACRCAO’s role in international education, with goals that been specifically articulated in the framework:
6. Expand AACRAO’s leadership in the global higher education community.
- Expand professional development opportunities for the international admissions and credential evaluation professionals, engage with institutional leadership to create research opportunities, and identify best practices for enhancing international student enrollment efforts.
- Lead research and evaluation efforts related to global education systems.
- Engage in international initiatives and partnerships whereby AACRAO’s collective expertise contributes to a global dialogue and more effective practices in international education, student exchange, and mobility.
It is the role of the national office to operationalize the strategic direction set by the Board of Directors, both supporting the professional development needs of our members and advancing the association as a leader in the professional areas that we represent. As with our member institutions, the association must grow and evolve with the higher education environment. This sometimes requires change.
In order to provide better focus on the goals articulated above, AACRAO will make a shift in the mission and focus of the IES division for the 2016/17 fiscal year that begins on October 1, 2016.
What does this mean? By the end of the current fiscal year, AACRAO International Education Services will redirect its resources away from the production of credential evaluations for individuals. We will accept our last individual evaluation on August 15th, 2016*. Instead, we will deepen our engagement in international education systems research, publications, professional development and training in international admissions, credential evaluation and enrollment management, and AACRAO EDGE. We are excited to be able to increase our focus on these areas that are a strength for the association and a service to our colleagues and members in the international education community.
You may have already begun to notice some results of this direction shift. We now offer at least one webinar per month on international topics such as Chinese Credentials, the Syrian refugee crisis, and foreign credential fraud. This fall, we added a third session to our popular International Institutes, and plan to add more sessions in the coming year. And we are working to expand our international education research opportunities, publications, and online course offerings. You can expect to hear more about our upcoming plans and activities at the Annual Meeting in Phoenix next month, where we will have more than 35 sessions focused on the topics of international recruitment, admissions, and credential evaluation topics. We look forward to seeing you there!
*This change will not impact our work with our institutional and organizational contracts for whom we provide evaluations directly. We will continue to provide evaluations for organizations with whom we have contracts.