Changes focus on a global outlook

During Commencement ceremonies in 2010, the typical University student will walk across the stage having completed an in-depth study of global issues, participated in a videoconference with students in Mexico and studied abroad for at least one semester.

UNC will implement a new curriculum in fall 2006, and University officials are seeking to internationalize the experience students gain from their college education.

"We've got a world that's connected through transnational and cultural exchanges," said Bobbi Owen, senior associate dean for undergraduate education.

"Global citizenship is especially important, and by implementing the new curriculum, I think that we're acknowledging that the world is changing."

The new curriculum will feature some of the same General College requirements, renamed Foundations and Approaches.

But it also incorporates a new area, Connections, in which students will apply skills and knowledge to global situations and perspectives.

To fulfill this requirement, students will take perspective courses in the areas of Experiential Education, the North Atlantic World and Global Issues.

Study abroad experiences also can fulfill the Experiential Educational requirement.

Owen said the addition will provide more incentives for students to study abroad and to gain exposure to other cultures.

"We are very concerned with giving students international experience of some kind, whether it's through going abroad or learning about other countries here at UNC," said Arne Kalleberg, senior associate dean for the social sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.

UNC students said they also see the need for internationalization of the curriculum.

"Many of us are trying to get people to realize this campus is not the entire world," said Anna Thompson, founder of Students United for Darfur Awareness Now. "Things are happening outside the United States that are important."

Thompson is also a member of the K-12 International Outreach Program, which sends students who have traveled overseas to share their experiences in area public schools. She said the University should push students to travel and to broaden their understanding of international issues.

"If I didn't have the opportunity (to study abroad), I would be a different person," she said.

But curriculum innovations and an increased exposure to study abroad programs are not enough to prepare students for interactions in a global society, said journalism Professor Robert Stevenson, who teaches a course in international communications.

"If you look at the study abroad programs, almost all entail no more than a semester in an English-speaking program," he said. "What I would like to see is a requirement across the entire University of mastery of a second language."

Stevenson said UNC students still lag far behind much of the global culture, which requires proficiency in a second language.

The Curriculum Revision Steering Committee was interested in requiring students to take four levels of a foreign language, but funding limitations restricted these options.

A lack of available funding and the cap on nonresident students also restrict the potential for international growth at the University.

But officials are optimistic that the implementation of the new curriculum will help inspire students to take a more global approach to their education.

"In the years ahead," Kalleberg said, "students will become much more exposed to international aspects of their work by simply learning how to cope with an increasingly global world, not only as workers but as citizens."

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.