Affect Public Policy

• To articulate the strategic role of international education in preparing leaders for an increasingly global society
• Proactively to define policy on significant issues affecting the internationalization of education
• To develop effective advocacy skills of AIEA members
• To create a viable communication system that supports the effective and timely engagement of AIEA membership in advocacy efforts

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Monday, November 23, 2009

NAFSA and AIEA Comment On Proposed J Subpart A Rule

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Council on International Education Association (158 KB)

On November 20, 2009, NAFSA and AIEA (Association of International Education Administrators) submitted a joint comment on the Department of State's proposed rule to amend the J exchange visitor regulations at 22 CFR Part 62, Subpart A, the part of the regulations that applies to all exchange visitor programs and categories. The NAFSA/AIEA comments consist of a main comment letter and a detailed addendum.
 

Summary

The comment letter focuses on:

• The need for focusing on the spirit of exchange and public and citizen diplomacy.
• The need for interagency coordination regarding SEVIS.
• The need for tailoring regulatory requirements to account for differences between exchange visitor program categories.

The more technical addendum focuses on:

• The need to take into account the new data paradigms of SEVIS II, including the “paperless” environment of the future, and the SEVIS II “customer account” that will make individual nonimmigrants responsible for reporting name and address changes.
• The need for SEVIS to leverage data that is already in other U.S. government data systems, to avoid duplicative data entry efforts and improve the quality of data in SEVIS.
• The need to grant exchange program sponsor the level of discretion appropriate to manage their programs.
• The need to rely on measures of program quality and review that already exist in a program sponsor's industry, rather than creating parallel or additional structures that are expensive and do not add to program integrity or security.
• The need to incorporate public comment into future changes to minimum health insurance coverage levels, and to provide time to transition current plans into the new coverage levels.
• The need for regulatory and policy clarity.

 

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Associations Urge Bush Administration to Promote and Strengthen International Education
By AMY RAINEY

Sample Letter

The Bush administration has heard from two groups of higher-education associations this week on the importance of international education in today's global economy and on ways to improve it. In a letter sent on Tuesday to the U.S. secretaries of state and education, several associations outlined measures to strengthen international education. And in a statement released on Wednesday, two additional associations urged the administration to create an international-education policy.

Commending International Initiatives

The letter, written as a follow-up to the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education, held in January, discusses components of a national program that would help ensure that students develop the language skills and cultural competence that are "needed for the nation to operate effectively and securely in the global environment of the 21st century." At the summit, the Bush administration announced a $114-million proposal to increase the teaching of "critical" foreign languages, as well as measures aimed at enticing more foreign students to attend American institutions and sending more Americans to study abroad (The Chronicle, January 20).

The letter commends President Bush's National Security Language Initiative and American Competitiveness Initiative, and discusses the compatibility of the language initiative with the Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program and with Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which supports foreign-language and area-studies programs. The letter also urges the administration to lift some of the restrictions placed on international scholars, and expresses concern about policies that would require researchers to obtain export-control licenses to use equipment that is designated as "sensitive." The letter was sent by the American Council on Education, the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Association of American Universities, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Call for a National Policy

In the statement calling for a national policy on international education, two groups -- Nafsa: Association of International Educators, and the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange -- stressed the importance of international education as a means of remaining competitive in a global society.

The policy should promote international studies, foreign-language study, and area studies, the statement said, as well as more international content in American education.

The groups recommended the development of strategies to restore America's status as a magnet for international students and scholars, and to establish study abroad as an integral component of undergraduate education. And they urged the administration to remove "unnecessary barriers to international scholars," including visa restrictions. The statement calls on President Bush to publicly announce a policy and propose adequate money to support it; to assign specific tasks and deadlines to federal agencies; to appoint a senior official to be in charge of the policy; and to create an advisory committee to guide the policy and the steps necessary to put it in place. The full text of the statement, "An International Education Policy for U.S. Leadership, Competitiveness, and Security," is available on Nafsa's Web site.