University of East Anglia - Day 1

Today was our first full day of the program, although it feels as if we have been here together for a week -- in a good way! The group is already starting to share and bond. It is an amazing experience.We started off with an overview of the program and a hilarious video to introduce us to the U.K. I have to share this with my students (and you, of course). Here is the link if you have 5 minutes: UK Video

We then had a warm welcome from US-UK Fulbright Commission Executive Director, Penny Egan CBE (shown below).

We received a great overview of the exciting things happening at UEA, including a 50th year celebration and their #1 ranking in the Times for student satisfaction. A few things that already struck me as unique, or different from the U.S. system of higher education...

• The government plays a much bigger role in assessment and reporting
• Universities devote vast resources to marketing and recruitment. For example, UEA has roughly 110 employees devoted to marketing, admissions and recruitment.
• The mission of universities is traditionally less vocational and more for the sake of learning (although I am sure we will learn more about the role of vocational education later in the program)

After the lectures (that is Anne-Marie Bruner-Tracey above) we had a wonderful guided tour of the Norwich city centre. A current and former Fulbrighter accompanied us on the tour. Norwich is the most in-tact medieval city in Europe. Oh, and did I mention the weather is perfect right now?

Here are a few shots...

We ended the evening with a dinner at Farmer Brown's, a restaurant with wonderful local and organic food. This was followed by a British Culture pub quiz that drew out the competitive spirits and had everyone cheering. I had delicious pork loin

I need to get to bed to start early. Goodnight!

London - University of East Anglia

My flight arrived in at 7 am this morning but our group wasn't scheduled to meet up until 12:30.  I tried to tough it out  but decided to experience a capsule hotel and catch a few hours of rest. I was able to book a room at Yotel inside Terminal 4. I was highly impressed. Not only did I catch up on a few hours of sleep but the room was equipped with just about anything I could have wanted, all in a teeny tiny space. Think camper crossed with space shuttle. A 4 hour block of time was well worth the 33 pounds I paid. I highly recommend you try it out if given the opportunity. Below is a photo so you can get a better idea of what the capsule looks like:

Midday I met up with the group and started getting to know my cohort. They are a wonderful group of people with open minds, adventurous spirits and really interesting stories. We had a 3 hour bus ride from London to Norwich where we checked in at the University of East Anglia. I don't think any of us were able to stay awake for the ride.

We arrived on campus and checked into our accomodation. After a brief break to shower and sort ourselves out we had a student-led tour of campus. The campus has a very residential feel with beautiful green space and lots of rabbits! It seems like the kind of place that would feel comfortable for a student from the Midwest. I was particularly interested to learn about the leadership roles their students take on in running the student center and various societies/clubs. I plan to ask more about how it all works, as it seems much of the programming is student managed and operated. I am facinated by the potential this model presents. Tomorrow we will go more in-depth as we learn about the university. After a great dinner and dessert we were all eager to return to our rooms and get real sleep in a normal bed!

The Journey Ahead

The number one question everyone has had is, "What is the Fulbright International Education Administrator's program?" This is followed by, "So what exactly are you going to be doing there?" or "Where are you going?". For this reason, I thought I'd start by providing a quick overview of my 3 weeks ahead. 

About the Fulbright IEA Programs

The best way to summarize is that it is a study abroad program for university administrators. Since we can't get away from our jobs to participate in a traditional yearlong Fulbright Scholar Program, the IEA Seminar allows a short-term high-intensity experience related to our field. The goal is to start dialogue, develop relationships and bring us up to speed on current issues in higher education in England and Scotland. Through this we hope to become better at what we do. 

Participants are selected from a wide variety of geographic, institutional and functional backgrounds.  Some of us are already active in international education. Others are working on the periphery as they serve students in Career Services or Academic Advising. And still others are Deans, Directors or Associate Provosts. We all bring different backgrounds and have different ways to apply what we learn on the program.  

There are currently Fulbright IEA programs in France, Germany, South Korea, India, Japan and the United Kingdom. You can read more about the programs and the application process on the following site: http://www.cies.org/iea/

About the 2013 UK Seminar

This is the first time there has been a UK Fulbright IEA. I am thrilled to participate in the inaugural journey. I will admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed when I received the 30 page program itinerary. We will visit 11 universities in 23 days, traveling from as far south as Brighton, England to as far north as Aberdeen, Scotland. Aside from the stress of how I will keep to my luggage allowance, I anticipate a whirlwind of learning and hope to use this blog to process it all. 

I am looking foward to meeting the other participants almost as much as the host university visits. There are 19 other interesting people from all different areas of higher education. I will undoubtedly learn from them and develop new contacts.

Schedule

The program starts with everyone arriving in London and transfering via coach to our first stop. Below is a brief rundown of our intinerary:

University of East Anglia 

Imperial College London 

University of Sussex 

Royal Holloway, University of London 

University of Birmingham 

University of York 

University of Durham

University of Stirling

Robert Gordon University

University of Aberdeen

University of Edinburgh

I hope you will follow along!