Three years since the University coordinated a mass evacuation of several hundred students from education abroad programs around the world as COVID-19 pandemic raged, UVA students, faculty, and staff are going abroad again in near record numbers.  As of this writing, more than 1340 Hoos are overseas on 37 summer programs and a range of independent study on every continent except Antarctica, bringing the number of students who have studied abroad since the start of the academic year in August last year to nearly 3,000 This nearly matches UVA’s all-time record for study abroad participation in the 2018-19 school year – a clear sign of our explosive growth in study abroad.  

Faculty and staff aren’t staying home either – this summer, more than 230 of our colleagues have already indicated plans to be abroad this summer to conduct research, attend conferences, and lead student programs.

Taken together, the return to overseas travel indicates a remarkable resilience and demand for global engagement across our community that Global Affairs will be working hard to meet in the coming year.  We are now developing plans to open UVA hub offices in South Asia, Africa, and the United Kingdom that will help develop additional education abroad opportunities for our students, support faculty research, recruit top quality international students and researchers, and engage our growing alumni network overseas, in addition to maintaining the UVA office in Shanghai.

This summer, we will launch a more thorough orientation program for our growing numbers of international students to better support their integration and sense of belonging in our increasingly diverse community.

With a broadening range of programs on the horizon, increasing philanthropic support is crucial. It will help support greater numbers of our students to have an international experience regardless of financial need, and help grow our faculty to teach in the popular Global Studies major. We are also on the verge of announcing a Council of UVA Global Ambassadors consisting of alumni, parents, and donors around the world who will help us in supporting our international engagement.

Here on Grounds, we look forward to launching the UVA Global Classroom grant program in the coming academic year to provide up to $10,000 in individual grants to faculty members with compelling ideas to globalize their classroom content.  The grants could help fund bringing practitioners from abroad into classrooms to help with teaching and research, underwriting field trips to destinations of global relevance, and pioneering virtual joint classes with international partners.

Overseeing all of UVA’s revived global engagement will be a newly created Global Engagement Council with representatives of every UVA School and others in a position to support the University’s growing international interests and presence that will launch this fall.  We look forward to bringing you along on our global ride!

Stay Global!