Introduction

NUI Galway is on a journey to create a more globally diverse, and culturally rich, learning and working experience. A place where everyone has a sense of belonging. Where we welcome the world in and go out into the world. Where we nurture global citizens. Where everyone has a place to thrive.

The Global Galway Project objective is to create a new and sustainable internationalisation structure with robust processes and collaborative ways of working that will position the university for growth and enable it to successfully maximise future opportunities and respond to new challenges. A global university with a reputation for dynamism, equality and diversity, rooted in our distinct and vibrant region.

This project is more ambitious than simply growing recruitment and mobility. It is about putting in place adaptable structures and collaborative ways of working to encourage a culture of internationalisation across whole of our University so that we welcome the World in and play our part in the World. We want to excite our students and staff, attract world class partners and better enable us to contribute to broader transformations at local, national and global levels.

Vice President International - Professor Becky Whay

Since joining University of Galway in August 2019 I have been working with students and staff to build an international roadmap for our university that fulfils the goals laid out in the University Vision and Strategy 2020 to 2025. We have called this initiative The ‘Global Galway’ Project. It is ambitious in its scope, reviewing every aspect of our internationalisation activities, identifying our current gaps and our aspirations for the future.  It will develop a new and sustainable structure with robust processes and ways of working that will enable our university to fulfil its international potential.

The Global Galway Project sits on the foundational concept of a ‘Global University’ involving every single member of our staff, student and alumni bodies and the community around us, recognising that all of us are stakeholders in, beneficiaries of, and contributors to internationalisation. The project will focus on the development of our students experiences from the moment they contact us and onwards after they have left us, it will support student recruitment, student and staff mobility and bring in a new thread to support the establishment of global educational and research partnerships. The work of internationalisation will be inclusive, collaborative and flexible throughout the university, involving not just the Colleges themselves but also all of the Professional Service units that support them. 

During this time of unprecedented turbulence, The Global Galway Project is a means of looking forward and planning for a bright, positive and forward looking future.  The project is also an example of embedding our institutional values of Openness, Sustainability, Excellence and Respect into our future plans, as each of these values has to be integral to successful institutional internationalisation. We hope that The Global Galway Project is the start of something great for University of Galway, and that you will feel inspired to travel on this journey with us

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Project Alignment to University of Galway Shared Vision, Shaped by Values

Last year over 50 enthusiastic participants from across the campus identified a variety of ways that our internationalisation activities align with the “Shared Vision, Shaped by Values” strategy.

Respect:

An enriched global experience where we nurture global citizens and increase tolerance and understanding and value the global perspectives of students and staff.

Open:

Global university for everyone, where everyone has a sense of belonging and can thrive.

Sustainable:

Owning our global future. Where we all share responsibility for our global future and the success of internationalisation.

Excellent:

Create opportunities to broaden our global horizons by enhancing our education and research and increasing the breadth and quality of collaboration and partnerships.

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Project Deliverables

Key Deliverables of the Project:

  • A new global strategic support Unit that will incorporate the International Office and act as a partner and advisor to Colleges and Professional Units
  • Cross-functional teams for recruitment, mobility and partnerships that have new ways of working with clear roles & responsibilities
  • A network of partnerships that enables proactive leveraging of opportunities
  • Mainstreaming of international student-facing services
  • An internationalisation governance framework
  • A sustainable approach to funding and delivering internationalisation

Structures which enable Internationalisation