Further developments in the Columbia University Global Impact project.

A year ago, I wrote briefly about Columbia University’s announcement of the opening of a number of global research centers (Columbia goes global following a different track, Mar 20, 2009).  These centers were to be multi-use: facilitating international research collaborations, academic programming, study abroad, etc. As stated in the original announcement:

The goal is to establish a network of regional centers in international capitals to collaboratively address complex global challenges by bringing together scholars, students, public officials, private enterprise, and innovators from a broad range of fields.

This was, and is, a very unusual, and very strategic approach to globalization, seemingly going far beyond the efforts of other universities.  It states that the core missions of the research university of teaching and research should be tied together synergistically as globalization occurs.  It also states that these centers should be used to pull global expertise into the Columbia network of research and teaching, thus leveraging Columbia’s already very significant strengths.  And, of course, the emphasis on complex global challenges is what is most likely to bring those global experts to the centers, thus increasing Columbia’s visibility and prestige.    

Now, a year and 2 days later, Columbia announced the opening of two additional centers, one in Mumbai, India, the other in Paris, France.  These join the original two centers, located in Beijing and Amman.  The role of the centers was further articulated in this most recent announcement as:

Columbia Global Centers are established to encourage new collaboration across traditional academic disciplines at the University. Some of the research and scholarly initiatives will be regionally focused; others will involve multiple centers, and in some instances the full complement of centers will be engaged across many continents. The centers are also intended to support a significant expansion of opportunities for Columbia students and faculty to do work abroad, with the flexibility to pursue long- or short-term research and service-learning projects.

In my original post, I called this A fascinating - and overdue - experiment! It is good to see that the experiment is continuing, and remains fascinating.