Our Offices

The Office of International Affairs (OIA) enhances the international character of the university by:

• Facilitating the university's international partnerships,
• Coordinating international programs and events on campus,
• Offering international opportunities—both local and abroad—to the university community, and
• Providing administrative oversight for the offices listed below.

International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) supports international students and scholars attending the University of Maryland by:

• Assisting with the application process to UMD,
• Advising on immigration requirements,
• Helping them make the most of their academic experience at UMD, and
• Assisting the campus community in bringing international visitors to campus and sending Maryland faculty and students abroad.

Education Abroad (EA) offers advising and international, academically-based experiences in support of students’ personal, professional and intellectual development. Through short and long-term study abroad programs, students become equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively engage with local and global communities and become culturally perceptive citizens.

Office of China Affairs (OCA) provides non-degree training for Chinese leaders working to advance public welfare and collaborates with Chinese and American partners to:

• Strengthen institutions,
• Advance knowledge of best practices, and
• Promote stable U.S.-China relations.

Annual Report, AY 2016-17

Academic Year 2016-17 saw the Office of International Affairs (OIA) at the University of Maryland (UMD) and its constituent units—Education Abroad (EA), International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS), and the Office of China Affairs (OCA)—once again on the move—figuratively and literally. In January, our offices relocated to their new, permanent home in the renovated east wing of H.J. Patterson Hall. This facility, shared with UMD’s Language Science Center, Arabic and Persian Language Flagship Programs, and Latin American and Israel Studies Centers, provides UMD with a state of the art hub for international activities, located in the heart of the College Park campus. The move also epitomized the continuing momentum that OIA and its units generated in AY 2016-17 to further internationalize the University of Maryland, producing students who are cultivated, competitive, and contributive globally.

This past year, more than 1,800 UMD students took advantage of opportunities developed and offered by EA to gain significant experiences around the world to help prepare them for an increasingly globalized society. ISSS helped a record number of degree-seeking international students to integrate into the life of the university and greater Washington, D.C., including a 16 percent increase in undergraduate international enrollment and seven percent increase in overall international enrollment. OIA sponsored student programs for students continued to grow. The Global Classrooms Initiative awarded seven additional course development grants so that UMD students will soon have up to 18 options to connect with peers around the world in digitally-based classrooms working on real world projects. The Global Fellows in Washington program partnership with Undergraduate Studies served its largest cohort to date, with 83 students representing nine colleges across 36 majors. The innovative Global Entrepreneurship Semester program expanded from its pilot year, sending students not only to Seoul, South Korea, but also Tel Aviv, Israel and Lund, Sweden to study, live, and intern at startup companies and other entities for a semester. Two more faculty teams won grants for joint research workshops with Tel Aviv University colleagues,and three other faculty were funded for travel to deepen UMD international partnerships.UMD students, faculty and academic leadership deepened their engagement with Universitas 21. OCA continued its tailored training programs for Chinese administrators, while also furthering its work building the campus China community, and serving those on campus and in the region who are, or wish to be, engaged with China. Overall, OIA facilitated the establishment of formal agreements for the university with 32 new partners in 23 countries, while also continuing to implement a new International Risk Management plan that, among other features, now automatically provides UMD personnel going outside the United States on university-related business with travel insurance, free of charge.

Learn more about the exciting work being done by our offices in our latest annual report.