With the Glasgow COP26 climate meeting ending with mixed results, it is time for the higher education community to carefully consider how internationalisation will look in the coming years – and to take immediate action.
On 11 January 2020 we wrote in University World News that it was time to cut international education’s carbon footprint and to make the shift from internationalisation being mainly mobility driven and elitist to targeting all students through curriculum development and an intensive use of technology. It is now time to translate ideas about this into action.
Universities the world over, in the spirit of Glasgow, need to develop concrete overall climate strategies and actions, including with regard to the various aspects of internationalisation – because most of its key elements, in particular the physical mobility related to education and research, have climate implications.
We welcome and support the initiative of the Climate Action Network for International Educators (CANIE) and its call for Environmentally Sustainable International Education, as well as the Sustainable on the Go conference hosted by York International with its focus on sustainable and inclusive internationalisation, which takes place in January.
Universities need to think about virtual exchange, eliminating scholarships for travel by air for distances shorter than 1,000 km and educating students to be more aware of the climate implications of their study and stay abroad (including taking advantage of cheap airfares to take city and leisure trips during their study abroad).
We should set as a goal for associations, institutions and individuals in our field a reduction to at least 40% of pre-pandemic travel for 2022 to 2024 and at least 60% for the following five years.
More information: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211130110255785