Ashland University Establishes New Global Strategies

7/27/12 ASHLAND, Ohio -- Ashland University is touting the newest part of its core curriculum – Global Passport Strategies (GPS) – as a way for students to “come to Ashland and see the world.”

“The world we live in and work in has changed so much and this latest adjustment in our curriculum will provide students the opportunity to face the unique challenges of our global environment,” said Ashland University Provost Dr. Frank Pettigrew.

According to Dr. William Vaughan, director of Ashland’s Core Curriculum Program, students attending Ashland University will now be able to participate in Global Passport Strategies in order to meet the University’s Global Competency requirements.

“This program gives students many options for fulfilling the core requirements but at the same time provides them with a global perspective,” Vaughan said. “The bottom line is this will more fully internationalize our core curriculum.”

Vaughan said the GPS program allows the University to expand its language course offerings and offer unique paths of coursework for cross-border thinking.

“The whole thought behind Ashland University’s Core Curriculum is that it prepares students to think,” Vaughan said. “The GPS fosters international inquiry. The skills and values associated with such inquiry precisely mirror the analytical reasoning skills and values already at work in the core.”

The GPS program provides three options for students to complete the requirement:

• The Modern Language Track allows students to meet the Global Competency requirement through demonstrating proficiency in the elementary through intermediate level of an expanded menu of languages. This proficiency can be demonstrated by taking a number of courses within a language or by testing to a certain level.

• The Global Studies Track offers students a varied and unique way to meet the Global Competency requirement. The key component of this track is a Border Crossings course that requires students to understand the particular political, scientific, socio-economic, historical, cultural, or linguistic features of a country or region outside of the United States; the relationships between the United States and another country or region of the world; or the issues that transcend a particular country or region of the world. This track also offers unique language and travel options as well.

• The Study Abroad Track requires that students must study abroad for eight or more weeks and take a course with a GPS narrative requirement that will help them convey the importance of those experiences upon return.

“The nature of the interactions between cultures is changing at a bewildering speed, and the GPS initiative is Ashland’s curricular response to these changes,” Vaughan said. “The overall goal of the initiative is to signal the university's conviction that Ashland University students be better prepared to face conditions of globalization that will greet them upon graduation.”

Ashland University, ranked in the top 200 colleges and universities in U.S. News and World Report’s National Universities category for 2012, is a mid-sized, private university conveniently located a short distance from Akron, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. Ashland University (www.ashland.edu) values the individual student and offers a unique educational experience that combines the challenge of strong, applied academic programs with a faculty and staff who build nurturing relationships with their students.