Building International Educational Partnerships to Advance Internationalization and Global Competencies

Working toward internationalization of an educational unit involves planning, partnership, and consistent formative evaluation. This article highlights the development of a strategic partnership, that began before the COVID-19 pandemic, between the academic departments of comprehensive psychology in a university in Japan and social work in a university in the U.S. The partnership began with building connections between faculty to share research and teaching updates and grew to include a collaborative research conference, a shared online class following the COIL model, joint faculty research presentations, and an ongoing study abroad exchange program. Perspectives from faculty at both institutions are presented to provide a holistic picture of how to use strategic actions to bring about mutually beneficial international educational experiences that can be sustained through a global health crisis.